"On The Bridge."

Horowhenua Chronicle, 27 May 1912, Page 4

"On The Bridge."

'"The mistakes t-liat doctors make ' arc buried in the ground. Those ' made by lawyers are paid by. their iiionto. Buf Khe mistakes of 00a captain? are paid for by themselves, and bitter is the price." So says tho writer of ail article in Mousey's on tragedies of the bridge. Se Ms wiUtt the impulse that operates in many cases compelling a captain to go down with his ship without attempting to save liimsell", and sometimes oven tq toko his own life. Thovo was tfie ease of the Urinzessin Vietor.'an Luise, of the Hani-burg-America line, which drove 011 to a coral reef at Jamaica. There was the case olvoollov6( lyohwk'io was no difficulty in getting the passengers ashore, bnt when that liad been done, the captain went into his cabin rwwl allot himself. And tho pity oi it was that lie wjis not to blame. The earthquake had destroyed the light-house guarding this particular spot. The captain of tlio North "Gorman-Lloyd steamer Ode, after losing his vessel 011 the island «f Socotra, took the same path out of lift* after he hod seen every soul safe ashore. Captain Griffith, ot the Mohogan. stood on the bridge of his ship until- the waters engulfed him. Gapttain Dcloncle, af the French liner Bourgoyne, sunk in mid-Atlan-tic by collision with the ■Cromartyshire, was last se«n 011 the bridge, with hand on whistle-cord, at, his \essel went down. Captain Von Goessel, of tho Elbe, went- down with his ship, standing with folded «ums upon tho bridge as the vessel slonl.v sank. Ilappy is the captain - who has had no history. The writer tells how years ago, when a nor- j ice Yn journalism, he approached an old tranw-Atlantic captain for sonic information about shipwrecks. Jhe old man Hooked as it he might explode. "Slhipwrce.ks!" ho roared. "What in tlnimk'i- do I know .about shipwnjeks?" It was certainly a tactless qm\stioo. Ho could tell of mo experience of sliiplocks', for if] He had btoen ablo to do so, lie would not their have been in command of a ship. Thero are men who <?ia n tell, but, as; a, rub-, they are to ;bn found on the 'bridges- | of liners. • 0 f fcfcotw who have Jiacl histories you may now lind endiier tlioir lives in obscure employment or in cottages on Long Island, or' in Bremen, Glasgow, or Liverpool—victims of the mistake of a mo'fnoiit or of an hour, which the record of years of skill and devotion would not av?vil to overcome." Those cases «iro perhaps llloi'o tiragic than tlvope of men wlio obey tradition that n captain ho 1 ose« his ship nr.ust not snrv.ive.