Connecticut western news., 1894-04-12
AN OCEAN TRAGEDY.
THE TERRIBLE FATE WHICH BeFEL
 THE CENTRAL AMERICA.


 A Contest Between Angry Waters and . Bucket Line, In Which the Latter Lost. A Cowardly Engineer-A Bird Guided the Ellen to the Rescue.
 And who that remembers can hear without thrill the name of the steam ship Central America, which sank in a great storm on Sept. 12, 1857, with most of her officers and crew. nearly 400 pas sengers and $1 SOC, 900 in gold?
 The Central America was crowded with treasure laden people from Cali fornia on their way to New York. Aft CT leaving Havana on Sept. she ran into storm. The steamer began to leak, and Captain Hernden called upon the passengers to form lines and pass the buckets. Hour after hour the tenn pest howled. and the huge vessel groaned as the immense seas broke against her. Hour after hour the men with the buck cts toiled for their lives; slowly the wa ter gained on them.
 not to pause for moment if the ship was to be saved. The wind roared and the storm increased in fury. Every pas senger stuck to his post and worked un- til he fell to the deck exhausted. Then the women offered to take the places of their wornout, fainting husbands and brothers, but none of the men would al low it. As the horror of the situation gradually dawned on the minds of the women and children the air was filled with sounds of terror. but above the raging hurricane and the cries of laplen- tation rose the chorus of the bucket men:
 Heave, oh! heave, ohl stamp and go.
 Wen be jolly blather, ohl
 All day long they sang this song and fought for life against the steadily ris- ing water. Mrs. Easton, 8 bride on her honeymoon trip, passed bottles of wine to the heroic men to strengthen them in their desperate work. All night long the struggle was continued. and still the ? ocean gained inch by inch. The women begged, with tears in their eyes, to be allowed to help. They cheered the brave fellows and wept when they saw them fall to the deck with white faces and trembling limbs. s.
 During the next day the peril of the steamer was increased by the lack of food and water. The hurricane tossed the sinking hull about and shattered her spars and masts. While the tired and sleepless men stuck to the buckets the women knelt and prayed to God for as sistance.
 About o'clock in the afternoon sail was seen to windward. Guns were fired and signals of distress hoisted. The strange vessel. which turned out to be the brig Marine of Boston. answered the signals and tried to approach, but the gale blew her about three miles away.
 Then the boats were made ready, and the women and children prepared them selves. They had to strip off nearly all of their clothes and put on life preserv- CTS. Many of the women had gold. which they could not carry with the them. Two of them went to their state rooms and took out bags of go gold pieces, which they threw down in the cabin, inviting the others to take what they pleased. The money rolled and iingled about on the floor, while the two weeping women explained that they were returning home to enjoy the fortune which they had made in California, and that they would be beggars if the ship was lost. None of the women dared to take more than two pieces of gold lest it might weigh them down.
 The men still remained at their work, saying that they would remain on board until another ship arrived, as the Marine could not take all the passengers, and the women and children must be saved I first. Among those heroes was Billy | Birch, the famous minstrel
 | Two of the ifeboats were smashed by | the sea, but three boats were filled with women and children, many of the latter being infants. The last boat to leave carried the chief engineer. He solemnly promised the captain to return, but the moment he got into the boat he drew a knife and threatened to kill any one who | followed him. Later on, when the woln- en and children were put on board the Marine, the chief engineer, like the cow ard and liar he was, refused to return. | Now the sinking steamship was so low | in the ocean that almost every wave swept her deck. Some of the passengers got into the rigging, while others tried to build raft. Night came on. The storm continued to rage. The ship quiy- cred and careened. Rockets scared uI into the believing, angry heavens. Slow ly the vessel filled with water, and the doomed host clinging to her deck and rigging prepared for>death. There was no weeping and no shrieking, no wiring ing of hands. The captain stood at the wheel to the last.
 All at once the ship, as if in an agony of death herself, made plunge at ar angle of 45 degrees, and with an appall ing shriek from the engulfed mass sht disappeared, and nearly 500 human be ings were left struggling among th' fierce waters. The scene was horrifying and many who were saved afterwart tainted at the mere memory of it.
 A few held on to blanks and spars al through the wild night. and as the day broke the Norwegian bark Ellen arrived and picked up 49 of the men.
 "I was forced out of my course jus before 1 met you" said the captain O the Ellen to the rescued passengers "and when l altered my course a Dir, few across the ship once or twice, ant then darted into my face. A few min utes later the bird repeated its move ments. 1 thought it an extraordinar, thing, and while thinking on it in thi way the mysterious bird reappeared. an, for the third time flew into my face This induced me to alter my course bacl to the original one, and in short time heard noises in the sea and discovers that was in the midst of shipwrecke, people.
 Who shall say what power guided tn flight of the frail messenger through tn stormy air?-New York Herald
 Those Sensational Newspepers.
 Mir. Reader-The papers mention
 number of instances in which labo