The Morristown gazette. [volume] (Morristown, Tenn.) 1867-1920, 1884-09-03

4 h00 AOO OAO POWOIs OCA1- PIC CSol
alton had transformed the kindl
sailors. The 28th Of january
:, LOTS WERE DRAWN
again, the Captains name being in
cluded. This time the lot fell O
David Flatt, the best hand in th
ship. A profound silence fell o.
the little group of despairing, wild
eyed men, broken only by the crack
, ling of the fire blazing in the steer
age of the sacrifice. The victim
f who appeared resigned, begged they
would dispatch him with but little
tortue, and appointed James DouG
executiener. FIatt then asked time
to pray. His companions willingly
assented, and seemed reluctant to
insist upon his forfeited life, so great
" was he respected. They request
ed the Captain to read prayers and
Joined his exhortations with tears
and sighs of anguish Capt. Har-
rison lay down faint and PROSTATE
with despair. He heard the crew
talking to poor Flatt, and one sailor
declared that God would certainly
intervene and save them. About
midnight Flatt grew stone deaf, and
toward morning became delirious.
The crew then debated whether
they had not best dispatch him at
once, but the majority agreed to
spare him until IL o'clock next
morning. At s e'clock two sailors
rushed into Capt. Harrison's cabin,
seizing him and uttered inarticulate
cries. They forced him on deck,
where they beheld a gallant ship
bearing down upon them unter full
sail. The crew were like men.
MAD WITH JOY,
but their tears and thanks affected
not the stony stare of Flatt, whose
mind was gone forever.
Ina large square room of the
Louvre there is hung a picture
representing a raft strewn with
dead bodies, and clambering above
them group of men, surmounted
by negro waving a signal of dis
tress to distant brig. This is the
wreck of the Medusa, and represents
the last chapters of story of suffer
ing that froze the blood ofour grand
fathers. The Medusa, frigate of
forty-four guns, set sail from the
island of AK, June II, 1916, at the
head of q squadron bound for Sene-
gal. Tive hundred and forty per.
sons were on board, ofwhom nearly
half were pardoned convicts. Early
in the voyage the discomfort of the
ccnvict passengers assumed dan
gerous form, which eliminated into
what was almost mutiny when
the ship crossed the equator. En-
gagged in controlling the saturnalia
of the ccnyicts, the officers allowed
the ship to drift out of her course.
After series of misfortunes brought
on by incompetent seamanship, the
ship struck a reef on the west coast
of Africa. The ill-disciplined crew
fell into despair and broke into
wallings and curses. All night long
they worked to get the ship off, cons
l.
structing, meantime, a raft as the
number of boats was insufficient for
the people on board Next mern-
ing, when the ship was fast break
ing up, the four boats, crowded to.
their utmost capacity, were pushed
off, leaving on board the wreck
eighty men,
eURsING AND BEwAILING
their desertion. All but seventeen
of these were afterward taken off on
the raft. This was cut loose from
the boats by,it was said, the coward
ly Captains own hand The suffer
Iings and horrors through which
these men on the raft underwent
are hardly paralellsd. The struct-
ure was, to begin with, hardly large
enough for fifteen men, and over a
hundred were crowded upon it.
Abandoned In mid>ocean, with
hardly days provisions, it is little
wonder that despair reigned from
the. first. The first night nearly
twenty men were washed over
board, and dozen had their arms
or legs broken. There was not a
morsel of food remaining, nor q drop
of water; but, as usual, cask of
spirits was secured. Mutlny and
its attendant horrors broke out. Sui
eide became common. TO illustrate
how self preservation usurped every
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