The morning call., 1895-01-18
A QUESTION OF MINUTES.
What Will Decide the Parsons Will
Case.
Testimony to Show That the Times Men.
toned in the Will Are En-.
tirely Wrong.

The story of the will of Jennie Parsons
has been told more than once in the local
papers-how, while the Inflated steamer
Pacific was sinking she wrote the docu-
ment, half will, half letter, to her children
in this city. The Pacific was wrecked
nearly twenty years ago, and now, yellow
with age and dimmed by the dampness
which leaked into the bottle in which it
was consigned to the sea, the will is offered
for probate, and the $4,000 which it dis
poses of is asked to be distributed. 1t
seems strange that, after reaching so far back
that the years and months seem but
weeks and days, the validity of the will
should be questioned on a matter of hours,
and, perhaps, minutes. The contestants
have been looking up the events of each
hour of that eventful night of November 4,
1875, when the Pacific was run into and
nearly split in two by the bark Orpheus,
and they claim that fatal discrepancies
lurk in the time mentioned in the will.
The will is dated son board the Pacific,
$50 P. NJ" 1t goes on to state how the
steamer was struck by the Orpheus in the
midst of a storm at o'clock in the after
noon. At $50, it says, everything was
dark the vessel was filling rapidly, and
during the time of writing-the document
Just fills two sides of yellow legal cap pa
per-the ship began quivering for her final
plunge. There were few survivors, but
some of the crew did manage to arrive on
shore, and their story of the disaster is
among the records of the custom-house at
Port Townsend.
The ship, the record states positively,
foundered at 1880 o'clock at night, six
hours and a half after the time Mrs.
Parsons letter says it was struck by the
Orpheus, and four hours after the letter
was written, although, as was stated be-
fore, the document said that at the time of
writing the steamer was going down. An
other source of testimony has also been
discovered in Steilacoom, near Tacoma,
Wash. This is no other than Neil Henley,
butcher, who was quartermaster on board
the Pacific when she went down. Henley
saws the steamer was struck at 10 o. clock
at night, and within one hour after she had
disappeared. He was below in his bunk
at the time, but hearing the con-
fusion, and frightened by the shock
of collision, he fastened on deck.
Everything was in an uproar. People were
running in all directions, apparently crazed
by fright and a crowd of the passengers
and some of the seamen were trying to
lower one of the boats. Henley jumped into
this boat as it fell from the davits, but it no
sooner struck the water than it was dashed
to pieces against the side of the steamer,
even then settling rapidly. Henley swan
to some wreckage from the steamer which
had f1oated short distance away, and as
he reached it and turned to look back at
the vessel her few remaining lights went
suddenly out, and she was gone. He
swears it was not an hour from the time
the blow from the Orpheus nearly threw
him out of his bunk.
This discrepancy in items mentioned in
the will and those given in the report at
the Custom-house and by Henley, which
latter are corroborative, the contestants
think is enough to throw serious suspicion
upon, if not to entirely inyalidate the will.
1t will not be question of years mol
months, but one of a few minutes which
will settle the fate of that $4,000.