The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-11-09

rendered the %plundering or maltreat-
ing of a shipwrecked person a capital
offense.
In the middle ages wrecking was con-
sidered a legal pursuit in England. A
favorite plan was to tie a lantern to
the tail of a horse on a dark and
stormy night N to walk the animal
up and down on a cliff overlooking the
sea. The swaying motion of the horse
made the light resemble. at a distance.
the lantern on a ships mast. The mar
liner. seeing IL. reasoned that deep wa
ter lay in that direction, and he turned
his PROV toward the treacherous light.
to find himself. too late for escape.
among the rocks. This plan was fire.
quently adopted until recent years by
the land pirates of the Mediterranean.
Many vessels have also been steered
t. their doom by false pilots. In the
days when a fourth part of the sal
wage belonged to the lord Of the manor
the pilots entered into a contract with
the land owner to steer ships upon his
coast for half the proceeds. in many
cases these WORTHLESS destroyed the en-
tire crew n appropriated the whole
OF the cargo.
Prior to Henry I. all property washed
ashore from wrecks belonged to the
crown. one can imagine the feelings
OF the half-drowned merchant when
he came floating TO land on a bit of
broken mast and beherd the coast
strewn with belongings so lately his.
Henry 1. decreed hat shipwrecked
goods should not belong to the crown
IL any man or anima came ashore
alive. So. under this law. any one of
the proverbial nine lives of a cat might
saw an entire cargo.
Richard Occur De Leon would have
nothing to do with shipwrecked goods.
n 49, - -
share I'm them IL one of the heirs could
be found. 1t is refreshing to find such
honorable sentiments expressed by a
character who has always been. the
ideal of Anglo-Saxon youth for chival-
ry and manliness.
1t was along in this Richards time
that very stringent laws dealing with
false pilots and professional wreckers
were put In force. One old law says:
IF people more barbarous. cruel and
inhuman than mad dogs murder ship
wrecked people. they are TO be plunged
into the sea until half dead and then
stoned to death"
The famous Goodwin sands have been
the scene OF more shipwrecks han any
other spot of the coast OF England.
and wrecking was for a long time a
boring villagers.
Defoe describes graphically the great
hurricane of 1903. in which - vessels
of the royal navy were lost inc other
craft. making In all $50. The townspeo-
pie of Deal are blamed for inhumanity
during this storm. IL Is said hat they
rushed in so eagerly TO get booty that
they allowed the people struggling in
the waves to drown.
Goodwin sands was famous for its
"hovelers" from very early times.
These are fishermen and other owners
of small boats who save wrecked peo-
pie from drowning and who take a
portion OF the salvage for reward.
From their efforts no doubt the idea
Of the first lifeboat arose. Various peo-
pie attempted to devise a serviceahle
lifeboat and rewards were offered for
the best result. In the cemetery of
Hythe there Is a tombstone whose in
scription that Lionel Lukin
built the first lifeboat in 11s4. Hollow.
water-tight Enclosures gav buoyancy
to his model and a leaden weight acted
as ballast.
Awriter I'm a recent number of Har-
per's Monthly say that a few profess
sional wreckers still exist along the
coast OF Newfoundland. where luckless
ships that have been carried n of
their course by the Grant tides Of the
gulf of ST. Lawrence can be lured onto
the rocks.
Inc Nitth'ic VI NhN AeidhNS todSi VI
America were the natural descendants
OF the old-time buccaneers and pirates.
When piracy, after a century's bloody
sway. had been crushed out Of exis-
tence. the lawless ~seafarers took q the
shore and robbed the ships which. eth
er by treachery or accident. met de-
structlon on the rocks. Modern bea-
cons. which cannot possibly be mistak-
en- for the feeble glimmer Of false
lights and a chain of life saving STA
lions have dealt the death blow TO the
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