The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1906-05-20

Though acrld with salt, was really pu-
trid, with one plateful of preserved
soup four times I'm seven monthsl
was but a boy, but can [ ever forget
my task OF leading these scurvy- strick-
en- men about the decks at night (for
they were then quite blind). putting
the ropes In their hands and hearing
their means as the pulling racked their
tortured bones, This is sea tragedy
Then there was the coffin ship. meant
to sink somewhere out OF reach Of pry-
Ing eyes heavily insured and In COM
mand Of some reckless brute who val
ued not his own life at row of pins
and the lives OF his crew at much less.
The risks OF a sailing vessel like this
apart altogether from the secret In
tention of sinking her at the first fav-
orable opportunity. were very great
for the usual concomitants of such a
voyage were rotten gear, bad food
filthy, almost unmentiouably bad ac--
commodation, and plenty OF drink In
addition TO all these It was usually the
case that there was no chronometer, or
useless one, which was worse. while
reliable charts md other usual aids TO
navigation were absent or In such
condition as to be unuseable, Life on
board such vessel as this was n long
tragedy, no CLEAN OF light illumined
the sordid gloom, and when the end
came IT Is perhaps not too much to
say, that those few terrible moments
In which the weary soul parted from
the worn body were welcome. because
they led straight to rest.
A Heritage of Brutality.
But we are stiIl far from the bottom OF
the scale. Lower even than these occa-
sioraI vessels sent to sea 10 sink we're
those whose owners were poor and gen
erally allied 10 the master or skipper and
ties. It Is hardly necessary to say that
these vessels were sailed cheaply. be-
cause that condition is obvious. but this
raging desire for economy led to some
vessels were chiefly boys ond young men
who were taken as apprentices to avoid
paying them wages, and their condition
can only be described by ono often mis-
used word, slavery. Their lives were
quito at the mercy Of the skipper and
mate. men who, while undoubtedly hon
tthere Is n difference between q good sen
man and good navigator, though IL ls
difficult 10 explain TO lands folO were as
undoubtedly drunken, merciless brutes TO
whom cruelty towards those In their
power was the only method OF exercising
that power with which they were sc-
that they were law and God In blue wa
ter and unhappily they behaved as II
that were true. Sadly enough, as the
beaten. starved. oyerworked apprentice
grew up In spite OF his treatment 10 be
n man and took his place as an able sea-
man in the fo'o'slc until he. too could
rise to the quarterback, he practlccd the
same brutality upon his fcllows only n
step beneath him, as he had been sub
jected TO. The result was that the
wrctchcd lads were between two fires
being savaeely beaten on deck and no less
savagely Ill-treated below 80 that to
their normal condition Of body might be
1tly applied the dictum OF Isaiah. Full
OF wounds and bruises and purifying
have not been closed neither
bound up. nor mollI1cd with ointment"
or course many Of them died and were
flung overheard without the slightest In
quiry into the manner OF their death No
man cared for these luckless sons OF the
sea
Romance and Tragedy Akin.
The peculiar feature of the soa tragedy
on the grand scale which constantly re-
ours I'm the stories Of shipwrecks in the
early past nineteenth century Ia the mad
rush to the spirit room. the broaching OF
rum casks and the subsequent conver-
sion of the marines Into bowling fenda
who went down quick into the pit In a
state of madness This horrible side OF
sca tragedy Is hardly ever absent from
our carly sea fction and undoubtedly It