Evening star., 1897-02-20

| All neHos were turned out As usual, al
$50 In the morning, and the work OF deck
| swabbins and other cleaning went on in
the ordinary fashion None OF the men
missed young Goebsl until breakfast. Then
ask where's wiiisT' for the youth was
extremely popular among all hands. Then
the word began to go around that there
was something rather mysterious going on
ait In the sick bay. and that young Goebel
was In bad way from some cause or an
other. After breakfast the men gathered
together In knots to smoke their pipes
Is customary before the days work begins
| 1t was not long before DIR. Hlbbett ap-
peareh at the top OF the ward room ladder
and said few words in a low tone to the
emcer OF the deck. a young ensign. The
deck officer scribbied a few words in the
ships log, which rested on q stand at the
! head OF the ladder, and. when he had I'm
ished and gone away. the marine orderly
who stood at the commanding officers door
sioied over to the log desk ard hastily read
what had just been written by the officer
J OF the deck. Then he sidled forward among
the men for minute and passed the
the cholera. The lad had probably swal-
| lowed lot Of salt water in swimming. and
some cholera microbes along with 1t.
Like Brave Men.
In two minutes the word was all over
| the ship. 'Goebel's dead In the sick bay =
| cholera" uttered whisperingly was heard
| from peak to mainmast. At first, none Of
| the men believed the rumor. for the man.
of-war canard is a thing OF hourly occur
renee. 1t seemed Incredible. After awhile
the apothecary appeared on deck on some
/ hasty errand, and to the straight question,
is Goebel dead of cholera?' ne declined TO
the story was true
The men looked at each other oddly. saw
ing hardly anything. Whatever remarks
lney made We're made In low tone or In a
cd h,tr
went about their business thoughtfully
The officers strolled up and down the quar-
terdecK In pairs. not speaking to each 9TH
| worn look on his face and he and the
navigator began to pace the deck together
After while the apothecary came up
| forward among the enlisted men and circu-
lated among them He was asked no
| questions. Neither the officers aft nor the
men forward showed the slightest inclina-
tion or desire to keep out OF the way of
tnese Two brave men who had spent the
night In fruitless battle with a terribly
| infectious disease, although it was con-
Sloered quite likely, even by these two men
| themselves, that they would be stricken
with the cholera within a few hours for
they had been in close personal contact
with the dead lad for twelve hours in
small room.
Volunteers to carry a dead mans body
from the sick bay to the poop" The boat
sWain's mate at the gangway passed this
word Every man within sound OF his voice
was at the mast in stride. Four men
were picked out for the duty, and the re-
nlalnoer left the mast chapfallen. Cow
ardliness was not characteristic of this
ships company. and the incident gave one
| food for thought as to how these men
would have behaved under fire.
Up Went the Yellow Flag.
The four men who went to fetch the dead
boy to the poop saw that his body had
! turned to a dark blue color The sail
| makers mate appeared on the poop and
| sewed the lads body up in a sheet dam
pened with antiseptics. This sailmaker's
| mate had sewed many a dead sailorman up
| in his hammock, killed by yellow fever, to
be heaved over the side in midsea ard he
was used to the work. The signal quartz.
master broke out the yellow flag at the
fore and the Bennington was a ship of the
dead An undertaken came off from shore
with box, into which the dead bows body
was placed and taken to the shore for
burial. 1t should be said here that several
| months afterward the enlisted men of the
ship subscribed the money for a superb
headstone which was placed over the an
prentice's grave. Photographs of this head
stone were sent to the boys relatives who
live here in Washington.
The hush that prevailed over the entire
snip after the boys body had been taken
to the shore was remarkable. Work was
suspended for the day. Commander Pig
| man had the men mustered, and made a
'Iiote thuufcSS 10 lnem, telling them what
the symptoms of cholera were, and asking
them to report unhesitatingly at the sick
Day II tney felt the slightest illness. In
all the crew there was but one man who
showed the yellow after this little speech
This man was a Greek boiler-maker who
was shipped by the Bennington at Glib
raltar. and could hardly speak English.
The commanding officer had no sooner fin
isked his address than this man began to
grasp his stomach with calculations of
fear. Dr. Hibbett took him in hand, and
found that there was nothing whatever the
matter with him except a too lively i'm
agination He was not spoken to by any of
the men forward for months afterward
Looked Over Their Papers.
There were any number of the men who
were Ill from old fevers, nervousness that
was not fear, or from other causes but not
a man of them went aft to the sick bay
They couldn't bear to excite suspicion as to
their nerve. On this morning of August 81
there was not a man on the ship fore or
aft. who did not have every reason to ex-
pect that he was to get the cholera and
die of 1t, and the wonder is not great that
the men talked in subdued tones and ap-
peared to be engaged in a whole lot of
thought The officers. whose ward room
quarters adJolned the sick bay, quietly got
their papers together in little packets and
smoked the while. The men under the fore
castle overhauled their iitty bags and
boxes without any ostentation. throwing
had their folks at home get hold Of and
stood by" Their faces were studies, for
1t is SO rare that man-of-warsmen engage
in contemplation.
1t was no miracle that the cholera did not
spread over the ship. 1t was simply the
energetic precautions that were taken
against 1.-THE burning of everything in the
sick bay and of all the paraphernalia any
where near the sick bay, and the thorough
sulphur fumigation all parts of the ship
received an hour after the dead boys body
went over the side. But the Hawaiian gov
ernment kept the Bennington in quarantine
for months. The ship toured fruitlessly all
through the Hawaiian Islands in an effort
to get shore supplies.
Kept at q Distance.
At Lahaina, on Maui, when one of the
ships cutters put off for the beach to ne
gotiate for supplies. the cutters crew were
met by lot of Kanakas at the beach, with
old muskets in their hands. These antag-
onists appeared too trivial to be seriously
attacked, SO the cutter put back to the
ship without any fresh supplies. The big
cruiser Olympia, on her way to China,
turned up in Honolulu harbor about a week
after the Bennington had hoiSfa har vol