The bee., 1883-06-30
Death on the Ocean,

A terrible memorial of the recent
dreadful loss of the steamship Navarro
was fished up a few days ago by a
smack, whose people found in their
frawl the bodies of man and woman
tied together, with their eyes bandaged.
Probably the mysterious deep never
yielded up a secret more shockingly
ggestive than those corpses. Whether
the man and woman were married
couple, or sweethe ITS, or brother and
sister, we know not; but their bo lies
fast tened together in death tell NOV
ing story of devotion, just as tn6lr
bandaged eyeS convey most pathetic
picture of r r~solution and anguish. In
the wreck of the Cimbria it VIII be
remembered that the survivors spoke
of seeing some of the emigrants at the
Ia moment cutting their throats to
shorten the final struggle. Most mar
ratives Of disaster a. sea contain pass
ages Of this kind, telling how those of
shrinking and timid nature when all
was well stood forth most noble and
perfect types of heroes when danger
was supreme how the swaggerer, the
bully, the tyrant proved an abject cur,
casting himself down upon the deck in
his terror, alternately praying and
shrieking in the agony of his fear ;
how some, unable TO await the ap-
pTolch OF the last moment, destroyed
Themselves, while others, with folded
arms and contracted brows, stood mo-
tionless upon the sinking hull, going
to their death like men lost in thought.
One of the most pathetic stories in
the language is the account OF the loss
of the Kent, East Indiaman, by fire,
in 1926, for the reason that hundred
particulars are introduced by the
writer relating to the behavior of the
people when all hope was ABANDONED
and death saemel inevitable. We
read of the little children who, when
the flames had mastered the ship and
all was uproar and horror on deck,
continued to play as usual with their
toys in bed, or to put the most innocent
or unreasonable questions to those
around them:" of a young military
officer removing from his writing-desk
a lock of hair and pacing it in his
bosom, that he might die with that
sweet keepsake upon his heart; OF
another writing few lines to his
father and inclosing it in bottle, "in
the hope that it might eventually
reach its destination, with the view, as
he stated, Of relieving him from the
long years Of fruitlesS anxiety and sus-
panse which our melancholy fate would
awaken )" of the older soldiers and
sailors seating themselves over the
fore-hatch under which was the maya
zine, SO that they might he instantly
destroyed when the powder caught
fire: of towards drinking them
selves ins ansible or writhing in
their terror on the deck; OF
young girls praying calmly among a
kneeling crowd Of brave men stand
ing collectedly with their eyes upon
the setting sun, whose bright light
they never hoped to see again. 1t is
a wonderful and thrilling picture, and
how often has it been repeated since
IN 0tner ways ana dmlu oIner SedS
The last is not. indeed, the worst. The
Navarro is but one of scores of ships
which have gone to their doom offering,
before they took the final plunge, the
most dreadful of all pictures of human
anguish; but the suffegingS she en-
bodied seemed to survive yet, even in
her dead, when we hear of those two
corpses tied together coming to the
surface, with their eyes blindfolded,
and when we cndeavor to realize, by
those devoted S lent witneS 'eS from
tn bed Of the ooean, something Of the
terror and the resolution, the fear and
the courage, the wild despair and the
passionate supplication to heaven
which made up the picture of that as
of all other wrecks of similar nature.
London Telegraph.