THREE DESERTERS FROM THE ROYAL NAVY.

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 8, Issue 28, 5 April 1907, Page 2

THREE DESERTERS FROM THE ROYAL NAVY.

The worst hard luck story in tht way of a bluejacket who deserted by making the swim from the anchor chain was that of a discontented boatswain's mate-who encountered a' pretty hard current which lie decided it would be useless to try to fight, and so he decided to do a bit of drifting to see where lie would letch up. He fetched up at the gangway of a whaler that was fitting out for Lahaina. The whaler took him on board and cooly shanghaied him, and he did three years in the pack ice of the Arctic for his little attempt at desertion by the swimming method. A tar who essayed to quit the Naval service before, (lie expiration of his enlistment by the anchor chain route in the harbour of Callao struck a bafiling current that carried him in a circle around his ship all night, and when the sun came up he was within a cable's length of his ship's gangway. The officer of the deck had him on board. lie tried to get awa,y. with the yarn that he was only taking a little morning bath, but his empty locker and ditty bag disproved that exceedingly thin story, and he had to face the Court-martial and 1 do his time for attempted desertion. 1 Perhaps the nerviest chance ever! taken by a deserting sailor making a' night swim ashore from the anchor chains was in the case, of a blue jacket who tackled the. job a few years ago in harbour on the coast of Mexico, says a provincial contemporary. The on which he was serving had her anchor chains attached to a rock about 30.0 yards from the shore. The harbour was alive with huge man-eating sharks. A. few hundred yards distant from the gunboat was anchored a British merchant ship. On the same day that the deserting man-o'war's man made his daring swim, a couple of sailors engaged in scraping the side of this merchant ship from a swinging plank were accidentally cast into the water and they were devoured by the waiting sharks in a twinkling. The news of this reached the man-o'-war very soon after it happened but it didn't deter the man on board the warship who wa-s bound to desert that night. He waited until midnight, and then he slipped into the water. A score of his messmates; had implored him. to cut out the almost insane notion of making the swim. But he wouldn't listen to them, having been rendered desperate by the nagging of a mas-ter-at-arms with a grudge to satisfy. Ho waited until midnight and then slipped down the anchor chains, many of his messmates saw him take the plunge. He disappeared in tho night with a few overhand strokes. His messmates had no means, of course, of knowing how he made out but they would have offered any odds that he never got one hundred feet away from the ship, Some of them saw him a year later, driving a han> some cab.