Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1900-01-27
!: The Wreck Of the He|soIand.

.
Mid the shrieking gale and the binding
OF a cherries winter day,
An ocean steamship staunch and strong,
Was struggling on her way,
Seeking some friendly harbors berth,
Where safely she might ride,
Secure from the wind and the angry sea
Till the tempest should subside.
Wild were the waves, and with giant
strength,
While none could see through the flying
Fen half cables length.
But the captain old was an able man,
Who hau sailed the sea for years,
And 1t needed more than winter gale
TO cause HIM any fears.
SO he gripped the wheel with an iron
While bis mate stood by his side,
And safe TO the isle Of Newfoundland
They tried the snip To guide.
But little they knew that from the course
they had drilted miles away,
And were speeding last to an awful
doom
On the rocks of St Mary's bay.
Then came a glimpse of the breakers
white,
And a crash that stopped mems breath,
That told too well of dread shipwreck
And OF almost certain death
a shudder passed through the good ship
length,
She rushed headlonS for last wild
| on the rocks beneath her keel.
| The last hope fled from those on board
! When she struck the rocks alice
For the strongest lifeboat ever built
Could not live in such a sea.
If they prayed to God that their souls be
| saved,
Or cursed with their dying breath.
Can not be said, tor of forty lives,
Not one scapeq the hand OF death
Then came from below the vessels deck
| The awful cry of "tire.
For the crude coal oil mad burst its tanks
And the iiames leaped nigh and higher.
Can one conceive a more fearful death
| That e. r TO men befeli-
| Than pitiless sea and rocks ahead,
| And astern raging hell?
From the neighboring coast the island
| folk
on the cliffs so bleak and bare.
| Gathered in groups To view the wreck,
And the scene of wild despair,
And they prayed to God most tervently
| To help unem, by His hand,
| To save the lives of the steamers crew
| And bring them safe TO land
But, chilled to their hearts by the cold,
and the waves
| That tumbled Ger the wreck,
| They one by one gave up their lives
And Were swept from off the deck.
| And a last. of all the good SHIPS crew,
The island folk could see,
Close huddied, on the after house,
little group of three.
And, too, while watching through the
| storm
Great God could such thing be:
| They saw sailor mount the rail
| And plunge into the sea.
| They held their breath they saw him
sink
Beneath the scurrying spray,
| But they caught, at last, a glimpse Of his
| head,
And his face was turned their way.
Bravely he swan, and with mighty
Beat back the surging sea.
And kept on his course for thu barren
shore,
And the rocks where he lonsed to be.
But alas, when he reached them he
! could not find
Fen place for his hand to grip,
And then. with the last hope dead i'll his
Swan back ana reached the ship.
Through the tangled wreckage hanging
| He climbed the steamers side.
But the. effort quenched his strength :
| last spark,
And he sank to the deck ana died.
And the cruel waves, as they swept the
| wreck,
| Seemed to laugh in devilish glee,
At the drowned mems souls they had
| sent that day
| To the realms Of eternity.
1t is said that grim makes the he
| TOtS-
1t is true. though others are found
| Every day in the year 'mong the sailors
| Who are sailing the universe round.
| And was Ger done a deed more heroic
| Than by that man. struggling for lie
\ 'Gdinst the mEhticSt forces OF Nature.
| For the sake of his children ana wife?
| BEN SHAW.