The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1896-08-22
A SEA TRAGEDY.
TIE Startling Story OF the Amerfcsn
Barkentine Herbert Fuller.


The Startling Story Of the Amerfcsn
Barkentine Herbert Fuller.
The sea has ever been favorable scene
with romancers for desperate conspfra-
cies and tragic crimes. This has been
due to the seclusion which it Offers
and also. perhaps, to the traditions OF
piracy which hang abo,tit- Therewas
a time when the line OF demarcatsoR
between the pirate and the peaceful
mariner was not very sharply drawn.
and the late Prentice Mulford, who
grew up in a seafaring town and had
even served on shipboard before tho
mast, once wrote IN article mainta
ing that the relations which still pre-
vail between the master and the crew
of ship are q relic Of the days when
all seafaring men were practically PIE
rates. Possibly . juster explanation
of the harsh treatment 10 which sailors
are subjected would be found in the
arbitrary authority which law and Gus
tom necessarily bestow upon ashipmas-
ter, for It Is almost "A axiom that I'M
restricted power always leads to tyrar,'
ny-that nothing but lack OF author
ity prevents every man from misusing
it. At all events, the reader OF sea
novel expects to meet with various
sorts of mysteriously dark deeds. while
the reader Of the marine columns OF
a newspaper is RECALLED with plenty OF
actual crime, albeit Of a generally com.
monplace and unin.eresting character.
The story of the American barken-
tine Herbert Fuller, which the newspa-
pers have been recently telling, however.
is as tragically startling Is any ever
related by Stevenson or Russell. The
officers of vessel have often enough
been murdered by the crew, who then
seized the vessel, and it has sometimes
happened that some officer has Joined
the crew in mutinying against the cap
tain, as in the case of the Bounty. What
adds especially to the sensational fea-
lures of the crime on board the Herbert
Fuller is that it does not seem to be
known positively who killed the cap
tain, his wife and the second mate
The evidence against the first mate
appears to rest on his supposed I'M
willingness 10 make port after the dis
covery of the murders. He is even sus-
pected of having intended TO turn the
vessel over to the Cuban insurgents.
What must have been the establishment
of the pilot on going on board to find
the vessel in charge of the oolored
steward and Harvard sophomore pas
senger, the mate In irons, and the bodies
of the three murdered persons towing
astern in the small boatl That last
touch is characteristic. The survivors
did not dare throw the bodies over ooerd
because they were needed as evidence
to protect themselves az we'll as to con-
vict the guilty; their superstitious no
TORS were appalled, at the notion OF
keeping the bodies on board the ves-
sci; so they compromised by towing
them astern.
Undoubtedly the Herbert Fuller
tragedy will form the plot Of many 9
future sea novel. But no romanoer
could have afforded to invent SO extraor-
binary q tale. He would have beer
laughed ut ON account Of the inherent
improbability OF his incidents. The
murders might have passed muster, but
the Harvard student and the co&ored
steward in their extraordinary role
would have been pronounced simply
mpossible-Bu6alo Courier.