Another ' Hesperus'

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXIV, Issue 2, 11 January 1906, Page 2

Another ' Hesperus '

Some gloom-pampered man may yet rise to harrow people's souls with a history of famous shipwrecks. That of the steamer ' Hilda '—which went down a few weeks ago in sight of St. Malo in Brittany (France)—

would find a place in such a chronicle of woe with the harrowing tales of the ending of the ' Pomona,' and the * Lay-ee-moon, ' and the ' Wairarapa,' and the ' Drumy^ mond Castle ' and the ' Bourgogne.' ' And fast through the midnight dark and drear, Through the whistling sleet and snow, Like a sheeted ghost, the vessel swept ' to her doom. She was entering the- harbor ' through the whistling sleet and snow ' that dimmed the guiding lights (ashore. And thus 'it came to pass that she missed the channel, charged the rocks at full speed, was gored to pieces, and sank in ten , fearful minutes, just as the chimes from over the old ramparts rang the midnight knell.

There were one hundred and thirty-four persons on board when the vessel struck. When daylight came six of them were rescued, frozen almost to death. The re-* mainder had their souls battered out against the cruel rocks. Most of the victims were the pious Breton Catholic peasants who cross to England with the produce of their little onion-farms in the late summer and early autumn of every year. ' They are,' says a sympathetic writer in an English paper, ' among the most desirable of aliens, and from Bristol to Hastings and Dover one may see them, with their cleanly and sweetlyclad women-folk, going on Sunday to the Catholic church. The Breton onion seller who has 'come into conflict with the police,' he adds, ' would take a deal of looking for. 1 The human freight on the ill-fated ' Hilda ' compressed into those last fearsome minutes enough of life to make the youngest of them feel the touch of age. Yet there was no panic. The passing of the vessel was lighted up by a quiet heroism that would convert a cynic— even a youthful one. The Breton onion-sellers busied themselves, along with the two devoted stewardesses, in fastening life-belts around the women and children. Then they quietly and prayerfully waited for the end. For most of them it came speedily amidst 1 The trampling surf On the rocks and the hard sea-sand.' When daylight came, gallant Fellows risked their lives among the jagged black rocks and the tossing white waters to rescue the little handful of survivors. ' The behaviour of the Bretons,' says the Christchurch • Press,' ' in searching for the bodies of the victims and caring for them when found was • beyond praise, and correspondents note that although there were rings on the dead women's fingers, bank notes in the pockets of the men, and thousands of pounds worth of' gold in the belts of the drowned onion-sellers, nothing was touched. "No thanks are due," was the reply of a parish priest to a correspondent who spoke of the delicacy and extreme kindliness of the people. "We have done what was meet for people who are our friends." '

A few years ago a somewhat different scene was enacted when the French ocean-liner, the ' Bourgogne,' went down. Five hundred and seventy souls were carried with her to their account. There was a mad scramble for life as the deadly waters crept up the vessel's sinking sides. It was a -story of wild struggle and primitive savagery. But it was lighted up and soon in great part calmed down by the noble courage of five priests (four French and one German) who went about among their terrified shipmates absolving them

and consoling them on the brink of their liquid grave. These men died with sublime simplicity, each surrounded by kneeling and praying groups, and with consecrated hands raised in final absolution as the vessel gave her last lurch and disappeared beneath the waves. Some ten years ago a British vessel, the ' Drummond Castle,' was. pounded to pieces by the rocks further down the coast of Brittany than the spot that witnessed the wreck of the' ill-starred- Hilda.'. There, as at St.

Malo, the' peasantry,, under the direction of the parish priest,' reverently collected the dead that were washed ashore, and interred them with marks of honor that won a special and gracious act of recognition from the * British Government. But the Bretons take high rank among the most devoted children of the Church. And one naturally expects from thorn the gentle humanity and the deep charity which they displayed towards the victims of the wrecks of the • Drummond Castle ' and the ' Hilda.' Well, ' Christ save us all from a wreck like this ! ' And peace to the souls of those who went to their death when the ship went to her doom !