The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1892-12-29
CAST AWAY.
BY CHARLES 3. LEWIS IN. QUAD.

BY CHARLES 3. LEWIS IN. QUAD.
Copyright, 1892, by G. B. Lewis.]
The bark White Cloud had been on
fire for two days before the captain de-
cided to abandon her. She was bound
through the Straits of Sunda and was in
midocean when the fire broke out in the
lower hold. Nobody could tell how the
fire started, but it probably came from
spontaneous combustion. We fought
hard enough to save the bark five times
over, but the fire kept gaining on us all
the time, and the crew and passengers
finally forced the captain to get ready to
abandon her. There were about 100
people to take care of, but we had plenty
of boats, and they were all down and
provisioned an hour before any move
ment was made to leave the ship.
When we reached Cape Town on the
voyage out from Liverpool we found
over ninety German immigrants waiting
for ship to Batavia. They had been
rescued from German immigrant ship
which had been wrecked on the west
coast. Some sort of bargain was made
by the agents of the bark to convey
them to their destination, and that's the
way we came to have so many people
aboard At Cape Town there were also
waiting a Frenchman and his wife named
Roquiere. He was the consul at Singa-
pore, and his wife, who was only about
twenty-five years old, had been recon-
mended to make voyage to the Cape
and return on sailing vessel for the
benefit of her lungs.
Roquiere was man over forty. They
had been married only about year, and
of all the cranky, Grabbed men ever
saw he was the worst. He arranged
with the captain to be landed at Singa-
pore after the immigrants had been dis
posed of, and we were not three days
out of Table bay when all of us aft knew
what sort of a chap he was. While both
spoke English fuently, he did most of his
kicking and growing in French. Moth
ing whatever suited him, and he was
horribly jealous of his wife.
As officers of the ship we were bound
to be civil to both and to show the lady
any courtesies we could, but we soon
dropped to the fact that Roquiere was
jealous Of every one of us. He kicked
about the food, growled about the
weather, and a dozen times day we
overheard him "disciplining'' his wife
for some alleged misconduct. Inside of
a week we had sized him up for a con-
temptible cur, and he was also butt of
ridicule among the men and the immi-
grants forward. We all felt pity for the
young wife. She made many excuses
for him, as wife should, and did her
very best to bring out the few good
Qualities he was possessed of.
Tt was coming on night when it was
decided to abandon the bark. had
charge of one Of the quarterboats, and l
had seen that she was well provided
before she was launched. It had all
been arranged that Roquiere and his
wife should go in the captains boat.
We had told the people off. and there
would be room for all. was ordered
into my boat to receive her complement,
and she was being pulled forward TO
take in the women and children waiting
for her when two or three things hap
pened at once to upset our plans.
The flames burst through the deck at
last and all Of sudden and produced
something Of a panic. At about the
same moment squall from the west
struck the bark and keeled her over.
At that moment some one sprang into
the sea alongside. I instinctively
grabbed at the object, and as lifted it
in over the gunwale I did not know
whether it was man, woman or child.
was bit ratified by the squall and the
darkness it brought, while everybody
aboard was screaming and shouting.
Whether my boats painter was cast
loose by some excited person on deck, OF
whether it was loosened by the heel of
the bark, could not say, but suddenly
discovered that she was adrift and the
bark hidden In the darkness. had to
get her off before the squall to save her.
and when the first fury of the burst was
over and the breeze held from the west,
kicking up smart sea in no time at all,
four pairs Of oars could not have pulled
the yawl back to the bark.
In this emergency I did just as the
captain himself would have done. l
made drag of three oars and the boat
hook, fastened it to the painter and
then brought the yawl about head to
the sea to drift She would drive to
the east, but SO would the bark and the
other boats. As soon as she was about
stepped the mast, lighted and hoisted
a lantern, and could do no more.
will tell You here of the fate of the
people left behind. They could not take
to the boats while the squall lasted. and
when it had passed it was discovered
that the fire had been somewhat subdued
by the three or four heavy seas which
had poured over the rail. The bark had
been almost on her beam ends, and the
wash of water in her hold had met the
fire on the starboard side. Everybody
went to work with renewed zeal, and
the craft was saved until noon next day,
when everybody was taken off by an
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