The Abbeville messenger. (Abbeville, S.C.) 1884-1887, 1886-03-09
A JULES VERNE TALE.
WILLIAM DOIIERTY'S SUIT AGAINST
A STEAMSHIP COMPANY FOR
S3O,OOO.
He Says thnt Two Men Tried to Kill
Him, When He Jumped. Overheard,
SWAN Eight and Walked Two Hun
dred Miles, Only to Find that His Wife
had Married Again.
From the N. Y. World

From the N. Y. World.l
The Superior Court, Of New York
city, Will soon be called upon to listen
to a story OF. the most pronounced Jules
Verne order,, and when the case of Will
liam Doherty against the Pacific Mail
Steamship Company is called the plain
tiff will astonish the Court by IL wonder
full tale of hairbreadth escape and mar
row victory with life after many close
chances with death. The story as told
by William Doherty in~the- affidavits al
ready put on file is, that on May 5, of
last year, the plaintiff, who was in Pan
anna, asked for and was appointed to
the position of assistant engineer on
the Pacific Mail Steamship Company's
steamer Honduras, bound from that port
for various stopping places down the
western South American coast.
The crew was u mixed II of Span
iards, MeXicans and such. Among the
company was a Portuguese, known as
Ramon, who, as an oilcr, regarded him
self as the heir to the position taken by
Dohcrty, and hated the newcomer as an
i%nterloper. The steamer had been only
five days from port when Dohcrty says
he overhead u conversation between this
Ramon II n Spanish passenger, in
which it was determined that the North
erncr should be dirkcd and then thrown
overheard.
From that time Dohcrty dared not
sleep in his berth ut night lest the
trcachcrous Portuguese thrust the dag
ger into his breast. He caught sleep as
he could standing at his post, and sew
eral times he thought he detected his
foe crawling upon him in the darkness.
He says he was compelled to literally
dodge for his life every time his enemy
or enemies came near, for both Ramon
and the Spanish passenger were watch
ing him. When he could endure it no
longer Doherty appealed to Alfred Par
dee, the chief engineer, and was greeted
advised to jump into the water if he did
not care to remain aboard ship.
He made such provisions as he could
to die fighting, wrote several letters to
wife and friends, which he directed and
left aboard ship, only to learn subsc-
qucntly that they had been thrown over
board, and then waited with such forti-
tudc as he could summon for the attack
of the assassins. 1t came on the night
of May 21, when the ship lay eight miles
off the port of San Jose de Guatemala
and Doherty was on the deck watch.
The night was dcnscly black and the
hunted engineer felt that the occasion
fitted for the bloody work his foes had
determined upon. He says lie heard a.
light tread near him as he stood watch
ing and then came the rush of the two
murdcrers. Doherty drew his own knife
and fought with desperation for his life,
but the odds were enormously against
him, and when he was forced to the YES
sells side he suddenly turned and plung-
ed overheard, to take the faint flicker
of a chance by swimming to the shore.
The water there is crowded with
sharks, and the faint engineer was in no
condition for such a long swim. What
gave him nerve and vigor was the
thought of wife and babies away off in
New York waiting and praying for his
return. He slipped out of much of his
clothcs>as he drifted by the vessels side
and then started shorewards.
All night long he alternately breasted
the long swell and tioated resting and
painting on his back. Daylight came
and. he was still in the water, but the
shore a little over a mile away gave him
encouragement, and he soon was able to
stagger, half unconscious up the sandy
beach, only to drop in a faint above
high-watcr mark. 1t was not until noon
that he awoke and looked for aid. He
took employment with farmers, and
when a measure of his strength had re-
turned struck out for a long tramp of
nearly two hundred miles across the
republic to a small seaport named Liy-
ingstone, whence he worked his way
homeward, and then when, in March
last, he reached New York, it was only
to find that his wife, relying upon the
| reports that he had jumped overheard,
had married again.
He asked for some sort of recompcnsc
from the Pacific Mail Steamship Com.
i pany, but was confronted with his own
death certificate as proof that he had no
claim, and then, broken down in health
by his sufferings, he listened to the ad.
| vice of friends and instituted a suit for
$50, 900, claiming that when he entered
the service of the company he was, en-
titled to protection, which, when he ap-.
piled to the chief engineer, was not
given him.