Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1889-09-28
Mr.. NELSON'S WILL.
6Y "A. RIDER

BIZ hGlloaed the man who was hold
ing on 10 the foremost tackle, lower
away, we shall be rushed and swampCd!'
Fill Obeyed with heart and soul. and
down sunk the boat below the level OF the
upper decks, just rs the mob was getting
The mastery, IL five seconds more they
were hanging close over the water, and
whilst they were in this position a man
leapt NJ the boat from the bulwarks. lie
struck on the thwarts, rolled or into the
water, and was no more seen. a lady, the
wife of II Colonial Judge, throw her child;
Augusta tried to catch it, but missed, and
6he boy sank and was lost. In another
m the two sailors had showed of
from the ships side. As they did SO, the
stern of the Kangaroo lifted right out of
the water 50 that they could soc under her
rudder post. Just then, too, with "a veil
Of terror, Mr.. Meeson, in whom the ele-
mentary principle of self p~reseryation at
al costs were strongly developed, cast
himself from the side and fell with splash
within a few feet of the boat. Rising to
the surface, he clutched hold Of the gun
vale and implored TO be taken in.
KNOCK the old yarmint over the knuck-
les, Bill" shouted the other man; hell
upset us"
"No, no"' cried Augusta, her woman's
heart moved at seeing her old enemy in
such a case. There is plenty of room in
the boat
Hold on then, " said the man addressed
whose name was Johnnie; 'when we ge
clear we'll haul you in"
And, the reader may be sure, Mr.. Nee
son did hold on pretty tight till, after row
.-. al,Av,N q IVV .nIA NIA t,-A 49,. L. n
and proceeded, not without some risk and
trouble-for there was a considerable sea
running-to hoist Mr.. Nelson's large form
over the gunwale of the boat.
Meanwhile the horrors on board the
doomed ship were %redoubling rs she slow
~ settled to her watery grave. Forward,
the steam foghOrn was going increasingly
believing like a thousand furious bulls
while now and again u rocket still shot mp
through the misty morning air. Round
the boats a hideous war was being ragged.
Augusta saw a great number of men jump
into one of the largest l~ife-boats, which
was still hanging to the dayits, having
evidently got the better of those who were
attempting to fill il with the women and
children. The next second they lowered
the after tackle, but, by some hitch or
misunderstanding, not the foremost one:
with the result that the stern of the boat
tell while the bow remained fixed, and
every soul in it, some forty or fifty people,
was shot out into the water. Another
boat was overturned by n sea as il settled
on the water. Another one, full of women
and children. got TO the water all right,
but remained fastened to the ship by the
DOW tackle. When, a couple Of minutes
afterward, the Kangaroo went down, no
body had "A knife at hand whercwith to cut
the rope, and the boat was dragged down
with her and all its occupants drowned.
The remaining boats, with the exception
al the one in which Lady HOlmhurst was,
md which had been got away before the
rush began, were never lowered ut all, or
SAM as soon as lowered. Ii was impossi-
bic to lower them owing to the mad be-
havior of the panic-stricken crowds, who
fought like wild beasts for u place in
them. a few gentlemen and so~bcr-headed
sailors could do nothing against a mob of
frantic creatures, each bent on saving his
own life IL 1t cost the existence of every
body on board.
And thus il was exactly twenty minutes
from the time that the Kangaroo sank the
whaler for, although these events have
taken some time TO describe, they did not
take long to enact) that her W hour
came, and, with the exception of some
eighty-and-twenty souls, all told, the hour
also of every living crcature who had tax
on passage OF her.