The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-08-23

| ice was very fine, and the sermon interested my
people because it was denunciation Of nove.ists,
mixed up with a curious and somewhat inappro-
pirate defense OF the Jesuits. The preacher saw
no good in fiction, and he believed that women
| writers the worst class of novelists, many OF
them only exercising their wlles in this direc-
| ton because they are vain and seek to become
| notorious. While am writing | am attracted
| to the windows AUDITING upon the esplanade by a
more than ordinary shouting look out. 1t is
cavalcade of some fifty riders on donkeys and
| ponies, each rider with a sunfiower in button
hole. They are followed by fifty others on foot,
| shouting and yelling to urge the harassed steeos
into extra efforts of speed. Many of these men
| and boys are evidently Norfolk peasants out for
the day, and they do not impress one as persons
OF intelligence. Indeed, the purely country peo-
pie from the local villages seem to be a very
ignorant, simple lot. The women ugly, the men
brutal 1t is the sea-faring folk of the coast
who have inspired authors and historians. More
over, the sea Is great clVlllzer. L have known
sailors and beachmen who, being able neither to
read nor write, were still very intelligent, fine
| fellows, with wide, practical knowledge of the
habits of fishes and birds, and possessed with
shrewd views of life and its duties While the
eduestrians the espanade galloping to and
fro the is laundering upon the shore and
| ship in full sail is blowing her way towards the
great North sea amidst fleet of fishing smacks
| worked by such of the beachmen not
| engaged in supplying the wants OF foolish lands
men who desire to taste the brief pleasures of
coasting expedition around the adjacent piers
These beachmen a remarkable class. They
are the most romantic of the coast population.
| In the old days they probably wreckerS
and pirates To-day they are fishermen and
| salvage hunters This part Of the east coast is
full of dangers to navigation. The Yarmouth
roads are known to every sailor AS trying and
difficult. Sometimes as many as a thousand
ships lie here, afraid to lift their anchors. Fifty
| thousand pass through this difficult course every
year. The scroby and other shifting sands are
still what they in Defoes day, 1.-THE horror
| Of sailors During the year there many
accidents and disasters which occupy the Var
mouth beachmen and provide them with means
| to live They are fine stalwart mon, brave to
recklessness, and of an infinite capacity in regard
to beer. recent writer thus describes them:
| They are OF Danish origin, exhibiting all the
qualities Of the sea kings of gigantic stature,
| noble bearing, and of great courage. AT mo-
| ments notice they ready to man their enor-
nous yawls and put to sea in the worst OF
weather to assist the vessels which so frequently
come to grief the scroby sands; and
as gaining enormous sums, and spending their
| lives in perpetual vcissitude of violent exer-
tons and luxurious idleness." Making allowance
for color and literary eXaggeratlon, the charge OF
| bathos which Mr. Nall makes against this de-
scription disappears The beachman is man
| apart from his fellows In the old days it was
said that the children of the beachmen prayed
every night for Cod ''to send daddy good ship
| ashore before morning" To day there is
spirit abroad, though the beachmen can hardly
feel very acute sorrow when they are called to
rescue WHICH may prOVlue lNem Wllu lullUS.
| What is one mans meat is another mans poi
| SON." At the time they have shown the
highest capacity for heroic effort and no storm
daunts them. They will sacrifice their lives as
freely as they will take drink with a comrade.
i Nor are they an irreligiOuS set. | have seen
them as soberly and reverently at worship as
! their fellows on the other side of the North sea.
| The beachmen have regular organizations, are
formed into companies from which the ifeboat
crews are recruited; and admission to their ran KS
| is not an easy matter.
The nautical history of the Yarmouth coast is
full Of tragedies Several of them may be men
toned. In 1892 fleet of 200 golfers, leaving
| Yarmouth roads for the north, were caught in
| furious storm All but sixty wrecked and
1000 seamen were drowned. In 1770, during
similar gale. thirty vessels went down. IN one
night and 300 men persisted. On May day in
| 1871 his MaJeStyS warShlD Invlnclble struck on
| d shoal, and then, moving into deep water, went
down with crew of 400 men. On this bank
| holiday of my visit benefit entertainment is
being given for the families of eight lifeboatmen
| who were lost two weeks ago in their efforts to
save the lives of the crew of a wrecked schooner.
The acts of heroism with which the history
| abounds are numerous as the disasters: but
courage and self-sacrifice Anglo Saxon
virtues, and they are nowhere more prolific than
| on the American coasts. The world has finer
sailors than the pilots who put out in American
| waters to meet the ocean steamers from Europe
! The gallant Nelson Norfolk man.
and there is splendid column to his memory at
| Yarmouth. ut this beach" says Mr..
| Nall, that one of the most successful institu-
tons for relieving shipwrecked vessels was
conceived and worked out by Captain MANLY, at
| that time barrack master at Yarmouth. On the
| 18th of February, 1907 gun brig, the Snpe,
| ran on shore at this haven mouth during
| dreadful gale. All efforts to communicate with
her failed, and siXty-seven men were seen to
perish within fifty yards of shore. Moved by
this horrible occurrence Captain Manly was led
to conceive the idea Of communicating with
stranded vessels by attaching a rope to a shot
which, fired from a mortar. would pro ect it over
the vessel and SO establish connection with the
shore Many thousands of lives were soon saved
| in this way and the apparatus is familiar all
over the world. The government Of the day
awarded the inventor q gift of 5000 guineas, in
| recognition of his useful service CAPTAIN Man
| by lived at Yarmouth until he was over ninety.
| He had been schooi-fellow of Nelson Until
lately there was living among the beachmen one
Samuel Block, who, fifty years ago, was the
hero of a tragic romance He and
others went out to the rescue of
Spanish ship Their yawl was capsized in the
storm, and only Brock escaped They had put
four men the Spanish ship to work the pumps
and navigate her. and were returning to Var
mouth when they came to grief Brock cut
away with his knife his clothing and his boots,
and struck out for the shore. 1t was evening,
| and the land was six miles away. He calculated
that the ebb tide setting against him would carry
him fifteen miles south before he could swim
| shorewards. Drifting with the flood for some
hours, he was carried over the cross sands TO the
| buoy of st. Nicholas, got opposite his own cot
toge, but four miles out. He chung to the buoy
but as he had already been five hours i'll the
water, he feared that the chill night air would
starve him to death if he remained there until
morning: so he quilted it and struck out again.
A great flock Of sea gulls lowered over him, and
pecked at him for corpse. 1t was bright
moonlight night. and three hours later he was
seen by the lookout of a collier, in Cor:on roads.
and taken on board A subscription was raised
for the families of the drowned seamen, and
part of the money was offered to Brock but he
refused to take it, and to the last followed his
VOCATION the same independent fearless plucky
sailor he had always been. Such are the men
grafton to the New England States.