A ROMANCE OF THE SEA.

Grey River Argus, Volume XIV, Issue 1759, 25 March 1874, Page 3

A ROMANCE OF THE SEA.

The Eden, a ship of over 500 tons .burden, sailed from London on the sth October last, bound for Valparaiso. She was loaded with one hundred and fifty tons of gunpowder, and following the statement of the crew, as given in the Liverpool Daily Post — with a general cargo, in which a quantity of matches conveniently figured. The ship was making a good passage, and all was going well until she had been twenty days out, when symptoms of insanity began to appear in the conduct of the captain. The symptoms rapidly increased in intensity, and presently manifested themselves in an exceedingly unmistakeable manner. At midnight on 7th November the crew, sleeping in their berths, were aroused by shouting and the shuffling of feet, and rushing on deck they found their captain with loaded fire-arms in his hand, gesticulating, raving, and threatening to shoot the watch. This was not a pleasant situation, to be at sea with a captain prone to turn out of his cabin in the dead of the night with loaded pistoh, and an evident recklessness as to where their contents might go. But the sailors seem to have taken the matter very coolly, and soothing the madman in their kind but clumsy manner, they induced him to turn in again, he promising like a child wio had been naughty, "to go to sleep," and not make any fresh disturbance. Half an hour had passed away, the ship meanwhile pursuing her course over the darkened sea, and the sailors all asleep again save the watch. Suddenly there was another alarm, and the crew crowded again on deck to find a sight more startling even than that of a madman armed with loaded pistols. The captain had, in accordance with his promise, gone down in his cabin and fastened the door, but so far from " going to sleep " he had set the place on fire, and, looking down through the skylight, the horrified crew could see the flames through the lurid cloud of smoke that filled the room. With one hundred and fifty tons of gunpowder in the hold, the case was plainly one that demanded instant treatment. The cabin door was shut, and so the men dashed in the skylight, and tried to get down through that. But this course was found to be impracticable, and the second mate and the carpenter volunteered to go down, break open the cabin door, and secure the madman, who still arned to the teeth, was pacing round the cabin uttering shouts of demoniac glee. The two men succeeded in breaking down the door, and the second mate, entering, was shot in the head by the captain, and retreated, followed by the carpenter. The flames were spreading with a rapidity which presently led to the discovery that the captain had carefully prepared for the fearful scene by soaking parts of the ship in paraffin oil. When the sailors learnt this, they gave up all hopes of saving the ship, aud a move was made for the boats. As, the longboat was swung round ready to drop from the davits, the infuriated captain, having now added a bayonet to his armoury, appeared on the deck, and seeing the preparations for escape, rushed at the crew gcithered around the boat, fired at the head of one, arid stabbed another in the shoulder with the bayonet. A sailor, picking up a handspike, smote down the madman's arm, and the rest rushing upon him, he was overpowered and disarmed. The crew then got into the boat, and rowing round to the stern, implored the captain to leap over and join them. But he was not going to leave a spectacle which he had prepared with such forethought and trouble, and waving the boat away he continued to walk up and down the deck, above which the flames were beginning to leap. Should they leave him to the fate he had designed for them and gloried in for himself? He was a violent maniac, perhaps best out of the way, and, moreover, the gentle wind that drove the almost deserted ship through the waves was slowly but surely blowing sheets of fire over the hold in which were stored one hundred and fifty tons of gunpowder, and the convenient " quantity of matches." It was a situation in which men might well hesitate, and it seems from the story that at first the doubt was decided against the captain, and the boat's crew turned their back upon the ship, drifting " towards the line," with its feaTf ol cargo and its solitary passenger. Buton second thoughts the sailors decided to do the thing that was right and manly, at whatever cost ; and. so they pulled back, got the raving madman. safely into the boat, and rowed away in time to view from a safe distance the Budden going up skyward of the good ship Eden, by the explosion of one hundred and fifty tons oE gunpowder. At day^ break tho boat had the good fortune to be sighted by the Juanite, of Scarborough,

bound for Bahia, and all were got safely on board. The captain of the Eden, being still raving mad, was put in irons, where he remained for four days, after which period he "got an anchor loose," and, running to the side of the vessel, leaped overboard, and, weighted with his irons, went straight down in the sea, and was never more seen. As for the crew, they went on to Bahia, whence they were sent home in one of the Pacific Company's boats, and, arriving in Liverpool, Avere comfortably housed in the Sailors' Home.

Speaking at a Conservative banquet recently, a Rev. A. Read, of Hyde, declared that Mr Bright had onne called the working classes " the residum— the dregs of population." Mr Errjht's attention being drawn to this, he says Mr Read is a "slanderous clergyman who must know (if he is not very ignorant) that his statement is false." Mr Bright thinks the man's congregation should pray for their minister. Mr E. Chappell, the well-known music publisher, writes to a London paper saying that the truth is th .t English managers expected rather to be paid than to pay for producing a new opera, ard this was fully established in t v e vei/ case of " Fauct ;" as, after h. ving vainly endeavoured during two yf rs to persuade Mr Gye ard Mr Fam on to give that opera at Coveni Garden, I had at last to pay Mr Maplecon Ll5O to produce it at I Her Majesty's Theatre. Such wa3 its marketable value then. The horses purchased in Paris for eating fetch a mai'ket price of L 5 or L 6. This new trade increases the value of used-up horses, not diseased, by more than L 4 sterling : so that the public wealth of France is increased by about 16 millions by the admission of horseflesh into the public dietary. As Mr Delamain's race-horses were being shipped at Lyttelton on the 14th inst, one of the sailors belonging to the s s. Lady Bird had a narrow escape of being killed. The Revoke colfc was being slung on board, and although orders were given for every one to get out of the way, a sailor belonging to the steamer did not do so in time, and the cole on being lifted, struck out with hia hind feet, and caught the man a blow on the side of his face. At first it was thought the sailor was dead, as lid fell down insensible. In «i short time, however, he recovered, and with the exception of a disfigured face, he received no further hurt, and was able to' proceed on the voyage.