The Dillon herald. [volume] (Dillon, S.C.) 1894-????, 1911-08-24
FIFTEEN YEARS ON THE SEAS.
First Voyage of All Was Most Ad-
yenturOuS

First Voyage OF All Was Most Ad-
venturOus.
News and Courier.
After fifteen years at sea, which
began in voyage of two years
and half when he was but IA
years of age, w. l.. Rosetter is now
second mate on the Californian, one
Of the best freight steamers of
the great Leylands Line and one of
the largest and most modern ships
that comes into this port For a
boy of IA years that first voyage
OF over two years on the schooner
Genista, with a mixed crew of blacks
and whites, with troubles from the
Boxers in Chinese ports, racing
with death from the black plague of
India, scorched by the Equatorial
sun and frozen in Northern gales,
must have been trying experience.
could take a youth through such
trying scenes as the young English
man experienced on his first voy-
age and leave him, as t did Mate
Rosetter, with a strong desire to be
off on a second voyage as soon as
he had paid a brief visit to his
home.
Ran Away to Sea-
Young Rosetter ran away from
home when he was but IA years
old. He Joined the crew of the
Ia to get a part cargo of Indian
goods and ship about two hundred
coolies to Trinidad and the West In
dies. The time Of the passage was
eighty-five days. After battling
with the North Atlantic winds dol
drums, drade winds and Cape gales,
the Genista entered the port of
Calcutta. Discharging a cargo Of
fine salt, the vessel was stripped
and prepared for the reception of
the coolies which were held in
waiting in the Garden Reach up
the Hoogli River.
Hoogli River they were in the midst
of the plague that curses India,
and that one could not go ashore
two hundred yards without meeting
several corpses being taken off for
interment. A white and colored
physician were present to examine
each coolie taken aboard. The car
go consisted of rice; dalls, a kind
OF yellow split pea; ghee, which is
butter; and a considerable quantity
of brass plates. During the passage
and every member of the crew
Coolies Wanted to Pray.
The weather was bad and the
sailors had a very hard time to
keep the coolies below deck. They
. insisted on coming on deck and
raging. At Trinidad a large num-
n Of the coolies were put off,
Aere they were left to work out
1eir own salvation, as it were,
IN the sugar plantations under the
. lash of the merciless task masters.
The next stop was at Georgetown,
Demarrara, the centre of the su-
gar plantations of the West Indies.
Here the rest of the coolies were
put out and the rice, dali and ghee
discharged.
The Genista, after being thorough
ly fumigated, proceeded to New
York. In the harbor channel she
had the misfortune to run aground.
1t was Christmas Eve in the year
1883. The weather was bitterly
cold and the ship was literally cas-
ed in ice. After everybody had en-
'oyed Christmas and the celebra-
'ons were all over some tugs came
1t and pulled the Genista off the
I'D bar. She then proceeded to
1g Island and began loading case
for Shanghai, China.
Trouble with the Boxers.
With the oil cargo aboard the
schooner put out to sea once more.
She had not proceeded far when
the mixed crew agreed to disagree
and the black men and the white
men began fighting. After the
fight things went well until the
Genista entered the Macossa
Straits. Here she struggled in
calm and in storm for seven weeks.
One week the vessel crossed the
Equator seven times. Eventually
the straits were cleared and the
vessel sailed the "Pomice Sea-"
thence into the mouth of the.
Yangtse Kiang River.
The Boxer troubles were on and
the cargo was unloaded at a great
peril to every sailor OH board, for
the Boxers threatened to set fire to
the oil. Rumors were abroad to the
effect that a gang of Boxer rioters
were near at hand and the vessel
moved off from shore The fol-
lowing morning, however, it was
surrounded by Chinese junks, all
armed. The men aboard the Gen
sta dared not hoist signals for aid
from the British gunboat for fear
of being fired upon by the rioters.
When everything and everybody
was in the deepest dilemma two
gunboats appeared and the junks
disappeared. A few days later the
crew of the Genista and the crew OF
another ship joined forces and pro-
ceeded to a village on the river,
where the sailors and the Chinese
rioters got into a serious mix-up.
Three men of the Genista were kill