The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-09-09
TRAGEDY OF A LONG BOAT.

Was It Murder or Manslaughter or
 Self-Preservation?- the Long
 Boat of the American Ship William
 Brown Was frightened of Half of It's
 Human Load-A Black Page From
 the History of Disaster on the High
 Seas.
 On Monday night, April 19, 1S41, the American ship William Brown, home ward bound from Liverpool to Phila delphia, was reeling off the knots about 250 miles southeast of Cape Race, New foundland. She was manned by crew Of seventeen seaman, and she carried sixty five passengers-Scotch and Irish immigrants seeking homes and fortunes under the brighter skies of the new world.
 The night was black bleak and tenn pestuous. The air was filled with sleet, and from the horizon came booms and grlndings indicating the proximity of icebergs. Over the most sullen and vicious piece of water on the globe the
 
 o'clock there came a crash and shock, followed by paths from above and shrieks from below and the swift pat ter of feet along the deck. Up from the stuffy cabins, plain, scant ill-light- ed and evil-smelling, rushed the terri fled passengers. The great ship-their one salvation in this trip over bound- less ocean--was in confusion, wrecked in rigging and damaged in hull from an impact with an iceberg. Even the eyes of the most experienced could de- tect the advances of deadly peril, for already the sailors were busy at the falls with the boats, already there was an ominous slant forward and down. ward to the whole fabric. So in little groups, half naked, shivering, speech less, the poor creatures huddled, await ing something. they knew not what, but something as devoid of hope as the heavens were of starlight
 There were but two boats-a shame full lack in those days of shameful lack ings at sea--a jolly boat and long boat incapable at best of affording temporary refuge to half of the human beings on board These boats the sail ors swiftly prepared and launched, while the ship settled lower and lower and the waves surged and the passen- gers crowded the stern. It does not ap- pear that the captain showed an exec- utive ability. equal to this crisis. He followed rather than directed the move ments of the crew. But out from the ranks there stepped man who led, thenceforth, through the inherent forces of his nature. This man, William Holmes, able seaman, was a Finn, handsome, athletic, young, and mas terful. Those who are acquainted with the superstitions of the sea will re- | mark the coincidence of his nativity for a Finn is regarded by mariners as an embodiment of evil for others, a. wizard who deals in spells and pur- chases personal immunity at the price of blood.
 Holmes, then, without meeting a show of resistance, assumed control. l He saw that the boats were properly i equipped; he calculated the life of the ship and the probabilities of the wealth. l CT. By word and deed he sought in l every way to put heart into the crew. l But they were a craven lot, wolffshly selfish, and cruel in their fear. They beat back the passengers from the boats until they themselves had em- | parked. But for Holmes, they might have rowed away then without sign of hesitation or look of relenting. As lit was, however through his strenuous efforts, certain passengers were re- | ceived on board and when the two craft finally dropped astern they were occu- pied as follows: Tn the jolly boat, the captain, the two mates seven seamen, and one passenger: in the long boat, Holmes, eight seamen, and thirty-two passengers. Holmes kept his head. He realized that there was little chance of the two boats keeping in company. 1 So he called to the captain that the l long boat was without navigator. The captain thereupon ordered the first mate to transship with quadrant, chart and compass, and the man without de- mur obeyed.
 Then an incident occurred that show ed that Holmes was both compassion- ate and brave. At the taffrail of the ship appeared a sick girl stretching out her arms to her mother, who was in the long boat. There was scream of despair in response as the woman rec ognized the awful gulf of separation Holmes urged the men to their oars with fierce gesture. He sprang back on deck and caught the poor child in his arms. "Oh, mother, am comingn she cried as they swung down by the tack le. Thus he was the last man to leave the ship. It was a piteous scene for the derision of the clements. A cables length away the two tiny boats, toss ing and plunging like straws in mael- stron1, awaited the end. While or board the ship with her towering masts lthirty-one deserted passengers--little children, young girls, matrons who had left all the associations of lifetime for the sake of their families and sires who had been not too old nor too bat tered by misfortune to have still hoped I-pleaded and prayed and cursed.
 Don't speak of that now" replied
 the captain; let that be the last re sort" And then the jolly boat, short stout and stubby, with but few or board, drew away until it was alone on the ocean, one atom instead of two in vast waste. It's fate may as wei be told now. After being at sea for six days 1t was picked up by French fish
 ing lugger and it's occupants brough
 safely to land.
 Though the captains judgment il