SKIPPER GOES MAD.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIV, Issue 9396, 17 March 1909, Page 6

SKIPPER GOES MAD.

There was a strange scene in Falmouth Harbour, when a man in chains was seen to he violently gesticulating in a boat and struggling with those who manned it in his efforts to jump into the sea. The steam boat belonging to H.M. Customs at onoo put off to render assistance, and the boat eventually reached land with its occupants. A thrilling story of the sea was then forthcoming. The struggling man who .had been seen fighting in chains and had flung half a dozen men away from him in the attempt to leap overboard, was the captain of the barque Oalluna, of Greenock. She had been towed into the harbour the previous night by the tug Dragon, which founded in a precarious condition off the Lizard. The Calluna left London on January 3rd, and for three weeks had been making an erratic passage down the English Channel on her way to Australis. From the first, the crew allege, the captain caused them much concern, and when off the Lizard he became a raving luhatio. They feared that he would do either them or himself serious bodily barm, and their first precaution was to. secure all the available weapons. Next ho becoming even more violent, they decided to place heavy manacles round bis wrists. Even with this impediment he seized a bottle of whisky in bis hands, and, smashing the neok on the table, placed the jagged glass to bis lips, and drank the raw spirit it oontkined. Matters became so serious that when 60miles S.W. of the Lizard a conference was held, and the orew demanded that the mate should turn back, and head the ship to the nearest port. The mate was reluctant; but there were five yonng apprentices on board who were taking their first voyage, and their terror-stricken appearance and pathetic appeals lat last had the effect of persuading him. It was farther decided that the captain should fbe confined in the lazaret (a compartment at the bottom of the ship to which [access is gained by a trap-door only, and, as there are no steps, a prisoner’s escape Is well-nigh impossible). In this remote prison—the name of which preserves the memory of days when lepers and others suffering from contagions diseases were sequestered from contact with their kind—the ravings of the captain could still he heard about the ship. He was safe, however, and could do neither himself nor others any injury, for he was securely roped and chained. When the Oalluna arrived in Falmouth Harbour late at night and a report reached shore tnat the captain was in chains, itwas feared that there was a mutinous crew, and the harbour police, accompanied by a doctor, at once put off to the ship. The captain was found to he in a critical condition, and, alter medical service had been rendered, he was conveyed to the hospital ashore, struggling violently all the way. ■' ■ : ■