Year: 1879

CAPTAIN BANS BODY WASHED ASHORE AT


SMITHS PoINT-A SUSPICIOUS WOUND WHICH


THE FISHES FAILED TO HIDE.


On the night of Friday. the 18th ult.. while the
steamer Langshaw was off Fire Island and making
good headway. there came to the first mates half
watch the whistle call of the man at the wheel.
Again and again it repeated. but for fully ave
minutes the vessel kept on her way. not soul STIR
ring to go aft and learn from the frightened wheel
that their Captain, Robert Balm. had fallen into
the water far astern. When at last the alarm was
understood the mate went promptly to the bridge.
the engines reversed and the vessel went back
over her course to paddle about for fve minutes
while her boats rowed hither and thther and
sought in vain for the abandoned skipper.
Then there q consultation and the mate
took the Langshaw back to this port to tell what
had become of her captain. This was the narrative
which found its way into the HERALD's columns on
the following day. and the many friends of the
drowned man supposed that more would he
be heard of.


Just week after that there was an old hsherm an
trudgng alongshore to his shanty Smiths Point,
fully forty miles away from Fire Island. when he
stumbled some dark mass, he believed
broken timber ut first. As it yielded ut his touch he
turned to examine it, and 10 his horror found there
half buried in. the sand. the body Of man.
1t had lain there under the for
while, and the sand and seaweed which
the surf had scattered it served to
hide from sight a loathsome mass of putrid
esh and bones. The fisherman partly uncovered it
aud that it victim of the that had been
washed ashore for the jaws of ravenous sharks had
crushed the limbs and torn the flesh from the bones.
Almost every shred of clothing had been cleaned
away and nothing remained to fix the corpse's iden
titv lint n md M Ortio of a To he
left foot. The smiths Point man hurried away to
announce the CHASTITY discovery he had made. and
word was sent tnat night to Dr. Edwards, the local
Coroner at Patchogue. On the folio wing morning
he to the beach with an undertaken and there
jury was impannelled and an inquest held
this waif of the sea. by which. of
course, only meagre results could be estab-
lished. The romans were in condition to
make medical investigation useless, but on the left
temple there . deep, broad cash. almost pene-
trating the skull, which, for time, gave occasion
tor considerable speculation. But. then, the body
the good men and true who made up the jury
agreed verdict of death from accidental drown
ing. Then the body was deposited in pine box and
carried to the little burial place at Patchogue where


THE BODY IDENTIFIED.


1t was thought that the corpse's identity was lost
forever, but reader of the HERALD along the beach
had seen an account Of Captain Bains plunge into
the sea week before and. although the location of
that occurrence very remote he conveyed his
idea to Mr.. Rose, the agent of the Coast Wrecking
Company who in turn telegraphed the finding Of the



city, to which the Langshaw belonged. MIR. John q.
Seager. the company agent at once took measures
to make an investigation and despatched MIR. Frank
Embrce to have the remains exhumcd They had
been in the ground several days when he reached
Patchogue where he was joined by the Coroner and
undertaken. dreary drive of u mile through
shingle aud pine woods brought the party to the
humble little cemetery, lying like an oasis III the
sand dunes, where under some scraggy trees repose
the dead which the waters cast upon the shore.
There pair of sturdy striplings lounging
about here who piled a shovel for the party and
brought to sight the buried pine box. The stencil
dreadful and the sight 1t revealed so CHASTITY
that only the undertaken and the COM
pany's agent dared approach it. The body had been
the prey OF the fishes. The calves OF the legs had
been eaten away, well as the upper portion OF the
thighs. One foot had been crushed of by some
water monsters jaws. The head and face ut
terly devoid of hair and the eyes gone. Alto
gether the task of identification seemed hopeless.
One circumstance aided it, though. The BODY
bulky and the chest OF unusual grth. while the
hips remarkably narrow. This and few red


dish hairs clinging to the cheek served to make it
probable that 1t was the lost Captain Balm. This
was made certainty when the teeth were revealed
Imbree unhestatngly declared that 1t was the body
of the Langshaw captain he was looking ut.


rIIE WOUNDS WERE RECEIvED.


The cut in the forehead still visible deep and
dark and sinister. The Coroner said IL might have
been inflicted with a sharp instrument. and seemed
to hint ut foul play, but when 1t brought to his
mind that the deceased had fallen of the vessel
the poop the possibility of the wound being in
hicted by blow of the screw at suggested
itself. This theory is now accepted, as Agent seager
made most searching examination of the wheel.
man. mhtc anu crcW, anu iouuu that hi ehtcrthlncu
more than an ordinary regard for the deceased.
McAlam. the wheeman, who saw him fall
overheard. urges that duty held him at
and contends that his whistle call should
have been sooner answered by the mate and
crew. As the call generally used when tho
steersman wanted his lamp replenished the others
say they believed that that all he wanted and.
being busy at the time they neglected IL.


Meantime the deceased captain wife. who resides
with her two children at South Shields has been
sent the sad tdings and arrangements have been
do tn nd ne rpl Watp
they have remained sufficiently long under ground.


Captain Balm. though mariner OF many years
experience. never able to swim. Twice before
he tell overheard. hut saved himself by his presence
of mind On account of being so corpulent he was
able to keep anoat for a long time, and some OF his
intmatcs say he would doubtless have turned on his
lack aud done this time as formerly, had lie not
been stunned by the blow which gashed his fore
head.





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