THE WRITING ON THE SLATE. Extraordinary Rescue at Sea.

Te Aroha News, Volume I, Issue 44, 5 April 1884, Page 5

THE WRITING ON THE SLATE. Extraordinary Rescue at Sea.

Mu Robert Bruce, originally descended from some branch of Scottish family of that name, was born in humble circumstances about the close of the last century at Torbay, in the South of England, and there bred up to a seafaring life. "When about thhty years of age, to wit, in the year 1828, he was first mate on a barque trading between Liverpool and St. John's, Mew Brunswick. On one of her voyages bound westward, being then some five or six weeks out, and having neared the eastern portion of the Banks of Newfoundland, the captain and mate had been on deck at noon taking an observation of the sun, after which they descended to calculate their day's work. The cabin, a small one, was immediately at the stern of the vessel, and the short stairway descending to it ran athawrtships. Immediately opposite to this stairway, just beyond a small square landing, was the mate's state-room, and from that landing there were two doors close to each other, the one opening aft into the cabin, the other fronting the stairway into the stateroom. The desk in the state-room was in the forward part of it close to the door, so that anyone sitting at it and looking over his shoulder could see into the cabin. The mate, absorbed in his calculation, which did not result as he expected, varying considerably from the dead-reckoning, had not noticed the captain's motions. When he had completed his calculations, he called out without looking round— " I make our latitude and longitude so-and-so. Can that be right ? How is yours ?" Receiving no reply, he repeated his question, glancing over his shoulder, and perceiving, as he thought, the captain busy writing on his slate. Still no answer. Thereupon he rose, and as he fronted the cabin door, the figure he had mistaken for the captain raised its head and disclosed to the astonished mate the features of an entire stranger. Bruce was no coward ; but as he met that fixed gaze looking directly at him in grave silence, and became assured that it was no one whom he had ever seen before, it was too much for him ; and, instead of stopping to question the seeming intruder,

he rushed upon deck in such evident alarn that it instantly attraoted the captain'! ttention. " Why, Mr Bruce," said the latter, " wha in the world is the matter with you ?" 11 The matter, sir? Who is that at you; desk?" '•No one that I know of." i " But there is, sir, there is a strange there." "A stranger? Why, man, you must b< dreaming. You must have seen the stewarc there, or the second mate. Who else woulc venture down without orders ?" "But, sir, ho was sitting in your arm chair, fronting the door, writing on youi slate. Then he looked up full in my face and if ever I saw a man plainly and dis tinctly in this world, I saw him." "Him? Whom?" " Heaven knows, sir ; I don't. I saw t man, and a man I'd never seen in my lift before. 1 ' "You must be going crazy, Mr Bruce. A stranger, and we nearly six weeks out !' " I know, sir ; but then I saw him." " Go down and see who it is." Bruce hesitated. "I never was a believer in ghosts," he said, "but, if the truth must be told, sir, I'd rather not face it alone. " " Come, come, man. Go down at once, and don't make a fool of yourself before the crew." "I hope you've always found me willing to do what's reasonable," Bruce replied, changing colour ; " but if it's all the same to you, sir, I'd rather we should both go down together." The captain descended the stairs, and the mate followed him. Nobody in the cabin ! They examined the state rooms. Not a soul to bo found ! " Well, Mr Bruce," said the captain, " did I not tell you you had been dreaming ?" " It's all very well to say so, sir ; but if I didn't see that man writing on your slate, may I never see my family and home again." ' ' Ah ! writing on the slate. Then it should be there still." And the captain took it up. "See here," he exclaimed; "here's something, sure enough. Is that your writing, Mr Bruce ?" The mate took the slate ; and there in plain, legible characters, stood the words, "Steer to the Nor' west." " Have you been trilling with me, sir?" added the captain in a stern manner. " On my word, as a man and as a sailor, sir," replied Bruce, " I know no more of this matter than you do. I have told you the exact truth." The captain sat down at his desk, the slate before him, in deep thought. At last, turning the slate over and pushing it towards Bruce, he said, " Write down • Steer to thenor'west.'" The mate complied ; and the captain after narrowly comparing the two handwritings, said, " Mr Bruce ; go and tell the second mate to come down here." He came, and at the captain's request he also wrote tho same words. So did the steward. So, in succession, did every man of the crew who could write at all. But not one of the various hands resembled in any degree the mysterious writing. When the crew retired the captain sat deep in thought. " Could any one have been stowed away?" at last he said. "The ship must be searched, and if I don't find -the fellow he must be a good hand at hide and seek. Order up all hands." Every nook and corner of the vessel, from stem to stern, was thoroughly searched, and that with all the eagerness of excited curiosity, for the report had gone out that a stranger had shown himself on board. But not a living soul beyond the crew and the officers was found. Returning to the cabin after their fruitless search, "Mr Bruce," said the captain, "what do you make of all this ?" " Can't tell, sir. I saw the man write: you see the writing. There must be something in it." " vVell, it would seem so. We have the wind free, and I have a great mind to keep her away andsee what -will come of it." " I surely would, sir, if 1 were in your place. It's only a few hours lost at the worst." "Well, we'll see. Goon deck and give the course nor'-west. And, Mr Bruce," he added, as the mate rose to go, "have a look out aloft, and let it be a hand you can depend on." Ki* orders were obeyed. About three o'cIock the look-out reported an iceberg nearly ahead, and, shortly after, what he thought was a vessel of some kind close to it. As they approached, the captain's glass disclosed the fact that it was a dismantled ship, apparently frozen to the ice, and with a good many human beings on it. Shortly after they hove to, and sent out boats to the relief of the sufferers. It proved to be a vessel from Quebec, bound to Liverpool, with passengers on board. She had got entangled in the ice, and finally frozen last, and had passed many weeks in a most critical situation. She was stove, her decks swept— in fact, a mere wreck ; all her provisions and almost all her water gone. Her crew and passengei's had lost all hopes of being saved, and their gratitude for the unexpected rescue was proportionately great. As one of the men who had been brought away in the third boat that had reached the wreck was ascending the ship's side the mate, catching a glimpse of his face, started back in consternation. It was the very face he had seen, three or four hours before, looking up at him. from the captain's desk. At first he tried to persuado himself that it might bo fancy ; but the more he examined the man the more sure lie became he was right. Not only the face, but the person and dress, exactly corresponded. As soon as the exhausted crew and famished passengers were cared for, and the barque on her course again, the mate called the captain aside. "It seems that was not a ghost I saw today, sir ; the man's alive ?" 1 • What do you mean ? Who's alive ?" " Why, sir, one of the passengers we have just saved is the same man I saw writing on your slate at noon. I would swear to it in a court of justice." " Upon my word, Mr Bruce," replied the captain, " this gets more and more singular. Let us go and see this man." They found him in conversation with the captain of che rescued ship. They both came forward, and expressed, in the warmest terms, their gratitude for deliverance from a horrible fate— slow- coming death by exposure and starvation. The captain replied that he had but done what he was certain they would have done for him under the same circumstances, and asked them both to step down into the cabin. Then, turning to the passenger, he said, "I hope, sir, you will not think I am trifling with you ; but I would be much obliged to you if you would write a few words on this slate." And he handed him the slate with that side up on which the mysterious writing was not. "I will do anything you ask," replied the passenger ; " but what shall I write ?" " A few words are all I want. Suppose you write ' Steer to the nor'- west.' " The passenger, evidently puzzled to make out the motive for such a request, complied, however, with a smile. The captain took up the slate and examined it closely '; then

stepping aside, so as to conceal the slate from the passenger, he turned it over, and gave it to him again with the other up. " You say this ia your handwriting ?" said he. "I need not say so," rejoined the other, looking at it, " for you saw me write it." "And this?" said the captain, turuing the slate over. The man looked first at one writing and then at the other, quite confounded. At last he said, " What is the meaning of this ? I only wrote one of these." 11 Who wrote the other?" "That's more than I can tell you, sir." "My mate here says you wrote it, sitting at this desk, at noon." The captain of the wreck and the passenger looked at each other, exchanging glances of intelligence and surprise ; and the former asked the latter, ' { Did you dream that you wrote on this slate ?" " No sir ; not that I remember," " You speak of dreaming," said the captain of the barque. •' What was the gentleman about at noon to-day ?" "Captain," rejoined the other; "the whole thing is most mysterious and extraordinary j and I had intended to speak to you about it as soon as we got a little quiet. This gentleman (pointing to the passenger), being much exhausted, fell into a heavy sleep, or what seemed such, some time be foro noon. After an hour or more, h< awoke and said to me, ' Captain, w( shall be relieved this very day. When ] asked him what reason he had for saying so he replied that he had dreamed he was or board a barque, and that she was coming tc our rescue. He described her appearance and rig ; and to our utter astonishment, when your vespel hove in sight, she corresponded exactly to his description of her. We had not put much faith in what he said ; yet still we hoped there might be somethsng in it, for drowning men, you know, will catch at straws. As it has turned out, I cannot doubt that it was all arranged in some incomprehensible way by an over-ruling so that we might bo saved. To Him be all thanks for His goodness to us." "There is not a doubt," rejoined the other captain, "that the writing on the slate, let it have come there as it may, saved all your lives. I was steering at the time considerably south of west, and I altered my course to nor'-west, and had a look out aloft, to see what would come of it But you say," he added, turning to the passenger, "that you did not dream of writing on a slate ?" "No, sir. I have no recollection whatever of doing so. I got the impression that the barque 1 saw in my dream was coming to rescue us ; but how that impression came I cannot tell. There is another thing about it," he added. "Everything here on board seoms to me quite familiar ; and yet I am sure I was never in your vessel before. It is all a puzzle to me. What did your mate see ? Thereupon Mr Bruce related to them all the circumstances before detailed. The conclusion they finally arrived at was that it was a special interposition of Providence to save them from what seemed a hopeless tate.