There Was a Mystery Connected With It.
By DWIGHT NORWOOD
It is many a year since the United States merchant marine was a thing to be proud of. Some persons living remember the clipper ships of the middle of the last century, with their tall masts and sky-scraping sails. Confederate privateers rendered shipping goods on them so dangerous that they all disappeared, their trade passing to English and afterward largely to Ger man ships. The trade then lost has never been recovered. Some say it is because other governments subsidize their ships, others that seamen may be hired cheaper in foreign countries than in America. One thing is certain—the American merchant marine since the war between the states has been little or nothing. Whether the great European war will give any of it back to us remains to be seen.
It was in the fifties that Horace Graham, sixteen years old, ran away from home and shipped on one of the famous “Blackball line’’ sail ships, the Winfield Scott. Those were days when there was a romance of the sea, when vessels were propelled by sails, when they rode the billows lightly and there was no chug-chug of machinery in their vitals. That is why youngsters were continually running away from home to go to sea. Horace Graham made trips to and from China on the same vessel as ordinary seaman for three years, when he was made third mate.
One day, on a return voyage, a derelict was sighted. The captain stood on the after deck examining her, rising and falling with the waves, and when he had made up his mind that there was no living thing to be seen aboard of her he ordered Graham to man a boat, pull to the ship, make an examination and, if there seemed to be no reason to the contrary, to sink her.
When eight stalwart sailors were in the boat which was provided with sufficient gunpowder to blow up the vessel, several augers and some food in case persons starving were found, she was lowered and pulled to the wreck. On approaching her Graham, who was at the tiller, had a full view of her stern, on which her name had been painted and from which some of the letters had been washed or worn off. Ordering his men to rest on their oars, be took out pencil and paper and made a record of the letters remaining, giving the proper spaces for those that had been erased, as fellows: M G RE UR ON.
Having transferred the letters to paper, the officer gave an order to “give way,” and the boat moved forward, passing close under the ship’s stern. It was then that Graham noticed, upon a closer view, that an attempt had been made to eliminate the remaining letters, but the attempt had failed. Some one had evidently tried to scrape them off with a sharp instrument, but probably had not sufficient time to complete the work. Upon reaching the ship a rope with an iron book was thrown up, caught on the gunwale, and Graham climbed it. leaving his men in the boat. A terrible scene greeted him. There bad been a fight on the decks and in the cabins corpses of men, with their weapons in their hands, lay here and there, and all except one wore the clothes of sailors of civilized countries. The one exception was a man in Asiatic costume.
It was plain that the ship had been boarded and captured by pirates. That they had left in a hurry was also evident. An auger had been left in the side of the ship below the water line, indicating that an attempt to sink the vessel had been interrupted. Then, too, all the lifeboats except one had been left in their places. There were blocks for eight boats, all the blocks being filled save one set, and at this point the davits were swinging out, indicating that a boat had been lowered. There were two cabins astern, one evidently the captain’s. In the other women’s clothing was found. In that belonging to the captain from a little drawer in a locker Graham took out a daguerreotype—photographs were not at that time common—of a girl some eighteen or twenty years old. There was something very attractive in this young and innocent face among such frightful surroundings. Graham put the picture in his pocket not only for the purpose of identifying the ship, but because he wished it for himself.
Before sinking the derelict Graham returned to the Winfield Scott and reported to the captain. Another boat was sent to the derelict to make further examination, but the pirates had taken care to possess themselves of the log and everything else by which the vessel might be identified. Though they had evidently left her in a hurry, they had taken time for such removal. Nothing remained but to make a note of the latitude and longitude in which the derelict was discovered, at that time a favorite region for pirates.
That night before turning in Horace Graham took out his daguerreotype, opened the case and feasted his eyes on the likeness within. It had been nearly a year since he had seen a woman of his own race, and those of Asia were not attractive to him. It seemed to him that this girl was the spirit of innocence risen from the horrors of a massacre. Placing it where he could turn his eyes upon it, he took out his record of the name on the stern of the derelict, or, rather, the remains of it, and began to try to fill in the letters erased. Fortunately the pirates had either neglected this feature or thought the name illegible and had not taken the time or the trouble to eradicate it. Horace Graham worked till late on filling in the missing letters, now and again looking up at the likeness M G RE UR ON. From the position of the letters preserved be knew he possessed the first and last letters, “M” and “N.” Ships were there and are now named for women, and Graham fancied this was a case in point. By trying different letters successively in the first part of the name he finally obtained Mar g-a-r-e-t. He felt quite confident that the name of the ship was the Margaret —–.
Though he puzzled long over the last name, he failed to make it out. The next morning’ as he was mounting the companionway to the deck he heard the lookout shout: “Lifeboat on starboard quarter!” Reaching the deck, he saw the captain raising his glass. Graham ran down for his own glass and soon descried a ship’s boat rising and falling with the waves, but could see nothing in it. Meanwhile the ship had been put off her course to point to the boat. When the Scott came near enough a woman’s figure was seen lying in the bottom of the boat, and a man, evidently dead, was leaning over a seat. A boat from the Scott was manned and took the other in tow. When alongside the ship the woman, who was either dead or unconscious, was hoisted on to the vessel.
Almost as soon as Graham saw the face of the woman he recognized in it, though much changed by suffering and hunger, the original of the daguerreotype. A spoonful of broth was given her, and she revived. After taking more she opened her eyes and look ed wildly about her. But seeing, that she was on the deck of a vessel, the wild look subsided, and she asked what had happened. After being told she was questioned, but everything except the horror of drifting on the ocean’s bosom had passed away from her. Here was a disappointment to Graham, for as soon as he recognized her as the original of the daguerreotype he believed, he would receive, an explanation of the mystery of the Margaret ——. The likeness was shown her, but it failed to excite any memory whatever. Other means were tried, including mention of the Margaret —-, but without avail.
At last all attempts to draw from her information as to what had happened were given up. Unfortunately at that period it was not a universal custom to paint the names of ships on their lifeboats, so that even this information was not forthcoming. The only thing known about the girl was that she spoke the English language with a Yankee accent. The rescued girl received every attention and very soon was able to go on deck. She tried everything that was suggested to bring about a return of memory, but without avail. There was no other woman aboard, so that she had no companion of her own sex. Graham was so devoted to her that gradually all others gave way to him. The Scott was homeward bound, and as soon as she came into port he was deputed by the captain to examine the shipping records with a view to gain ing any information attainable about the derelict. Armed solely with the record he bad taken from the wreck’s stern, he ran over the names of American ships till he came to the Margarets, of which there were several. The Margaret Thurston fitted his record. This was a great gain.
He soon learned that the ship bad been named for a favorite niece of the master and that she was aboard the vessel in Chinese waters at the time she was discovered by the Scott. She had not been heard from since leaving Hong Kong and was overdue. The rescued girl was thus known to be Margaret Thurston, a spinster nineteen years of age and an orphan. Graham had fallen in love with her, and since her only protector, her uncle, with whom she had sailed, was supposed to have been murdered, Graham interested himself in securing for her some property to which she was heir. These attentions on the part of the young sailor won her heart, and he had no difficulty in persuading her to marry him.
Several years after this marriage Mrs. Graham’s memory returned to her. Little by little she recalled the tragedy of which she was a part. The Margaret Thurston was chased by a Malay pirate, which gained on its victim rapidly. Striking a fog, the Thurston’s captain, believing that his vessel would be captured, put his niece in one of the ship’s boats with two men and set her adrift. This was as far as Margaret Graham’s memory served her. The rest was merely a surmise. It was supposed that when the fog lifted the Thurston fell a prey to the pirates who boarded her and massacred her crew. Probably a cruiser was discovered. and the pirates left the ship they had captured and made their escape. One of the men sent with the captain’s niece in the lifeboat was accounted for dead. As to the other, there was nothing to indicate his fate, though it was supposed that in delirium he had jumped overboard.
Graham did not return to the sea, for soon after this last trip the war between the states broke out, which put an end to American shipping. He inherited a little property of his own, which, with that of his wife, enabled him to make a good living ashore.
Found in the Healdsburg Enterprise, 15 January 1916.
http://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=HE19160115.2.24&e=——-en–20–1–txt-txIN——–1