Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1898-07-01
brutality of the mate aroused the symra

II WIN an Iit " VI hiiOlS vi
nationalitie5, and the men had been in
irons only two or three days when l heard
| enough to satisfy me that mischief was
brewing.
l went to the chief mate with scraps of
conversation l had heard and received a
Kick and curse for my pains. A few
hours later was sure hat the crew con.
templated open mutiny; but. afraid OF the
reception the captain might give me, l
held my tongue. Two nights later, in the
second mates watch, he was seized from
behind and thrown overheard. Then the
watch off duty was notified, and, arming
themselves as best they could and led by
George Early, they called the captain and
chief officers on deck and secured them and
had possession of the ship. Every sailor
aboard except the oxrpenter and sailmaker
was in the plot, ana after the ship had
been seized these two men cast their lot
with the m%utineers. was routed out only
after the men had secured the officers, and
1 then found all the passengers dressed and
in the cabion and George Early and Mary
Sinclair talking together, The change Of
plan was to seize the ship and go sailing to
some island where the mel could enjoy
themselves in their own way, with piracy
perhaps at the fms
1t was currently reported that the Iron
Duke had a large amount of specie aboard,
| besides a valuable cargo, and young Early
was a good talker among such ignorant
men as inhabit the forecastle. AS a matter
Of fact, there was some specie--a few thou
sand dollars in silver-but, as to the men
reaping any benefit out of a mutiny, each
II all must have known better had they
| stopped to argue the matter. The ship
held to her course, and nothing was done
until next morning. There were some
lawless acts among the men, as might
have been expected, but nothing to make
the passengers afraid, and the carpenter
had general charge of the ship and carried
her safely along.
An hour after daylight the crew gath
cred and elected George Early as captain.
AS he had not been two weeks at sea this
was a queer thing to do, but the men
wanted to honor him for leading the mu-
tiny. 1t was found that not a man aboard
knew anything of navigation, but tho
charts were brought on deck and consult.
ed, and it was agreed that the ship could
be n%avigated without help from tho instru-
ments Captain and mate had been tied
AlaliA ollA looU " 1lou4b VI NCloD lOuSut
out soon afucr tho men had had their
breakfast. The mate had nothing to say.
The captain made a speech in which he
offered to overlook the whole matter if the
men would return to duty. They jeered
and Knocked him in reply. Some were for
killing the W men at once, but Early
had decided to give them a show. One OF
the quarter boats was launched and provi.
stoned for a week and the two officers or
dered into her. They went without a
word, seeming to realize that nothing they
could say would change the plans Of the
mutineers, and then came the question of
the fate of the passengers. Early had per-
haps planned to keep them aboard, but ev-
cry one begged to be sent away with the
officers. Even Mary Sinclair's aunt was
included, although she was 80 years Of age,
in poor health and knew that hardship
and suffering awaited her. As for the
girl herself, she looked upon her lover as a
hero and was for helping him to carry out
his plans. l am sure she knew that a mu.
tiny was brewing and that Early was the
leader, but she rather encouraged it than
otherwise. When the III and other pas
sengers charged her with this, as they did
soon after the ship changed hands, she
only laughed at them in reply.
She was not only thoroughly infatuated
with the good looking criminal, but had
become perfectly reckless of consequences.
After a long wrangle the passengers were
allowed to go in the boat, and more water
and food were put into her. Not one Of
the crew expressed q desire to go along,
and that l was permitted to depart has al
ways been a matter of wonder, as l would
have been of use aboard, and the other ap-
prentice was detained. That | did get
away was owing to the fact that I was
sent down into the boat to keep her Tended
off from the ship and to receive the pro-
visions, and when all the people had come
down we cast off in a hurry, leaving Mary
Sinclair behind.
When sent adrift without q sail or COM
pass and with only two oars-seven of Us
we were about 800 miles from the near
est land, which was the land we had sailed
from. 1t was fortunately midsummer ,
weather, and we did not suffer from cold,
but for IS days we were knocking about
on short rations and wet to the skin most !
of the time.
The only use made of the oars was to (
keep the boats head to the seas, and day
and night we kept a lookout for rescue. 1t
was OF the morning of the fourteenth day
and just as a gale was piping up that a
French brig, homeward bound, sighted
and picked us up, with Mrs. Moslier so
near dead that she gasped her last as she J
was lifted to the deck of the brig. The J
remainder of us were half starved and
thoroughly worn out, and two OF three
days more would have brought death to
half the number. We were landed at a
French port and sent on to Liverpool, and
that was the last l heard Of any of my fell
low sufferers, but the Iron Duke had adj
ventures which some of you may have read
in the public prints. Two days after W.
were sent adrift she was spoken by nm
English man -of-war. She had altered her
course and was running to the south, pre-
sumably intending to round the Horn. As
she refused to- answer signals, she was
chased for 80 miles as a suspicious charao-
ter, but outsailed the man -of-wara and got
away.
She was next seen off the Azores, and
next to the west of the Madeiras, and by
this time two English men-of-war were
after her. She finally dropped out of sight
altogether, and nothing was heard of her
for Il year. Then the Scotch ship william, |
homeward bound from Australia and COM
ing up the coast, overhauled a derelict
which had evidently been knocking about
for months. Masts were gone, bulwarks
swept away, rudder broken and the hulk
full of water. 1t was the Iron Duke, and
no human foot had trod her decks for
many weeks. She had evidently been dis.
masted In a gale, but how long her crew
hol ctnok nv her or vhothar anv ovor loft
her Is only g%uesswork. The chances are
all were swept away by the monster waves
which cleared her decks and left her water
logged. Powder was used to shatter and
sink her, and, though for several years
later the English governments sought for
traces of any of the crew who might have