A ROMANCE OF THE SEA.

Auckland Star, Volume XXVI, Issue 266, 16 November 1885, Page 4

A ROMANCE OF THE SEA.

Reinailcaule Adventures or a Steamship Engineer. New York, October ]9.-The "World" says : The Superior Court of this city will aoon be called upon to listen to a Btory of the most pronounced Jules Verne order, and when the case of William Doherty against the Pacific Mail Steamship Company is called the plaintiff will astonish the Court by a wonderful tale of hair-breadth e°eapes after many close changes with death. The story, as told by Doherty in an affidavit already put on file, is that on May sth of last year tho plaintiff, who was in Panama, asked for and was appointed to the position ot assistant engineer on the Pacific Mail Steamship Company's eteamer Honduras, bound from that port for various stopping places down tho Wostorn South American coast. The crew was a mixed one _ Spaniards, Mexicans, and such. Among tho crew was a Portuguese known as Ramon, who, as oiler, regarded himself aa heir to tho position taken by Doherty, and hated tho nowcomer as an interloper. The steamer had only been five days from jort when Dohorty says ho overheard a conversation botwoen .Ramon and a Spanish passongor, in which it was determined that tho IS. orthorner should be dirked and thrown ovorboard. From that time Dohorty dared not sleep in his berth atnight, lost a treacherous Portuguese should thrust a dagger into his breaat. He caught sleep as he could, standing at his post, and several times he thought ho detected his foe crawling upon him in tho darkness. He says he was compelled literally to dodge for Ins life every time his enemy or enemies came near, for both Kamon and tho Spanish passenger were watching him. When he could ondurfjit no longer Dohorty appealed to Alfred Pardco, Chief Enginoer, and was greeted with a round of laughter, and was advised to jump into tho water if he did not care to remain aboard the ship He mado such provision as he could to dio fighting. He wrote several lotters to his wffo and friends", which he directed and loft aboard the ship, only to learn subsequently that thoy had been thrown overboard, and then waited with anch fortitude as he could summon for tho attack of the assassins. It camo on tho night of May 21st, when the ship lay eight miles oil tho port of San Jose do Guatemala, and Doherty was on the deckwatch. Tho night was black, and tho hunted engineer foil, that tho occasion was 'ittal for tho bloody work his foes 'had dctorininod upon. Ifo Bays hojioard a light tread near him as ho stood watching, and (lion camo tho rush of tho two murderers, Dohorty ilrow his own Itnifo and fought with desperation for life, but tho odds wero enormously against him, and when he was forced to tho vessel's side ho suddenly turned and plunged overboard to tako a faint flicker of hopo by swimming to tho Blioro. Tho wator swarmed with sharks, and Iho faint ongineor was in no condition for Huch ft long swim. What gavo him norvo and vigour was tho thought of wife) and babies away oil in New York waiting and praying for his return. He slipped out of much of his olothoc as ho drifted by the vessel's sido and then started shorowards. All night long ho alternately breasted tho long swell and floated, resting and panting on his back. Daylight came and ho was still in tho water, but tho shore, a littlo over a mile away, .gave him oncouragement, and ho was soon ablo to etagger halfunconscious up the sand beach, only to drop in a faint abovo high-water mark. It was not until noon that he awoko and looked for aid. lib took employment with a farmor, and when a measuro of his strength hail roturned hostruck out for a long trump nearly '200 miles, across tho republic to a small seaport named Livingstone, whero he worked his way homo. Then when in March last he reached Now York, it was only to find that his wife, relying on tho reports that ho had jumped ovorboaid, had married again. Ho asked for some sort of recompense from tho Paoilic Mail Steamship Companj, but was confronted with his own death certificate as proof that ho had no claim. Broken down in health by his Buffering, ho listened to tho advico of friends and began a suit for 1*30,000, claiming that when ho entered tho eorvico of tho Company ho was entitled to protection, which, when ho applied to tho Chief-En-gineer, was not given him.