Imperial Valley press., 1907-09-14
HEROES OF THE SEA
CAPTAINS WHO GO DOWN TO DEATH
 wITH THEIR SHIPS.


 Tradition, which Is to say the honor code of the deep sea fraternity, de crees that in event of mortal disaster to a vessel of whatever kind, sail or steam, large or small, the master must be the last person to leave.
 From this law, unwritten though it be, no captain is exempt. So stern is 1t, so inexorable and so jealously up held, not only by those of the sea, but by landsmen, that where escape is Impossible for passengers and crew the commander of stricken ship stands rigid on the bridge until she sinks, carrying with her, 1t may be, a score or hundreds of human beings, considering his sacrifice but slight in the face of the alternate of self pres ervation at price too great for any man to pay, at the price of worldwide scorn, the averted faces of those who had formerly held him in esteem and the pain of those who had loved him as husband, father, son or brother.
 0N"bh Hhh h WllllCn DOlNl Ol the roll of those who have pershed sublimely at sea is infinitely the easier way. Many have found 1t so. And not a. small element of the dignity and the nobility which attach to the calling of the ocean is due to that exalted army of martyrs who in the heart of fearful darkness, in the wreck of elemental fury triumphant, have kept the faith unfalteringly, alone, unwatched unaid- ed-men who in dying have put up steadfast star which leads far from sordid things and ennobles the credit of mankind.
 Annals of the sea record not few instances of captains who have refused to leave their vessels even after every other human being has been saved. Love of their ships,, for which many shippers evince such affection as they bestow upon wife or child, may explain this, or pride or despair. where the master has been at fault, or-oh, ever so many reasons may be advanced.
 The captain of great liner not many years ago, whose boat had met with an accident which seemed likely to bring him before court of inquiry, was found dead in his cabin when the yes sel finally made port. He brought her in safely-and then he died. Apoplexy. they said at first. Later came a rumor that has never been satisfactorily ex- plained away to the effect that this captain died by his own hand. It Is not at all unlikely. He had been emi- nently successful. His pride could not bear up under his first great setback.
 Another case of the kind was that(of the suicide of Captain Brunswig of the beautiful cruising steamship PrinZessin Victoria Luise after he had run her on the rocks near Port Royal, in the West Indies. The invariable comment of the shipping world has been that the Ger man commander did the only thing pos Eible under the circumstances. Brun- swig would probably have lost his cer tificate, and since steamship companies as rule prefer to grow their own captains and in addition have absolute ly no use for skipper with lost ship against his name poor Brunswig's flu ture must have looked dark to him in- deed.
 It is far more pleasant to turn to the case of man who, paradoxically enough, was not captain, but who Is one now if rewards in the next world are meted out in accordance with big, brave things done on the waters of lower creation-to the case of Chief Officer Paterson of the British King He left New York in that craft one winter day in 1905, and on the banks great rending waves simply beat in her bow plates. Tons of water flowed in, and before the leak was discov- cred she was listing seriously. Captain O'Hagan led his men into the hold to shift cargo and thus right the wal lowing steamship
 Barrels, boxes, what not, were flying wild, and a case of machinery finally caught the captain against brace, crushing his leg so that splintered bones were driven out through the skin. He was carried to lifeboat made ready for launching, and Pater- son took command. From his post on the bridge he never moved. Lower and lower drove the British King, and AH. oIr