VOYAGE OF THE NEBRASKA.
TRUE HEROISM,
Those who fear that British pluck is in a fair way to become as much matter of legend as our “wooden walls,” will find comfort in the narrative of an Atlantic voyage published in the Times :— On the ICth of September the Quinn Company’s steamship Nebraska sailed from New York with mails, passengers, 80,000 bushels of wheat, 434 bales of cotton, and 58 0001b of cheese. On the 18th it came on to Wow, and by the morning the weather was terrific. It is the familiar story, with more than the usual horrors. “No words,” we are told, “ could adequately describe the' terrible force of the gale or ! tUe- «flgry I’ l i: , ■ ■ ■ . • u • hj ;i ;
character of the sea,” We believe it; but facts may assist the imagination, until we almost fancy we can realise the peril of the ship and the horrors of the situation. Sea on sea striking the vessel with" enormous force, making her quiver in every plank and thwart, starting her nails, and drawing her bolts, sweeping her deck -from stem to stern till oaken doors yielded like paper, and cabins and hold were flooded. Moreover, the cargo of wheat- always a dangerous one when 'loaded in bulk—had begun to shift, and the ship took a terrible list to port. The sea broke over the bridge, and the engine-room and stokehole were tilling fast. A clean sweep was made of everything on deck, some of the lifeboats going with the rest. Of a sudden the wind changed ; now volumes of water were shipped from the opposite quarter, and the ship became totally unmanageable. It was enough to have to deal with masses of water, where setting the pumps to work seemed like baling the ocean with a bucket. But to make matters worse, at a critical moment the heated boilers set lire to the casings around them. Such was the situation : now we turn to the men who had to face it. “The chief engineer, iu attempting to‘get the fire-hose jlong, was thrown against the after steam winch, and fractured his left arm ; another sea swept -him along the alley way between the deck-houses, and he was picked up quite inseusible. On being restored by the surgeon, he resumed his duty, although suffering great pain.” Peace has its triumphs as well as war, and John Alexander, chief engineer of the Nebraski, resuming his duty with a crushed body and a fractured arm, is fairly comparable to the Marshal Duke ‘of Magenta, keeping his saddle under his terrible wound through the day of Beaumont. But John Alexander was not the only good man on board the Nebraska. Of Captain Guard we hear that bis coolness gave confidence to all around him. When fire broke out a second time, the coal bunkers being actually iu a blaze, “ at great risk of his life he made his way forward to the fire, and having exerted himself for a few minutes came on deck almost suffocated.” His chief officer, Henry Bethel!, “seriously injured himself by falling on an axe, severely cutting his right arm, but after being dressed by the surgeon he was prompt and energetic as before.” The men showed themselves worthy of their officers. They worked steadily at getting the fire under, although the smoke was so stifling that they could only keep to the work for two or three minutes at a time, and were forced to come up to breaths at intervals. They kept at it all night, the boats that were left them being meantime got quickly ready and provisioned for the desperate resource of the run back tq New York. In the morning a schooner was sighted, and the captain was asked wlx it he meant to do, as the Nebraska seemed unseaworthy. Iu a gale that had lulled but little, with a shifted cargo, a d a ship half? gutted by fire and water, with the prospect, moreover, of recommencing the horrors of the past night, it must be owned the question was not unreasonable. The captain’s reply was that neither he qor they w ; ere to desert the steamer —a reply that, justified as it was by the sequel, may take rank with the pseudo utterances of the governors of Strasbourg, Toul, Bitche, apd every beleaguered fortress -in. North-Western France. For a moment the minds of the men trembled in the balance between the sense of self-preservation and the habit of obedience, but discipline prevailed. They did nothing to deteriorate frqm the admirable conduct of the night before, Thq weather lulled, apd thp captain's tenacity of pluck and purpose, seconded by his men’s exertions, saved the ship. . Thp sea-sick, drenched, and generally wretched passengers—the worn crew who kept sober,, steady, and alert—one and the other exerting themselves pei’severingly under the direction of severely wounded officers—is a picture of cool heroism well worth many an illustration of the glories of France in the galleries of Versailles.
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Evening Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2480, 27 January 1871, Page 2
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830VOYAGE OF THE NEBRASKA. Evening Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2480, 27 January 1871, Page 2
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