THE SLOCUM DISASTER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 13235, 21 July 1906, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE SLOCUM DISASTER.

CAPTAIN. MARRIES A HEROINE.

A HONEYMOON". WHILST ON BAIL. Two years ago this summer the excursion ' steamer General Slocum caught fire on her way through Hell Gate. Before she could be beached, or assistance rendered, over 900 people, mostly women and children, lost their lives either by fire or water.

It was a disaster which thrilled the world. But out of the~awful, ineffeceable horror of the time has come one of the most remarkable romances of woman's - love and loyalty and fate's inscrutable decrees.

■''". The one man whose, personality stood out strongest before the world at the burning of the. Slocum was Captain William Henry Van Schaick. He was a man nearly 70. Before the disaster he' had been a wellknown figure on New York steamers for 30 years. Strong, hardy, popular everywhere, he was deemed one of the most experienced captains on Long Island Sound. When the Slocum caught fire ho turned the boat toward North Brother Island and put ;on a full head of steam. < He was the last to leave the boat, and was at first thought to be dead or fatally injured.

The one woman whose name rang through the country as the heroine of the catastrophe was" Grace Mary Spr'att, superintendent of nurses at Lebanon Hospital, New York. At the first alarm she left for North Brother Island at the head of eight trained nurses, and took full charge of the rescue work. In recognition of her heroism the Government; : presented' her': with a, certificate of honour.

-.. . RELEASED . CXJDBR £2000 BAIL.

Captain Van - Schaick was placed under arrest as soon as he was able to leave the hospital and tried for negligence of duty: On January 27,; 1906, - a verdict was rendered holding the captain responsible for the disaster and sentencing him to ten years' imprisonment. An appeal was taken, and Captain Van Schaick released on £2000 bail until October, when the new trial will take place. j '" - • '•. :'i- And on February 19, not one month after the sentence of ten. years had been pronounced, Grace Mary Spratt became the wife of the captain' of the Slocum. Leaving her profession as trained nurse, forsaking friends, family, home, and position, this ; woman who had been acclaimed a heroine for her work went to live in an old, isolated farmhouse five miles from Amsterdam, N.Y., the bride of the man oh whom the law. laid tho blame for the destruction of over 900 lives. / -

" The Slocum horror'has left the captain a,' broken-down, memory-haunted old man. It has left the woman he married regret and pity, but not a tinge of morbidity. All her hope and energy is centred on the present and the future. And the present is a honeymoon on bail at the old white farmhouse in the Mohawk Valley. And the future the possibility of a ten-year imprisonment for her husband, and ten years of worse than widowhood for herself.

. •But ,he had not expected conviction, and. when the sentence fell he did not wish to hold or bind the woman to her 'promise. Ten years is a long time when !a man is over "60. During ■ those long days in a prison cell V death woidd stand beside him more comradely than, it had at the Slocum wheel. He did nob wish the woman he loved to share the shadow with kin?.

''"I cannot bring myself to thins it will happen, the ten years' imprisonment," his wife added gently. ?"'" He only did what he judged to be the right thing, and he is old. I hope he will be cleared and can come home to me. Bub if it must be so it will make him stronger to bear it if he knows that I am waiting for him and keeping lip the farm for the day when he will come back." . .-■■",. •

"I didn't want her to come up until we were sure, but she would come. She said I needed care and looking after, and it was her duty to come now,. not when' it might be to late. She's a wonderfully fine woman. You just ought to have, seen "her that day managing things on , the island. It was just as it an angel had come into hell and started in quick taking care of everybody's burns and making them, comfortable. I'd been in love with her for years before, but I never in all my "life loved her so well as that day when X. saw her coming toward me. And they -gave her a certificate of honour for the work she did. And they gave me ten-years." "Not yet, dear," came Mrs. ".Van's" cheery response. "It hasn't come true -yet."- ■ ■: • V- ■ ■ ' Neither has it. But the shadow, of those ten years hangs over the old white farmhouse like the gloom of a coming, storm. It shows in the captain's quiet, sad blue eyes, in the tired stoop to his shoulders and the footsteps that linger on ■ the way t'» the barn or the pasture, for no work seems quite worth while until one,is sure that one is to be in.the sunshine arid open air the next ten years and not in the shadow of the prison cell. __ It is a strange - honeymoon, .-' these few months ox peaceful happiness, a honeymoon on bail, where a woman's love and loyalty are striving to soften the fall of the sword of justice on an old man's head, an old man; who simply did what he thought was right with the means- at his command. "'I was the last to leave the boat," he says, "and I did what I considered right." .'"lt was the time when the captain needed me most, and I want him to be happy and to grow well and strong this summer anyway. And. if the other comes we will bear it together." ..:■., " ~..-.. Strong, handsome and full of the faith and love that no fear can harm, Mrs. "Van" smiled at her captain. She had saved his life back in the days at Labanon Hospital, and more, she had made that life worth", the living. '■ . And fate has given her, a certificate of honour, the symbol of heroism in the eyes of the world. ; ,"- • , ;

And for Captain Van Schaick it holds in the balance a ten years' sentence or an unending honeymoon at the old white farmhouse in the- Valley of the Mohawk with the woman lie loves. , ' Fate holds the scales and justice the. sword, but love guides the pilot wheel, and the voyage has just begun. .