The Spokane press. [volume] (Spokane, Wash.) 1902-1939, 1907-10-10
BYf124lfT ALLkE ROZkOLX

"They made a deckband out of
me. | wouldn't have minded the
job at all but for the mate. The
crew were afraid of him as death.
His name was Jim Burke; he was
a big lrishman ana ne made that
ship hell. He nearly killed a
man the first night | was on deck,
and I've got some of his marks on
me yet.
"All this time | didn't forget that
gold below. But | couldn't make
any sense Of the mystery till | saw
the passengers we had
There were four of them. Three
| spotted at once as from Pretoria.
| Two OF them were native Beers,
am sure, but the third looked Ike
some sort Of German. Besides these
fellows. there was a middle-aged
/ Englishman that looked like a mis-
sionary, and | heard something Of
another man who never showed
himself. but I didn't pay any atten-
ton to any one but the Beers
THE boat was the worst old
scow | ever saw. Twelve knots
was about her speed We always
expected the propeller to drop off,
and she rolled like an empty bar
rel in the slightest sea.
ut was the sixth day from port,
and | reckOned that we must be
getting pretty well through the Mo.
zambique channel, when it came on
cloudy in the evening. and when
came on deck it was dark as pitch
and raining hard. The big oily roll
ers hoisted her so that the screw
was racing half the time, and every
little while she'd take 1t green with
an awful crash.
The mate was en- the bridge and
it wasn't long before We found out
| that he was drunk, and he mast
have had bottle up there with
him. for he kept getting drunken
A little before six bells | heard a
| yell and fornd that he'd pitched
the helmsman clear of the bridge
and taken the wheel himself That
part of the channel is full OF reefs
and islands, and straight ahead the
| breakers sounded, and he appear
ed to be running her dead on them.
Three or four of the men made
a rush to take the wheel away from
him, and some one went down TO
| call the captain. But before the mu.
| tineers were half way up the iron
ladder, the mate had HIS pistol out
and shot the top man through the
head, and he knocked down the
| rest as he fell. The captain came
on deck, half-dressed and looking
wild, but he was hardly up when
the mate gave whonp, rang for
| full speed ahead and ran her square
on the reef
"She struck with bang that
| seemed to smash everything on
board, and next minute big roller
picked her up and lifted her over
| the reef and set her down hard.
with another terrific bump.
"Still there didn't seem to be
much danger Of her breaking up
right away, and we settled down
after awhile to wait for daylight.
when the light came back me
saw that we were up against a
long. barren island, about half a
mile across, l should think, with
one rocky hill and no trees, no ma
tives, nor anything. We were
stuck on a bunch OF roofs nearly
mile from shore. and we were
half full of water Two of the men
were missing. and We never saw
any more of the captain. The mate,
who had been knocked off the
bridge, was lying groaning against
the deckhouse, but nobody paid any
attention to him.
I'VE got one Of the starboard
boats into the water with six men
in it, and it was smashed and
swamped against the side before
it was fairly affoat. We only fish
ed out one of the crew. l got into
| the second boat myself, and we
managed to fend off from the ship
and got on pretty we'll till we came
close to the shore. 1t was a bad
landing place when there was any
sea running, but we tried it, and
piled her all up in the surf. got
tossed on shore somehow with a
| DleeOlnS crack Ill my Hedu anu
most of the skin scraped off my
arms and legs. I looked for the
rest of the boats crew, but none
of them came ashore alive.
SIN about half an hour | saw
them put another boat overheard,
but this one shared the fate of the
first, and l don't think anybody
was saved.
About noon | saw another boat
skimming around the corner of the
island with a sail set, and four or
five men in her. | tried to signal
her, but she went out Of sight, and
that was the last | saw of any of
the people of the Clara McClay.
(To be continued)