BRITISH PLUCK. (Daily Telegraph.)

Waikato Times, Volume IV, Issue 194, 7 August 1873, Page 2

BRITISH PLUCK. (Daily Telegraph.)

A pleasant and stirring " story of the sea" coraps home to us from across the Atlantic, and makes the heartless conduct of the captain and crew of the vessel by which the Northfleet was run down and left to her fate seem additionally unnatural. During the course of last November, a Cunard steamship, called the Bittavia, left Liverpool for the United States, and encountered in mid-ocean one or those ieariul gales which have made the winter of 1872-73 exceptionally formidable to the many travellers who have had occasion to pass to and fro between tha Old and New Worlds. Among the pcssengers on board the Batavia was numbered one of the best known humorists of the United States, " Mark Twain." It is to the pea of this writer that we are indebted for a touching description of the humanity displayed by the Batavia'i captain, and of the heroism with which tw« of her officers and six of her seamen swiftly responded to their gallant chief's noble request. The gale raged fearfully for two days ; after subsiding for a few hours, it burst forth again with renewed v olonce, and when at its worst brought the Batavia within sight of a water-logged barque called the Charles Ward. The waves were sweeping over the decks of the floating hulk, destined so soon to become iv deielict, as she was driven hither and thither at random, burying herself again and again from sight, and then rising to shoot forth volumes of water through the rifts m her torn, bows and dislocated timbers. Her captain and eight men were lashed to the shattered remnants of the rigging, and having been exposed for two days and nights to the wintry storm, were well nigh furnished, and half frozen to death- 'Ilia sea was running mountains high, and it could not but be obvious to the veriest land-lubber on board the Batavia that no boat could ba lowered without exposing her crew to the most imminent danger. Nevertheless, Captain John Mouland brought the Batavia " broadside up to wind and sea," and without a moment's hesitation called for volunteers to man the lifeboat. The third officer, Q-ilhes, and the fourth officer, Kyle, lost not a moment in accepting their captain's invitation, v»h - 'e six stout seamen at once sprang into the boat and evinced ready alacrity in risking their own lives to save those of their perishing brethren. "It was worth any money," says the warm-hearted American narrator, " to fee ti'flt lifeboat climb those pizzy mountains of water m a driving mist of spume- flakes, and tight its way inch by inch in the teeth of the gale. Just the mere memory of it stirs a body so that I could swing my hat and disgorge & cheer now, iT I could do it without waking the baby." The words just quoted are an excellent exemplification of that peculiar mixture of quiet mirth and earnest pathos which, a -cording to " Sam Slick," characterises the humorists of imeiicain a higher degree than those of any older country. It will be a gratification to all those whose blood it stirred at the mere recital of a deed of noblo and unselfish daring, ti learn that the lifeboat won her way to the helpless baik, and, after picking up the nine shipwrecked mariners, returned in safety to the shelter of the big ship, whioh awaited the rescuers and the rescued Little imagination ia needed to conceive the thrilling anxiety with which Captain Mouland and his sympathising passengers must have watched that dancing cockle-shell as it sunk and rose upon the troubled surface of the waters. The two officers and six seamen of the Batavia were not away from their parent ship for more thnn sixty minutes, durmg thirty of which, we are told by Mark Twain, their lives would have been dear bargains if purchased at sixpence apiece. We learn without surprise that the Batavia's passengers were so proud of her captain mid of the lifeboat crew that they "joined m a communication to the Royal Humane Society of London,detaihng thecirmimstauces, and petitioning that some notice might be taken of this gall'int achievement. It waa with a view to lotting his fellow passengers and the world at large know tbe result of tho petition that Mnrk Twain wrote to a trainntlantic contemporary, conveying tho intelligence that the Jl>Tiano Society promptly conferred its gold medal, with a ■vote of thanks upon Captain Mouland Silver me-Jiils and ii money reward, suited to their official rank, were likewise bestowed upon officers Gillies and Kyle ; and to each of the hx gallant tars were given a vote of thank* and £7 apiece in gold. It remain* for us to chronicle the notice taken by the Cunard Company of this merciful and daring act. To each of the six seamen the sum of £o was awarded j while third officer Gillies and fourtli officer Kyle were promoted at once to the rank and pay of first officers. Mr Clemmens — or, as he loves to call himself, "Mark Twain" — explains to his leaders that an instantaneous ndvanco from the rank of a third or fourth office- to that of a first officer is " a dazzling promotion to achiove with just sixty minutes of work" Tho Cunard Company, he says, would not tako Noah himielf at first till they had worked him up through all lower grades of their icrvice. It is a long established principle with the able and enterprising Scotchmen to whom belongs the noble line of red-funnelled steamera with which every Atlantic

traveller is so familiar, that so man tball command one of their ships until he hns gamed ample experience under thtir owq pyes. Many a distinguished officer of the Kdv»l Nary ha* taken & lesson in discipline mid m the management of a vessel by closely scrutinising such famous Canard captains as Lolt, i ndkins, or Shannon, and by watclvng their bearing and demeanour in the ruicUt of a heavy and sustained itorm* ou the Atlantic.