The weekly Thibodaux sentinel and journal of the 8th Senatorial District. [volume] (Thibodaux, Lna. [i.e. La.]) 1875-1898, 1893-06-10
THE CALM OF DESPERATION.
How the Passengers and Crew of a Doomed
Vessel Sat Quietly Awaiting Death.

How the Passengers and Crew of a Doomed
Vessel Sat Quietly Awaiting Death.
1T was about seven o'clock in the
evening when the captain passed
through the cabin and quietly informed
the passengers gathered there that he
had abandoned all hope of saving the
steamship. After that one of the mates
who had been toiling with the crew for
the last three hours came to us and
said that further effort was useless.
There must have been seventy Of US
passengers in the cabin a quarter of an
hour later. The engines had broken
down, she was all a-leak and was then
drifting in the trough of the sea. At
four O'Clock, when every man aboard
had been put to work. most of the
women We're weeping and their chill
dren moaning with fright. There
were two old men and two cripples who
could do nothing. and | had noticed
that while they were very pale and
their lips bloodless they did not seem
to De excited.
Il expected to find the cabin a scene
of mad excitement when | entered it,
but the picture presented was SO quiet
and peaceful that l could hardly credit
my vision. A dozen men and women
were praying, but none of them aloud.
Some OF the children were on their
parents knees, and while none was
weeping it was grievous to notice what
an old look had come IL their faces.
They looked pinched and haggard, as if
suffering physical pain for days. As |
stood looking about me a woman who
had a boy about six years old on her
knee beckoned to me and asked:
"'Do you think there is any hope?'
None whatever
Every well. Don't be afraid. Harry.
Mamma will put her arms about YOU
Three or four of the men who had
neither wives nor children aboard paced
up and down the long cabin, though the
steamer was flung wildly about at
times. Not n single person put on a
life preserver, though plenty Of them
were at hand. You would have expect
ed the women to sob and lament. but
there was not a single instance of it.
True. half a dozen of them were lying
on the divans with their faces hidden,
but if they wept no one knew it. 9th
ers sat in pairs, hands clasped or arms
around each other. The faces of the
women were marble white. those OF
the men ashen. Every woman whose
face | could see had a wild, startled ex-
preston, but the men scowled and
looked sullen.
Il saw only one message written. A
young man stood at one of the cabin
doors and wrote in pencil on a panel
his name, the name of the steamer. and
date, and added: I'VE have given up
all hope ands are preparing for the
end" There was much jewelry and
considerable mfoneyascattered about on
the tables and, the floor but every man.
woman and child had the head COW
cred. Indeed / saw one man put on a
| spring overcoat and sit down with a
cane in his hand, while several of the
women readjusted their hats frem time
to time.
Il looked into the captains room
through a broken pane and saw him
| sitting in a chair with his head in his
hands. / could see several men crouehed
under the lee of the pilot-house, but
where the bulk of the crew had slowed
themselves away | could not determine.
| had just started to work my way back
to the cabin when the steamer settled
away like a water-soaked log and a
| great ave rolled over her carrying
away her upper works and sending her
battered hull to the bottom of the sea
| at ION blow. / had wondered if we
would shrek and scream and cry to
God when the awful moment came.
There was just n cry-one cry made
up OF the voices of men, women and
children-passengers and crew. Itrose
above the awful roar of the storm as
| you might have heard the clang of a
great bell, and then deaths fingers
clutched every throat. listened for a
second cry. even as | thought death had
come to me, but there was none. A
hundred human beings had cried out
in mighty throes for mercy, but wind
and wave had Knocked them.'-Chicago
Times.