THE STOKER'S TALE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VII, Issue 27, 31 January 1872, Page 2

THE STOKER'S TALE.

The Spectator, undrr this heading, publishes a summary of what it calls a " wonderfully vivid and pathetic narrative of the Megzera stoker's tale, as related by a very able correspondent of the Daily News." The article concludes as follows : — ■ The stoker, who tells the tale, and who has a marvellous power of illustration, here adds a simile to paint more clearly tbe condition of the ship, which strikes us as one of the most graphic and frightfolly vivid we ever met with : "^1 once knew a chap so bad in consumption that he was spitting himself bodily away as he walked. Blessed if the Megaera waru't, after a fashion, spitting herself away as she steamed. The suction of the pumps was like the poor fellow's cough; it fetched pieces of the rotten girders up the pumps, and so out into the sea. But the fragments of her pretty well choked the pumps at last, for the Old Man found them obstructed with a lot of old iron that had not gone up the spout. The captain had no sooner seen with his own eyes the state of things thus described than he coudemued the ship, aud told the crew after reading the morning piayers (for it was Sunday), that the ship's bottom was really dropping out, that the ship might go down at any -moment, and that they must prepare to abandon her. On the afternoon of the 19th June, Captain

Thrupp, (hen at St. Paul's (for which he had ruu directly he discovered the leak) determined to try to run her over the bar and on Bhore. " The boats could not have lived over the bar," says the stoker, and, besides being many of them as old and crazy as the ship, were not capable ol holding more than two-thirds of those on hoard. So the order was given that all hands — except the stokers and engineers necessary to manage the engines aud keep ' : a full head on" — should go on deck, that, in case the ship should " break her back " on the bar, as was expected, ihe crew might have a chance for their lives. We must give the rest of the story in a very few words of the report : — "Half the crew were on the topgallant Oik'ale, half afi, every man ready for a spring if she should break her back. Between the rollers and the sharks, I fear it would have gone hard with them. ' Where was I •? ' Oh, below, for somebody had to keep the steam on. The stokers were forced to remain below. At least it waru't altogether force, but duty, sir, for we never thought to grumble, although we never thought to see the deck again. Orders were to get on a strong bead of steam. The glands were leaking, and I thought every minute the steampipe would sro. — ' Hadn't we got souls to be saved like the rest?' struck in the silent member. — ' They never so much as asked us to drink, but stuck us in (he dangerousest place in the whole ship and left us there to take our chance. My hair, I know, was a standing straight on end.' — 4 Why, don't own that you funked it, old chap,' said the other, and then, turning to the writer, continued, 'But it was an anxious moment. We talked down there about things sailors don't often talk about. The engineer contended that as we were down below on duty, and for the common good, we should be pretty sure of heaven if the burst-up should come. Then, as we neared the bar, we shook hands and parted, each man turning his face to the wall. She cleared the bar, and took the »round beautiful. She went on the rocks as smooth and easy as if she had been an empty egg-shell. If she had been a sound, strong ship, her mast would have gone by the board with the shock, but she was so rotten that there was do shock, and tho rocks came up through her as if her rottom had been of pie-crust.' "