WRECK OF THE JAMES E. BAYLES – (February 22 1899)
The good ship sailed from Tuspan, the schooner, James E. Bayles;
There, in the sunny Southland, she spread her homeward sails,
And, heading for the Northland, she braved a hurricane That tore her sails to atoms and wrecked her on the main.
She shuddered, pitched and faltered; she creaked from stem to stern;
While fore and aft and broadside, she caught the waves in turn;
Her sturdy masts were riddled and stripped of every sail,
And thus the schooner foundered—there in a Southern gale.
The sea rolled high and o’er them; nine helpless souls were they;
What must have been their anguish? What terror filled their clay?
No human tongue could answer—with all its power of breath,
And one of them a woman—all face to face with death.
The pumps were kept in motion; no braver men obey Than those who fought the tempest that cold and gloomy day.
Alas! their work was useless; the pumps refused to ply; The waters filled the cabin and drove them forth to die.
Lashed to the wheel and railing, benumbed and chilled they lay
With icy coats about them—naught else to do but pray. The piercing gale bore to them a woman’s feeble moan, Throughout the night they drifted, their pilot—God alone.
The passing ships were heedless of those who fought despair;
The wife, once brave—courageous, a frozen corpse sank there.
The foam of angry billows fell where she calmly lay, And, like a sparkling fountain, sprayed o’er her lifeless clay.
Alone sat Captain Darling whose words were full of cheer
As he caressed his loved one and drew her gently near. Her eyes were closed in slumber that yields eternal rest;
He kissed her icy features and pressed her to his breast.
On learning of his sorrow, they left him to his pain, And, faithful to his promise, the Captain did remain; And on his manly bosom he pillowed, there, her head And in his lonely silence, kept vigil o’er his dead.
‘Twas sunrise in the morning; at last their savior came— Mount Hope, a sister schooner—long live her noble name;
Praise for her worthy captain and his heroic braves Who saved from death and peril the victims of the waves.
Theirs not to cheat them wholly of all their ghastly prey
And strong men, weeping, gathered there on the deck that day.
Sources
Today and yesterday: lyrics for young and old
* Noteworthy
1819 – By the Adams–Onís Treaty, Spain sells Florida to the United States for five million U.S. dollars.
1856 – The United States Republican Party opens its first national convention in Pittsburgh.
1879 – In Utica, New York, Frank Woolworth opens the first of many of five-and-dime Woolworth stores.
1924 – U.S. President Calvin Coolidge becomes the first President to deliver a radio address from the White House.
1980 – Miracle on Ice: In Lake Placid, New York, the United States hockey team defeats the Soviet Union hockey team 4–3.
1997 – In Roslin, Midlothian, Scottish scientists announce that an adult sheep named Dolly has been successfully cloned.