STRANGER THAN FICTION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XVIII, Issue 6099, 4 June 1881, Page 7

STRANGER THAN FICTION.

A,STARTLING STORY OF ALLEGED INHUMANITY AT SEA.

Time and again romance has recorded the ' perversity of the stereotype sea captain, who, ignoring the sufferings of his fellowbeings, has left them|i;o shift for themselves on nnprovisioned vafis or boats on the open sea, but seldom in real life is now-a-days enacted the story which a couple of castaways brought with them aboardship to this port. Their narrative is not colored by the hand of the fiction writer, nor is the cruel indifference of the captain to his men's lives exaggerated or wrought up by any tricks of the romancist, but presented as it is in all its bald details, it serves to show that the old tales of the packet ships and slavers of other dayj have their parallels in the :expcrience of those employed in the prosaic merchant service of to-day. The commander

• in question iaCaptain Carney, of the American 3 ship Charles Dennis, of Bath, Me. The 1 vessel left this port iu November, 1870, laden 5 with case oil, bound for Yokohama, Japan. r The ship reached her destination with; six . men missing, including the second mate, (but ' the details of their disappearance were never " made known, and perhaps never would be > had not some of the men deserted the vessel ' r and gained the port through other means. : Among these was a sailor named John lawt son, who arrived here last Wednesday.ori the i, ship Ophelia, now lying at the Empire ' stores)- Brooklyn, -laden' with- sugar from * Yokohama. He details the story of,' his ! voyage with Captain Carney as follows :— ' _ ..A MAN OVERBOATUK J ; "l!'t was • about the 2oth of November, 1879, that we left New. York city, bound for ' Japan. I had never sailed in the Charles Dennis before, but was acquainted with some of the crew, and they induced me to join them. Our voyage was a pleasant one, and I ,had begun to congratulate myself on having secured a good berth, when an incident occurred that changed matters considerably. Wo had been 100 day's out and were in the Southern Indian Ocean, between | the Cape of Good Hope ; and ' Australia, when a light squall blew up and one of the men, John Thomas, who was trying at the time to lead a main gallant brace, was swept overboard by a wave, and in a twinkling was some distance behind. All bands were aware of the occurrence in a few minutes, and the mate, who was standing near just then, picked ; upa life buoy and threw it out into the sea in the direction of the man overboard., We could see him plainly strnggli~sf in the, water about twenty, fathoms in "our wake, - arid I hastily mounted a mast, arid stood up in ithe rigging so as ta follow his movements in the water. The captain then came on deck, arid bustled about?;with, his spyglass.j but made no attempt to slacken the ' vessel's speed or to save the drowning man. It; was fully an hour and a-half afterwards, < and only when there was grumbling among some of the sailors, that the captain ordered to be lowered "and manned ; shut .with -BTich a sea, and so long a time elapsing, the effort of rescue was deemed fruitless by all . of us. The captain, ■ however, • insisted; and would not listen to the protest of his mate;who only saw death staring.them in the face should they make th£ attempt at rescue.; The mate said that it was now too late. j No man, no matter how good a swimmer ho might be, could have lasted above water for so long a time in the but, despite his reasoning, the captain ordered Shim, together with four of the to get into the small boat and row back to the point where theman had been washed overboard. We had drifted many miles from the spot where Thomas was last seen:, and it seemed ridiculous to search for a man who must cer'tainly have been then in the bottom, of the sea, but there was no use: trying to dissuade : 'the captain from his purpose.- He seemed to feel that he had not acted right in the first place, arid endeavoured to show an exhibition of zealousness in sending off part of the crew after the missing sailor. There was no man .on the ship who did not feel that the men who were about to leave them would never return, but of course they could. say nothing in the face of the captain's orders. After the small boat was lowered into the sea, and the men took their respective positions, the captain put the helm up, and stood to the southward for a short time,' and then hove to. - J j J : ' INHUMAN DESERTION OF SniPJIATES. ~'' The small boat then pulled away to windward until those on board the ship could see but a little speck on the \ water riding over the waves, which grew fainter and fainter until finally they lost sight of the small craft altogether. There was a lull on board the ship. Many of the boys gathered together in groups and. speculated on the actions of the captain. Some condemned the proceedings, while others did not seem to care, but only grumbled at tho delay caused by the mishap. Thus we continued, for nearly two hours, tho captain remaining in his cabin, when suddenly he came on desk and called all hands aft. It was just growing dusk, and a light squall began to brisk on us when the captain ascended an elevation ».ud addressed us. as we stood all together. He spoke of our position being in latitude about 53 degrees south arid longitude 90 degrees east, and nearly two thousand miles from the nearest point of land. According to his reasoning there was no use in waiting for the return of the crew, who by this time . had perished, and he advocated the idea of proceeding _ on the voyage without further delay. It was thus he spoke to. the men, offering arguments which they of course, were afraid to protest, against;,: besides there were many heartless rascali-' aboard, who had even less pity for their late companions, and urged the propriety of goinpr ahead. Many of the men had worked hard and were pretty tired by this time, and only too glad to be relieved from the ; labour of beating about the ocean for the missing men. They had eaten nothing for some time, and their evening, meal being in readiness hastened the majority to the conclusion that a return was the best thing that could be done under the circumstances. The captain then gave the order to sqtiarc away the yards, and in a little while the vessel proceeded on her course to the eastward; and in due time reached Yokohama. No incident worth noting occurred duripg the!trip to this latter place, but the actions of. the captain were noticeable, and it was thought he had some idea in view, which.was only too quickly learned upon the landing of the vessel at Yokohama. There he made us unload the cargo of oil, and when .we had finished got ready to sail for Doilo, a port in the Philippine Islands. As we were about to start the captain approached six of us, and swore that if any of us six returned with the .vessel he would:lash us to the ship's side and otherwise maltreat iis. Of course we dared not return. He would not even give us our back pay, but left us without a cent in Yokohama. He knew .we did not care to sail with him on account of his treatment of our companions, and he took this means of getting square. I • then fell in with the Ophelia that was just leaving Yokohama and secured a berth that brought me back to New York." - ' THE MISSIXO VESSEL. The Charles Dennis was next heard from at Iloilo, where she took on board a.valuable cargo of sugar for New York. She was next sighted by the Ophelia in.the Straits of Macassar, in the China Sea, on November 21, ISSO, and again by the Ophelia in the Alias Straits, the entrance to the China Sea eastern route, en December 2, on, the way to New York. This is the last record of the ship Charles Dennis. No one has seen or heard anything about this vessel, which is now a month behind her accustomed time. The surprise among shipping people at her delay is very great, as she is a, very fast vessel and could out-sail any craft that sails this.route. She could certainly do as j much.sailing in one day as the Ophelia could j in two, and the arrival, consequently,"6f the I Ophelia ahead of the Charles Dennis causes j anxiety for her safety. All sorts of conjectures are 'ventured among seamen on account of this being the first trip of Captain Carney .; as a commander.- Some say that he is in- j competent, to act as master of sft large a vessel, not having had sufficient experience. ' He has "acted"in' the capacity: of first and s second- ; mate on-.boardrthe Charles Dennis ] and her sister ship, the Eureka, {which is .now; lying; at the Brooklyn :: docks! The ' Charles Dennis is a handsome jyessel, • well ( built, and is 1700 tons burderiT" It is now 200 days since she left Iloilo nearly forty ] days ahead of the Ophelia, and no explanation j of the delay can be surmised by her agent, James W. Elwell, of No. 57, South-street, ± or the owners of-the cargo, Messrs. Willet ', and Hamlin, in Wall-streeet. Tho latter j parties have become apprehensive for the safety of the vessel, and have made inquiries * among shipping circles as to her possible j whereabouts.