Richmond Planet

WIND JAMMING DAYS.

AN OLD MARINER'S TALES OF BRAVERY IN WRECK.

"On My Honor as a Sailor, I Won't Leave You,"Said the Captain to a Swede Sailor.

Bravery and Pathos In the Sea Business of the Old Days.

"Bahl" he said. "You have a lot to learn, young man. You have as much sentiment in your construction as this stick I carry. "The idea of a youth like you trying to tell me that there is as much bravery and pathos attached to seafaring now as there was when I was master of a wind jammer! You probably believe that you are correct in your statement; but, man alive, you are making a fool of yourself. Here in these days you have lifeboats big and stout enough to carry an army of men. You have steam to manipulate the falls, patent davits to swing clear. No lowering away by hands and no getting them back over the side with every pound of flesh a-pulling. New fangled guns for throwing a life line, rafts that won't go to pieces in the first chop of a sea, cork jackets that need no instruction cards, but which go on like a man's vest; pumps that are rusty for want of use, seamless plates and dozens of other inventions in these days. Where were they in the old times?

"Let me tell you something. I don't say but that there are many brave and gallant mariners in the business now. But the old shipwreck meant more in the matter of life taking than the shipwreck of today does. Did you ever hear tell of a sailor of the old school trying to get into a boat before the passengers were out of danger? You needn't say you have, because you have not. Why, the only ones who ever attempt anything of that kind are stokers and firemen and rowdies who have the impudence to call themselves sailors.

"I remember the case of a shore loafer named Holmes, who tried a shenanigan like that. He was afterward tried in the United States circuit court at Philadelphia and was convicted of manslaughter. He was one of 80 shipwrecked persons who took to the long boat, which was greatly overloaded and constantly in danger of sinking. Well, this beach rat Holmes and some more of Abraham's men threw overboard 16 passengers, two of whom were women, to lighten the boat. The court held that a sailor is bound by law, if necessary, to sacrifice his life to save the life of passengers. Furthermore the court held that while two sailors might struggle with each other for the possession of the same plank which could save but one, if a passenger were on the plank even the law of necessity would not justify the sailors in taking it from him. You do not think much of that law? Well. it is the law of God. It is also the law of duty.

"Did you ever hear of the case of Captain Nutman of the ship Aidar? He was a good sailor and a gallant master and no matter what many may think, it is possible to be both. His ship foundered. but he refused to be taken off. Do you know why he refused to be taken off? There was an injured man on board, and while the old timbers were going to pieces under his very feet he knelt down and said to the man: "'I won't leave you, lad. On my honor as a sailor I won't.' "On his honor as a sailor he would not leave him. Have you ever heard of anything more touchingly honest? Captain Nutman went down with his ship, but managed to hold on to his man and to get to the bottom of an upturned boat, from which they were afterward rescued. It was a month or so after that when a townsman asked Captain Nutman what the name of the rescued man was. "'Why, I never inquired,' he said. 'He just signed articles in the regular way. I may have heard it then, but I do not know it now. He was a Swede, that's all I know of him.' The friend shook his head in astonishment as he inquired: "'What! A Swede? Take all that chance for a Swede?' "Why. yes. even for a Swede. I didn't care whether he was a Swede or a Laplander. He was a good sailor and would have done the same for me had things been reversed."

"Nor is that all, young man. There was a shipwreck about 1845, but the name of the craft has escaped my memory. The crew took to one boat, which was overcrowded. A noble Newfoundland, the pet of the ship, swam alongside the boat. All the men turned their eyes sadly upon him, but they knew there was no room for him in that boat. The captain loved that dog better than he loved his life, and he stood up in the boat as he took off his coat and said: "'I cannot see him die like this. Give him my place in the boat. I can hold on to the plank, and he cannot.' "There was a chorus of dissent, and one of the sailors struck the brute over the head with the blade of an oar, while another pulled his sheath knife. "'Don't hurt him,' said the captain kindly, but firmly. "'Order him away, then,'growled several of the men. 'He will swamp us all' "The captain hesitated a minute, waved his arm in the air and said, 'Back, Prince!' and the faithful brute swam back in the direction in which the vessel had disappeared beneath the surface. Where do you find such pathos in the sea business now? Give me the old sailor every time,"

And he hobbled up Beaver street as the young mariner dived into William street.