KUN DOWN.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 2163, 16 February 1875, Page 3

KUN DOWN.

(Chambers' Journal.) It was four o'clock in the afternoon— not a breath stirred tho surface of the wattr ; m io Boreas had left tho maritime scene s.i long that ie was difficult to imagine that he would over re-appear in tho character of blustering railer again ; a .vhite hot June sun burued in the cloudless sky with such a clear glow that you almost expected the still unrippled sea to simmer presently, as we steamed through the Strait of Messina. On the right, tho coait, rugged and romantic, softened gradually landwards into long, low hills, which swel|ed higher and higher, until they were lost Tv a distant horizon of sky and upland ; on the left rose l.tna, piled precipitous crag on crag from the sea to the heavens ; and from tbe summit a thin clear wreath of smoke floated ever upwards— the inoei.se burning on a Titan altar. The Cleopatra -long, fine, and graceful— parsed for a thing of beauty in duller waters and under skies more subdu .d in tone ; but her presence here seemed to be as incongruous as the intrusion of evon the holiest man, unpurified by. death, into Paradise. It seemed cruel and wanton t<> crack that lake of glass with our sharp, swift beak ; to desecrate the calm silence by the thud of our engines and fie cburniug of our screw ; todtfi'e the pure fairy-like scene with volumes of black tenacious coal smoke, aa we surged ou, relentless as the first great sorrow of life, <farkeaing aul marring what was bright ami serene. The Cleopatra was one of the B. B. Company's steamers, which had betn hired by Government as a transport, and ahe was now taking troops home to England— not a particularly romantic set of passengers ; prone, indeed, to song, laughter, and ship quoits, especially in t-mooth water, yet quiet enough now. Wherever a dozen soldiers are gathered together, one is sure to be tiivating his accoutrements, so there were several men languidly dabbling inpipe-cky and blacking; but with those exceptions— necessary sacrifices to Average, that Destiny of tbe moderns — tbe occupxnts of the forward part of the vessel lay about the deck, or lounged over the bulwarks, who'o or semi-somnolent, tbe most wakeful puffiug their pipes iv the dreamy way iv wbicu tobacco ia mostly to be enjoyed; nor did tho crew of the steamer seem any more lively than the soldiers ; even the lookout man give one tho impression of hivingbut one eye open, and that turned inwards, for the jurposo of metaphysical self-communing. If all hands had been served with an opium pill apiece half an hour previously, they could hardly have been more drowsy. An awning was spread over the quarter-dtck, aud the oißccrs under it were not so much overcome as those who wero exposed to the fierce rays of the sun, but thoy, too, were remarkably silent. Ono or two were reading, one writing ; the surgeon, quartermaster, and a coup'.e of captains played a rubber on a horse-rug spread on the deck ; but the majority lounged about, watching the panorama change as we glided, musing. There is a popular air wbich wus jingliDg in more than one head that afternoon -, tho last notes heard in Enp-'and ; the tuue to which they had stepped with firm, springy, mensured tread, but slo ■ ly throbbing htarfcs, from the stition to the quay : — Then be the wea' her what it may — Windy, wet, or stormy— I always will return again To the girl I left behind mc. Poor young Spooner, he is humming that tune inwardly, and tho heart-wounds b'ced a bit. again; yet it is several months since he saw her marriage with another announced in a stale copy of lhe 'limes, and he thought thut ho had got ovor all care for the jilt. But now that he is almost llyiug back to the land that holds her, ho cauuot help remembering her tears, her choking sobs, her vows of eternal constancy— her own undoubting confidence.

Lounging near him, gazing down upon the water which he docs cot see, sucking mechanically at a monster cigar which ho does not taste, is Trevyllian, tho senior captain. He, too, sees tho large loving eyes, the transparent complexion, tho slight "form of "tho girl ho left behind him." Alas ! she has gone on a longer journey than his, and never, never can she." return " to him.

Johnstone, too, is lost in anxious reverie. Tho young wife whom the exigencies of tho service forced him to leave behind was protty, g.y, fond of admiration, not overwise—an affection-»te little thing, but volatile, impressionable. Her letters had of late altered sadly from the loving though incoherent epistles which had at first cheered him on his bereaved way ; if they had at the same time shewed signs cf a strengthening intellect, this would not have beon of so much importance, but they were as silly as ever, only lacking the genuine feeliDg which redeemed the earlier ones.

I always will return again To the girl I left behind me ; and let us hope sho will stop for me. The skipper nnd Government agent were below, studying a chart of the strait -, there wero only two persons on deck who appeared to be thoroughly wide awake, and these were the men at the wheel, who stood ready, hand on spoke, watching eye on compass, check ing the ship if sho swerved but a hairbreadth from her course. I ought, perhaps, to ex cept tho colonel, who sat on a camp-stool sketching an outline of Etna on the ba>*k of a letter, nn occupation to which, however, he brought the smallest amount of exert on compatible with the production of the faintest work of art. Suddenly, as if a spell had been broken, hero wns a Ptir in the vessel, a confused murmur, a rushing to and fro, and then ennie a cry 'rom forward : ■• Port, port, hard a port!" And the wheal spun round in the strong hands of tho steersmen ; while those win seized tho sh'ouds, and sprang on the bulwarks, could sco a two masted felucca floating in our path ; another second, and we touched her right amidships. There was no jerk, no arrest of our cjurse ; the frail ftlucca appeared to melt before us like s low opnos'.ng water. The masts fell gracefully away, aud then a crusb-d and tingled wreck ila-.h'vd p;st our starboard quarter. Three men aud a boy were clinging to it, shrieking

loudly ; a fifth was struggling iv the water, cither unable to Bwim, entangled in a rope, or injurtd by a blow ; ho bad much ado to keep his head abovo the surfac*?, and he cried to the Virgiu just as a child iv a like quandary mighfc to its mother. He wai bare'y three a. cone's alongside of us, bat tliat short space of time sufficed tbe colonel to snatch a life-buoy, which lay near the wheel, and scud ie it spinning like a quoit well forward of iho drowning man. It was the best snap shot I ever saw made in my life, for the circular yc-How contrivance ciroe down right over the poor fellow's head, and wo just had the satisfa tion to ccc bis hands grasp it before he was only a speck in the distance ; for the ship rushed on like an arrow, and had left her victims aquarter of a mile in her wake before her course cond be arrtsted or altered. Then we circled very slowly back, as it appeared even to os ; to the unfortunate fishermen the minutes must have been, hours. Two or tbrce of the officers, who had glisses on deck with them, reported progress to the rest.

" She is ifeeper in tbe water. The men have left her. They can all swim, thank God ! She is sinking ; there she goes. By heaven, she has drawn one of thorn down with her ! No, all right ; there he is again." We got up with tbem afc last ; a boat was lowered presently, and picked them all np safely; and the moment they were hauled in, they 1-ft off praying, and began swearing, tearing their hair, and gesticulating vehemeutly. They became tveu more violent when the boat's crew commenced pulling towards the Stcilim shore, and demanded in loud tones, and with most unpleasant imprecations, to be taken on to Messina.

" I say, captain," said the colanel to the skipper, *• surely the least we can do is to land the poor devils where they wish ; besides, I sho ild like to maSte up a little purse for them."

11 Impossible, colone'," replied the other, shaking his head ; " I must gefc through the strait by daylight, and cannot go out of my ! course to touch at Messina. We are losiDg valuable time es ifc i. , and I do not half like it ; it will be a near thing." "And so, after having ron them down, destroyed their property, reduced them to beggary, taken from them the means of vetting a livelihood, we are about to set theln ashore on a wild, perhaps inhospitable coast, far from their homes, without clothes, food or money, half-drowned. It is a cruel and wicked thing, done without my consent." The constitution of a troop-sbip is of a moat singular nature ; when I say singular, 1 rae in triple, for thtre are three potentates on board, neither of whom acknowledges tho authority of the other two. There is the officer in command of the troops', who, of course, is only a passenger ; but a passenger with some eight hundred armed men to dp his bidding, who could simply eat up captain and crew, and not get a good mouthful apiece, is apt to consider himself the most important personage in the little floating kingdom. Then there is tho normal and proper captaiu of the vessel, the servant of the company to which it belongs, and who is let out wi.ii it as much as the driver is with a hired coach ; he, of coor-e, sets his back up if the commanding officer tries to take bold of tbe reins. The third potentate is the Government agent, gonerally a lieutenant in. the navy, appointed to -to -to— what on* earth, or on water rather, his functions are, I do not know ; anyhow,, he has a good deal of authority, and can make himself so disagreeable if he chooses that a wise skipper keeps on friendly terms with bim.

Tho captain of the Cleopatra was a man quite fit to be trusted with the care of hia own interests in this shrewd planet, and he and the G. A. pulled together in capital time, so that when the indignant colonel appealed to the latter to signal the boat to return, that we might at all events discover how to send some future aid to the Sicilian fishermen, he only endorsed the skipper'i opinion about the importance of getting through the etiaifc before nightfall, and the impossibility of taking tbe unfortunates into Me-sina. Iti due timo the boat returned, was hoised, ani we once moro rushed forward on our selfish, cowardly way. The passengers were for seme time sorry arid indignant j but preaeniy dinner, delayed far beyoud the customary hour, made astronf diversion ; ami after the meal, we passed between tfcylla and Cbarybdis, and had to rub up our classical memories.

Then the glorious Mediterranean sunset, of which neither pen nor paint brush can convey auy idoi to one who has not witnessed it, attracted our attention; our indignation at an injustice which did not aff.ct our personal comfort soon grew very faint ; and as we dai'y approached nearer aud nearer to our own homes, we forgot the hearths which we had desolated in our impatient course ; aud the matter, 1 believe, was never reported, and no inquiry made. How did the accident happen ? Tho unfortunate fishermen, lying bedimed in the strait, were taking their siesta ; onr tank-out man was asleep, or was engage! ia lightiog his pipe, or cut'ig up tobacco, or some other nautical diversion. I hope th.it he was punished in some- way. Ido not know what cun be done to offending sailors in the merchant service ; it would rase my mind to thuik that that fellow had had a "couple of dozen, but I fear tbat nothing of toe sort befel bim.

I wish, tco, that the.p*cket of the skipper had beeu somewhat mulcted, not being able to imagine such rery grass negligence and carelessness, unless the discipline of the ship whs habitually Jax ; but this idea mu«t be unjust. At any rate, the canny captain got off s ot free ; hi-* true reason for putting the slip wrecked sailors on shore at oace, in tead of taking them on bmrd as they desired, being, tbat he wishe I to prevent their discovering tho name of the vessel which had run them down, and recovering damges from the company ; aod in tliis, I regret to say, he was successful— the unfortunates never g>t a farthing. I wonder whether these" nc:ilents " are of common occur, ence? whether man* small, insignificant craft are annually smashed by our sharp, swift monsters of the deep ? whether Britannia, in the process of rujmi? the waves, often strike* her pen through lv f_era nnd feluccas ? ani if she «loes, whether the crews are alwa.. a res-cue-1 from drowning ?