New-York tribune., 1901-09-08
THE HERMIT OF CAPE W1LE1.
PATHETIC ROMANCE OF THE SEA.
F. T. BuIlen, in The Spectator.

F. T. Bullen, in The Spectator
There is one feature of Cape Malea that rarely
fails TO attract the notice of the most careless
Yoyager doubling il by day, touch of human
tragedy and pathos. belonging in point of chro-
nolosy To our own time. but in universal interest
TO all ages At the extreme pitch Of the Cape
a stupendous cliff rises sheer from the frettlrg
waves for about hundred feet. Then comes an
irregular plateau or shelf, OF perhaps two acres
in area, the mountain rising again abruptly be
hind il to a height of about two thousand feet
This plateau is apparently inaccessible. and yet
perched upon a huge boWlder in its centre a
mass of rock detached from the mountain ages
ago. is a house 1t is rudely built of wooden
fragments ingeniously fitted together. but its
outlines convey once the idea of its designer
having been an Anglo-SaXon. 1t must be firm
y built, too. for il is exposed To the full Jury OF
wind rebounding from the mountain face and
the observer instinctiVey wonders why, If a
house be built that shelf, 50 terribly
exposed a position was selected. Then if he be
fortunate he will hear its story.
About twenty-five years ago there was young
sailor who. by dnt of hard work. integrity OF
character and firmness of will. reached at the
age of twenty-siX the summit Of his ambition
becoming master Of what would then BE- called
good sized steamship. some nine hundred tons
register. Upon this accession To good fortune
he married the girl of his choice. who had pa
tiently waited for him since as boy ana Slri
sweo thearts they parted on his first going TO sea
And with rare cOmplacency his owners gave him
the inestimable privilege of carrying his young
bride to sea with him How happy he was, How
deep and all embracing his pride as, steamlng
down the grimy Thames, he explained 10 the
]
now witnessing for the first time. but which he
had made familiar To her mind by his OFT re-
peated sea stories during the few bright days
between voyages that he had been able to de-
vote TO courtship, The ship was bound to sew
eral Mediterranean ports The time being late
autumn. and consequently Jhe most ideal season
/ for a honeymoon that could possibly be imag
ined CadZ Genoa, Naples. Venice a delight
ful tour with not one weary moment wherein TO
wish for something elsei Even flying visit 10
old Rome from Naples had been possible for the
two officers. rejoicing in their happy young skip
per's joy, saw to IT that no unnecessary cares
should trouble him. and bore willing testimony
! in order that he should get as much delight out
of those hacyon days as possible, that the entire
crew were docile as could be wished, devoted
ia their bright mander and his beautiful
wife
Then at Venice came orders to proceed to
GalatZ and load wheat for home. Great was
the elee OF the girl-wife. She would see Con
stantinople and the Danube. Life would hardly
be long enough to recount all the wonders OF
this most wonderful of wedding trips. And they
sailed. with hearts oVerbrmmng with JOY as
the blue sky above them seemed WeillnS over
with sunlight Wind and weather favored
them. nothing occurred to east shadow over
their happiness until, nearing Cape Malea at
that fatal hour of the morning, just before
dawn when more collisions occur than at any
OF her time they run into by a laundering
GreeI, steamer coming the other way, and cut
down amidships TO the waters edge. To their
peaceful sleep or quiet appreciation of the
nights silvern splendors succeeded the over
wheIming flood. the hiss and roar of escaping
steam the suffocating embrace of death. In
that dread fight for life all perished but one
he so lately the happiest of men-the skipper.
Instinctively clinging to piece of wreckage,
he had been washed ashore under Cape Maea
at the ebbing of the scanty tide and his strong
phvsique reasserting itself, enabled him to
climb those rugged battements and reach the
plateau. Here he was found gazing seaward
by some goatherds, who. in search of their nim-
BILE footed flocks, had wandered down the pre-
cipitous side of the mountain. They endeav-
ored to persuade him to come with them back
to the world. but in vain: He would live. CRATE
fully accepting some OF their poor provision, but
from that watching place he vu0Sd not 60. And