The Sunday herald. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1866-1887, 1886-06-06
"A FIRE AT SEA.

WJ. HENDERSON,
"A FIRE AT SEA.
In the month of May of the year eighteen
hundred and thirty eight happened to be
crossing from st. Petersburg to Lubbock on
the steamship Nicholas |. As at that time
there was very little railway communi-
cation, every tourist took the sea route,
and for the same reason many people
brought their travelling carriages with them,
80 as to be able to continue their tour
through Germany, France, and other coun-
tries. We had with us, remember, twenty
eight private conveyances, and were In all
two hundred and eighty passengers, in-
Guiding twenty children. | was very young
at the time, and as did not suffer at all
from seasickness enjoyed my experiences
immensely. Some of the ladies on board
were extremely pretty, and few quite
beautiful most of them, alas T! are long
since dead.
II was the first time that my mother had
ever allowed me To go away by myself aud
before left she made ma promise to be on
10y best behavior, aud, above all things,
never to touch card. AS IL happened, it
was this last promise that was the frat to
lie broken.
One particular evening there was a great
gathering Of the passengers in the saloon,
whore some well known Russian bankers
were gambling. They used to play kind
of lanslnene,, and the jingle Of thu gold
pieces, which were much more common then
than they are now, was quite deafening.
Suddenly one of the players, seeing that |
did not join in, and not understanding wis,
asked me- TO have hand, and when in my
boyish simplicity told him my reason he
went into fit of laughter, aud called out to
his friends that he had made real find IA
young man who had never played cards in
his life, and who consequently was quite
certain to have the most extraordinary luck,
fool q lnck In fact! don't know
how IT came about, but ten minutes later
was sitting at the gambling table with lot
| of cards in my hand, as bold as brass, aud
playing, playing like a mailman
| must acknowledge that In my case the
| old prOverb turned out true; money kept
coming to mo in waves and beneath my
trembling, perspiring hands the gold piled
itself mp in heaps. The banker who had
induced me to play never stopped for a
moment urging ma on, and exciting nue. Ia
bet. actually thought had made my for
I,unel Suddenly the saloon door is flung
wide open, 4 lady PUSHES in, cries out in a
| faint, agonized voice, "rhe ship is on fire ~
and falls on a sofa in a dead faint. The eff
| feet was like that of an Earthquake. Every.
body started from his seat; the gold and
the silver and the bank notes were strewn
all over the cabin, and wa rushed ont. can
not understand how il was that we had not
| noticed the smoke before. II had already
reached us. In fact, the staircase was full
| of it, and the whole place was lighted with a
dull red glare, the glare of burning coal. In
the twinkiing of an eye every one was ON
deck. Two huge pillars of smoke were
slowly rising up on each side OF tho funnel
and sweeping along the masts, and the up
roar aud tumnlt which began at that mo.
ment never ceased. The scene of disorder
was indescribable. | felt that all the hnmaI
beings on hoard were suddenly seized with q
frantic desire for self preservation. lmysel
most of all. remember of catching hold al
a sailor by the arm and pledging him my
werd that my mother woull give him 10, 00t
| rubles if he saved my life. The sailor nat
urally looked on my offer as q joke, ant
shook me on, and did not suggest it again
| felt that what | had been saying to hin
| was perfect nonsense. However, | mnst ado
! that everything | saw around me was quite
| as nonsensical. How true IL Is that nothing
comes up to the tragic aide of Il shipwreel
but its comic sidei A rich landed proprie
| tor, for instance, was seized with fit of ter
rnr, and, ilinging himself down on his face,
began frantically kissing the deck! After
he had been doing this some time il SO hap
pened that the fury of the flames abated fol
| n moment, in consequence of the great masae:
of water which were being pumped into III.
coal hunks. He l-aped to his feet at once
drew himself to his full height, and cried
ont in n staniolian voice, 80 ye Of it'll,
| Ga n ;nlr AZ a. al tI,.t t,l nf IA.
Russian people, will suffer Us to psrishf'
Just then, however, the flames broke ou
woias than before, and the poor man, will
all his faith in the God of the Russian people
lung himself down again on his hands anc
knees and returned to his deck kissing
A gaunt looking General kept bawling ont
| "a special messenger must he despatched
Immediately to the Emperor. Wedespatche'
a special messenger to him when the mill
tary colonies revOited, and thu lives Of sew
sral important people were saved in cnnss
quence. | myself was there in person"
gentleman with an umbrella in his hand sud
denly, In a mad fit of passion, rushed at ;
very ugly little oil painting that happened
to be among the luggage, fastened to Al
easel, aud hogan to stavs it in. It was
portrait and with the ferruls ofhis umbrella
las made five holes in it, where this eyes, Thu
ing from time to tiIae as hs accomplished
this act of vandalism, "What IL tie 1se o
this picture now p The picture did not be
long to him at all Ahuge fat man, lookin,
like a German brewer, wspt Hoods of tears
and kept calling ont, Captain Captain
Captain - in most heartrending accents
Finally the Captain, losing all patience
caught him by the collar of his coat ant
shonted at him, swell, I'm the Captain
What do yon want with mer' The ia
brewer gazed at him blankly, and with in
creased pathos in his voice recommended hi
pitsous CRY of Captain Captainp'
However, it was tho Captain who reall!
saved our lives. First, by altering on
course, which he succeeded in doing Will
it was still possible to snter the engine
room for il the steamer had kept on straigl
for Lubbock, inatsad Of making ut ones TO
land, II would undoubtedly have bssl
burned to the waters edge before reaching
port. Secondly, by ordering the sailors Il
draw their cutlasses and to have no hesita
iion IN cutting down any one who tried I
, seize either of the life boats. | should man
ton that We had only two sboats lsft tn
/, others hGying been capBizsd through tn
carelessnsss Of gOE!s Of the passengers, VIII
had stupidity tried to LAUNCH them withou
knowing how. II was curions To notice tn
involuntary feeling OF respect inspired b
these stern, ilnpassive sailors Danes, b
the way, most of them-as they stood ther
with their drawn swords, which, in the Te
: glare of the flames, seemed blood staine
already.
: It was now blowing pretty strong gale
and the violence of the wind was good DIES
I intensified by the fire, which by this tim
was raging aud roaring over more than
third of the vessel. AT the riSk OF wounG
ing the vanity of my sex, feel bound
acknowledge that during this crisis til
women showed more presence of mind tina
most of the men did. With their pale face
and the white drqpery of the bedcloths
which they had hurriealy cGught mp whe
summoned from their berths, they seemed I
9 me, skeptie though was even at that earl
age, like angels come down from heaven I
shame MS and to give Ms courage.
However, there wers u few men VIII
showed some pluck. | remember one pal
ticularly, NJ. D--f, our eT Ambassador I
Copenhagen. lle had taken of his shoe
la q,