Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1911-06-30
WHEN HIS SHIP GOES DOWN.
A Tragedy For Which the Sea Captain
Pays the Utmost Penalty.

Doctors mistakes, many of them at
any rate, are buried in the ground,
says writer in Munsey's. Those
made by lawyers are paid for by their
clients. But the mistakes made by
sea captains, no matter what they
may cost others, are in the end set
lied by the captains themselves. The
long roll of suicides tells the story.
There is never a voyage without its
sudden emergency, demanding pres
ence of mind, cool judgment and
skill. Let these qualities fail the mas
ter mariner in his time Of need and
no matter what might have been the
strain on body and brain his profess
sional career is at an end.
There was Capt. Frederick Watkins,
who commanded the City of Paris
when the old Inman liner came stag
gering to port with the Atlantic waves
swashing about her holds and surg
ing against her bulkheads, the result
OF a fog shrouded impact with an
iceberg. The liner was thronged with
passengers, the unforeseen danger
came near sending her and her
thousand souls to the bottom, but
the energy, resourcefulness and skill
of her commander brought her safe
TO port, a deed to be long remember
ed.
Ii was remembered up to a few
years ago, when a slight miscalcula-
ton on the part Of Capt. Watkins sent
his vessel upon the Manacle rocks on
the Cornish coast Now you may
search all of the obscure places of the
earth and you may not locate him.
There was the Primes Victoria
Luise of the Hamburg g-American Line,
which drove hard upon the coral
beach at Port Royal in the island OF
Jamaica. The vessel was thronged
with tourists making a jaunt to the
West Indies. Fortunately the sea was
calm and there was no difficulty In
getting passengers ashore. When the
last had been safely landed the cap
tain went to his stateroom and put a
bullet through his brain.
The pitiable part Of II all was that
he had no need TO. 1t was not the
brain he shattered that was at fault,
but the Kingston earthquake, which
had destroyed the lighthouse. Crop
ing for this same lighthouse few
days later came another vessel of the
same line. the Prinz Waldemar. Her
wreck lies few hundred feet dis
tant from that of her consort, mute
testimony to the skill of the naviga-
tors Had the lighthouse been there
they would have found the passage;
failing 1t they found destruction.
There will be many to recall the
tragedy of the Oder, North German
Lloyd steamer. which was on her way
TO her home port in Bremen when
she struck on the island of Socotra at
the entrance to the Red Sea. 1t was
with extreme difficulty that the pas
sengers We're rescued. After all had
been got ashore Capt. Pfeiffer shot
himself. The ship was lost.
Capt Griffith of the Mohegan stood
on the bridge of his fast sinking ship
until the waters, engulfed him. De-
loncle of the French liner Bourgoyne,
sunk i'm mid-Atlantic by collision
with the British steamship Cromarty-
shire, was last seen on the bridge.
with hand on whistle cord, as his yes
sci took the long dive. Won Goessel
of the Elbe went down with his ship.
standing with folded arms upon the
bridge as the vessel slowly sank.
In the disaster to the steamship Re-
public no blame was attached TO capt.
Inman Sealby. her commander. Yet
he was dropped from the service. and
now. at the age of 80. is studying ad-
miralty law at the University OF
Michigan. All his sea career had
been with the White Star Line and
for sixteen years he had commanded
its vessels.
There was one case in which a cap
tain lost his ship because Of too great
Difference to the wishes of his pas
sengerS The vessel was the Morse
King. At the time of her und0ing
she was making u cruise among the
Ionian Islands. carrying $50 tourists.
The ship was keeping course about
seven miles off the picturesque coast
Of Zante, when a deputati0n or pas
sengerS came to Capt. Wright ana
urged him to stand closer inShore
that they might better see the region
which Pyron had immortaliZed.
He nblfgingy complied. A few
hours later the Morse King was hard
aground on jutting reef. The pas