Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1911-09-08
THE SHIP CAPTAIN.
His Life Pays the Penalty If His
Vessel Be Wrecked.

Vessel Be Wrecked.
For this is the law without excuse
For all OF the lords of the sea-
That each must hold his ship from harm.
Whatever the odds may be.
There are many tragedies OF the sea
that the world knows very little about.
or, knowing, very soon forgets- These
are the tragedies of the men whose
lives have been spent in the hard and
exacting service which the sea de-
mands, whose long years of toll and
zeal and skill have brought the high
responsibilities Of command and whose
careers have been cut short by the
TOR OF a minute.
The old rubric that those who never
make mistakes have had few oppor-
tunities for making them does not ap-
ply here. There is never a voyage that
does not have its possibility Of error.
and in many Of them arise the sudden
emergencies which bring the acid test
of presence Of mind, cool judgment.
expert seamanship and skill, Let these
qualities fail the master mariner in his
time of need. and. no matter what
might have been the stress of body or
brain, or Of both, his professional ca
reer is at an end, if the lapse involves
disaster to his ship.
There is that veteran mariner Cap
tain Frederick Watkins. He it was
who commanded the City Of Paris
when the old Inman liner came stag
gering to port with the Atlantic waves
smashing about her hold and surging
against her bulkheads, the result of
fog shrouded impact with an iceberg.
The liner was thronged with passen-
gers. The unforeseen danger came near
to sending her and her thousand souls
to the bottom. but the energy. re-
sourcefulness and skill of her COM
mander brought her safe to port-a
deed to be long remembered.
1t was remembered up TO a few
years ago, when a slight miscalcula-
ton on the part of Captain 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 PrinZessins Victoria
Luise of the Hamburg-American line,
which drove hard upon the coral beach
at Port Royal, in the island or ia
maica. The vessel was thronged with
tourists. making u 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 captain went |
to his stateroom and put a bullet |
through his brain.
L. The pitiable part OF 1t 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.
Captain Griffith of the Mohegan |
stood on the bridge of his fast sinking |
ship until the waters engulfed him. |
Deloncle OF the French liner ,Bour- |
gogne. sunk in mid-AtIantic by a col !
lision with the British steamship Gro |
martyshire. was last seen on the |
bridge. with hand on whistle cord. as
his vessel 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.
One of the saddest tragedies OF the |
sea was the wreck of the British |
steamship Waiearapa. which went !
ashore on Great Barrier island while |
on a voyage from Sydney to New Tea |
land. AS the vessel neared the en- |
trance to the harbor of Auckland a |
thick fog shut in. Captain Mcintosh,
who commanded her, had been many |
years in the service OF the line and |
was reputed to be very careful and |
capable. but while the steamer was
cropping her way through the mist 1t
was noted that he was exceedingly |
nervous and depressed.
When night came the fog was so
thick that the lookouts could not see
half ships length ahead. A few min
utes past midnight there was a sud
den crash, which laid the steamship
almost on her beam ends. disabling all
of the boats on the careered side. Cap
tain Mcintosh was on the bridge at l
the time. "A great wound which had
been torn in the vessels side showed
the extent OF the disaster. AS soon
as he realized that his ship must be-
come a total loss the captain strobe
to the end of the bridge and. exc1atm-
ing This Is the last watchP' plunged
overheard TO his death.-Walter Scott
Mertwether in Munsey's Magazine.