by Jack Finney
She watched as women were lowered, missed the boat, and went under, to come up gasping, coughing; watched as the elderly black stewardess, Aunt Lucy, went under three times, and then "was pinched between the boat and the side of the steamer …."
Then it was her turn, and: "The rope noose was tied around me, and swung out over the water into the boat." She made it on the first try, but: "After I got safely into the little boat, and my baby with me, I had but little hope of getting to the brig. The peril then seemed to be greater than ever, but as the ship was in sinking condition, the only hope seemed to be in attempting even this dangerous escape from her."
All these women and children now in the boat, one of the stewards, said Virginia Birch, "got in, as he said, to help row the boat." Then Ashby "allowed some men to come in. Judge Munson, of Sacramento, and a Mr. Paine were among them." Not unreasonably, Mrs. Birch now "asked Mr. Ashby to let my husband come to me, but he refused, using insulting language." Also in this boat, "I believe," said Mrs. Hawley, was "the colored boy Garrison, the Captain's servant. I was told that Captain Herndon when he saw him going away in the boat, upbraided him sharply for deserting his post …."
George Ashby said two "men attempted to get into [the] boat. They were both waiters, one colored and the other white. I ordered them away, (perhaps I drew my knife at the same time—I think I might have done so,) and they left."
Sitting at the tiller of the lifeboat watching and judging the action of the waves, the helmsman gave his order, the crew dug in hard, and once more they headed out for the ever more distant Marine. "As we left the steamer," said Virginia Birch, "I heard Captain Herndon tell the boatswain to ask the Captain of the brig to lay close by him all night for God's sake, as he was in a sinking state, and had five hundred souls on board, besides a million and a half of dollars."
At somewhere around this time, Adie Hawley, safe aboard the Marine with her two children, looked across the water to where she had left her husband, and, she said: "We saw the steamer very distinctly against the sunset clouds. She looked beautiful, and did not seem like a sinking ship."
In Virginia Birch's lifeboat they now discovered that the steward who'd jumped in to help row "did not understand the work, and the sailors made him lie in the bottom of the boat…." During the long and fearful trip, said Mrs. Bowley: "The water dashed into the boat and we had to keep dipping it out all the time. Two high waves passed entirely over us, so that it seemed as if we were swamped and sunk…. [The helmsman] encouraged the sailors … and told them it would require the exercise of all their skill and courage to reach the brig….
"It was fully two and a half hours before we got to the Marine, and then . .. the boat was tossed about so violently that the only way of getting out of her was to watch a fortunate opportunity and seize hold of the brig's … ropes on the side. I caught hold with one hand and hung for some minutes … [before] the men on deck caught hold of me and pulled me in." But when it came the turn of the elderly stewardess, Aunt Lucy, who had already been squeezed against the side of the Central America, "a heavy wave dashed the boat against the ship," said Mrs. Bowley, "and struck the poor woman a severe blow." Finally they got her on board. Got them all, and, said Ann Small, "Mrs. Kitteridge … handed [my] child to me…. I shall ever think of [Captain Herndon] with gratitude…."
The other two lifeboats had returned to the Central America, and the last of the women and children waiting on her wallowing deck were lowered into them. "The moment the last lady and child were lowered," said Frank A. Jones, "a tremendous rush was made by the [men] passengers, and as many as could threw themselves into the boats and water…." All discipline suddenly ended, and: "It was every man for himself … men would throw themselves overboard like sheep, filling [the lifeboats] in an instant…. I succeeded," said Jones, "in getting into Frazier's boat." He added that the Chilean consul also made it, the only other passenger in that boat, the rest being crew. Jones didn't mention his "colored boy, servant," Charles.
At the sudden rush of men: "The boats shoved off immediately to keep themselves from sinking, and those who remained in the water, were drawn into the sinking steamer by means of ropes … at the time I left, those on board were occupied in ripping up the hurricane deck for the purpose of constructing rafts." Other men, said Jones, stood throwing gold into the sea.
Again the hundreds of men left aboard the Central America waited for another of her boats to return, a longer wait than ever this time. During this, Captain Herndon and a passenger friend named Theodore Payne stood talking, and "he asked me what I thought of affairs," said Payne. "I said, 'Thank God, the women and children are off, and we are strong.' He replied, 'Yes, thank God,' and added, 'You take the next boat.' " Then "he requested me to go into his office and get his gold watch and chain, and if saved to carry them to his wife. Said he, 'Tell her—!' but his utterance was choked by deep emotion, and he said no more on that subject…." Herndon managed to speak of other things, Payne said, then "he walked away a few steps, and sat down on a bench, with his head in his hands in that position a few moments…."
Finally a lifeboat returned: John Black's, back for the third time. I assume from what happened that this time men were prevented from throwing themselves into the waiting boat. For word had come to the captain that somehow three women were still aboard, down in steerage, and he sent Theodore Payne to bring them up on deck; meanwhile the waiting lifeboat, I believe, was loaded with men but with places apparently saved for Payne and the women.
And now George Ashby did something startling, seen in different ways by different people, discussed and debated for a long time after. Ashby said this is what happened: "Captain Herndon and myself were on the upper deck. I said to him that if I could be of any service in any manner, I was at his disposal." Herndon replied, Ashby said, by asking "me to go in [John Black's] boat, to the brig, and do all in my power to induce the Captain to bring his vessel nearer to the steamer."
Theodore Payne came out on deck again, with the three women from steerage, and, he said: "They were placed in the boat by Mr. Ashby." Payne got in, too, and "the boat shoved off." Now, if Payne was remembering accurately and the lifeboat had already shoved off with Ashby still on deck, Ashby does not seem to be obeying the order he said Herndon gave him to go along. Payne continues that "before [the lifeboat] could clear the stern a steerage passenger sprang from the deck of the ship into the boat, a distance of twenty-five feet. The Chief Engineer then hastily lowered himself into the boat," but only, it seemed to Payne, "to prevent [other passengers] from crowding in and swamping it. He had scarcely got into the boat before another steerage passenger jumped from the deck and fell upon the Engineer's back. [Ashby] seized him by the throat and drew a dirk knife, not, in my opinion, for the intention of using it upon the passenger, but for the purpose of deterring others who crowded the decks from following his example."
Ashby described the order of events differently: "… I got in with them, and asked Mr. McCarthy"—the passenger who was a fellow engineer from another ship—"to go along and assist me. He did so, and I think after the boat had received her full complement, two other passengers jumped on board just as we were shoving off from the steamer…."
Another passenger, watching from the deck, was Robert Hutchinson. He said, "The Chief Engineer went to the boat into which the last three ladies were being passed, and after they were passed, he threw the rope around his waist and asked one of the men to lower him down. The Captain called out and asked him where he was going. He said he was going to try to get another boat from the brig. The Captain told him that he would not come back, but charged him solemnly to do so. He replied that the Captain might depend on him, that he would come back." Hutchinson added that after Ashby got into the lifeboat, "one of the steerage passengers caught hold of the rope and slid down after him. The Engineer, as soon as the man got into the boat, drew his knife and threatened to throw him overboard if he did not get out. The Captain shouted at him, 'Don't do that!' and a numb
er of voices beside."
Young Henry O'Conner also stood watching the same incident, wearing the tin life preserver he said Ashby had tried to steal from him. "The Chief Engineer," O'Conner said, "stood by as the … boat was being filled; there were two seats vacant, and a person jumped into one of them: at this instant Ashby, who was overseeing the transshipment of the women … drew his bowie knife, and raising it as if to strike the man, commanded him to get out; his arm was arrested by a person near him, and the man retained his place; as the boat pushed off Ashby jumped in. A general murmur arose and a cry was heard, 'Shoot him.' Whether anyone seriously thought of doing so or not, the fear of hitting innocent parties in the boat deterred them from the act.
"Captain Herndon told him to come back, but Ashby said he would go to the brig and send her boats back as well as the steamer's. If this was the real motive of the Engineer, it was an extenuation of the act in the minds of the passengers…."
Passenger R. T. Brown thought Ashby "jumped into the boat and pushed off in' a cowardly manner. Among [other] passengers there is but one opinion, and that is that [the Central America disaster] is to be attributed to him in letting the fires go out."
John George, a thirty-year-old Englishman who'd been in California seven years, said he "was an eye-witness to [Ashby's] cowardice." He said it was Ashby's negligence that caused the leak; and was one of the few, though not the only one, critical of Captain Herndon, who "had very little command over his crew." George thought "Capt. Herndon, although personally brave … was too mild and easy a man for the position he occupied … ineffective…." He also thought the crew "a miserable lazy bunch," and didn't think the gale was all that bad either.
"We arrived safe on board the brig," said Ashby, "although the sea at the time making a clean sweep over her deck." And now, the last three women having arrived, every woman and child from the Central America was safe aboard the Marine. "Not a mistake was made" in lifting them from lifeboats to deck in the wild sea. "It seems almost miraculous," said Mrs. Bowley, "but not one was lost, not even a single child." There was barely room for them on the little ship. A few were crowded into the cabin here, "scarcely larger than a stateroom," Virginia Birch said, its floor awash with several feet of water.
The tiny room held four bunks, one given to the badly injured Aunt Lucy, and another to a Mrs. Ellis and her four small children: this bunk quickly became known as the "Birdsnest."
But there were over a hundred rescued, and most lay here on the open deck, wrapped in sailcloth, some wearing men's clothes given them by Captain Burt and his crew, all soaked over and over again by the waves ceaselessly bursting onto the deck of the tiny ship.
George Ashby said, "I stated to Captain Burt the orders I had received. He said he would do all in his power to bring his vessel nearer to the steamer, but he was in a crippled condition, having lost his main-yard, maintopsail and jibboom, and could not work to windward. He said I could have a boat, but that it was only a yawl, and could not live in such a sea. While consulting with Captain Burt, the boat I came in left for the steamer in charge of the boatswain." This was John Black, who seems not to have known that George Ashby meant to return with him. Black's boat headed out again, on its fourth trip, and "I expressed my determination," said Ashby, "to return in the next boat…."
The other boats had also returned to the Central America, and presently they, too, once more reached the Marine with their loads of rescued. "They put their passengers aboard the brig," said Ashby, but then the crews, he said, jumped on board themselves, "leaving only a quartermaster in each boat…. The boats thumped against the sides of the brig with every sea. I ordered the men into the boats to take me to the steamer, and save as many lives as possible, but they utterly refused. Captain Burt tried to make them return to their duty but without avail."
One of the passengers who had just arrived with these last two boats was Robert Hutchinson, who had seen Ashby leave the Central America. Hutchinson said Ashby "did not offer to go back." But Theodore Payne was there, too, and he said that when the last two boats "came alongside, every man but one jumped out of [each] boat upon the brig, and refused to return…. The Chief Engineer, Mr. Ashby, implored them to return, but they steadily refused. He then tried to raise another crew, but did not succeed, and the boats were lashed to the bridge stern."
Mrs. Amanda Marvin's "opinion is that [Ashby] accompanied one of the boats to the brig in the absence of any other officer competent to take charge who could be spared, and with no view to desert his comrades in distress. After placing his precious load on board the Marine, Mrs. Marvin says he found one of the sailors willing to return to rescue more of the passengers. The other three flatly refused to again venture on the waves, and none of the passengers, (which is greatly to their discredit) would consent to take their places. Mr. Ashby entreated, saying, 'For God's sake come and help save some more of the poor men; if two men will go with me I will go back.' The steerage passengers when appealed to, declined risking their lives in trying to rescue others, saying they were as good as the cabin passengers. Under these circumstances Mr. Ashby was compelled to give over any attempt to save more of the people still on board the steamer. On the whole Mrs. Marvin thinks that Mr. Ashby was disposed to do his duty from first to last, and that the opinions already expressed as to his conduct have in most cases been too harsh and altogether undeserved."
Another passenger said that he gave "great credit to Capt. Herndon and all the officers except Chief-Engineer Ashby. They stood by their posts nobly and went down with the ship."
Passenger Frank A. Jones, safe on the Marine, though without his servant boy, Charles, "heard Mr. Ashby implore the men … most earnestly to return with him to the aid of the Central America. He offered them $100 a-piece to do so, and attempted to throw some of them by main force into [a] boat, but all to no purpose. With the exception of Mr. Raymond, they all absolutely refused to risk their lives by returning."
Ashby's assistant engineer said, "When [John Black's] boat shoved off I heard Captain Herndon reiterate his order to Mr. Ashby, to obtain the boats of the brig as soon as possible. I am certain that Mr. Ashby would have returned with assistance if it was possible."
A man in Panama who knew Ashby said, "… that he is a coward, or acted in a cowardly manner when danger surrounded him, no one on this Isthmus who knows him believes…. That Captain Herndon should have expressed the doubts he is said to have expressed, when Mr. Ashby took charge of the boat, about his coming back, is simply absurd…."
Ashby himself said, "I was … left powerless, and was compelled to remain in the brig…."
Whatever the reason, no other boat followed John Black's to the Central America, and: "It was a melancholy spectacle we were now compelled to witness," said Ann Small, on board the Marine with her little daughter. "Three staunch boats"—possibly she was including the brig's yawl—"floated uselessly upon the rough waves, while the wreck of the steamer, black with people, was visibly sinking before our eyes."
4
On the sinking wreck they seemed not to hope for the boats to return. "All hands … seized pieces of spars, chairs, and life-preservers, while others rushed below to secure their treasure," said one of the men. "The confusion now became very great, though all acted with coolness, each endeavoring to make the last effort for his own safety…. I … provided myself with a life-preserver and a piece of spar, and determined to go down with the vessel, with the great mass of passengers, all of whom stood about, bracing themselves up and securing those articles most available to buoy them up…." Said another man, "There were a number of tin and cork life-preservers on board, with which each one helped himself, besides setting apart some portions of cabin furniture and deck materials."
Second Mate James Frazer said, "We … cut away the forward part of the hurricane deck"—a kind of promenade over the roof of the main cabin—"and made rafts." Fireman Alexander Grant was one of the crew hacking up the hurricane deck; shipwrecked three times, he now work
ed to save himself for the fourth time.
Herndon ordered parts of the upper works cut loose so that they'd float off when the ship went under, for the use of men struggling in the water, and "those on board," said a passenger, "commenced cutting away … cabin doors, stateroom doors…. I wrenched a door from the wheel house…. When I saw there was no chance of escape, I … placed it on the deck, sat down on it, and remained in this way."
First assistant engineer John Tice "took himself to the deck, and looked about for the purpose of securing such means as would probably save his life…." Tice was twenty-seven, "small, but well made, in stature," and with "an intelligent face and fine general appearance." He looked around, and: "Among the wrecks of the upper works which had been torn off… to make rafts, he found a plank ten feet long and about an inch and a half in thickness…."
A gold miner went down to his cabin carrying two life preservers: he'd given five years of his life for the gold he had there, and wasn't leaving it behind. Now he put his gold either in his pockets or in a "treasure belt," I don't know which, then got both life preservers on. There wasn't much "terror" on board, he said, but "there was some praying, there was some swearing, and some fighting." Fighting? Yes, for "loose boards, tops of boxes and other light material." Others kept on bailing or working at the pumps, and "some deliberately turned in and went to bed, choosing … to meet their fate in this form." He thought "nearly all the passengers had been provided with life-preservers, but many of them had lost all hope and become discouraged … they lacked the energy to make any effort to save themselves, while others were affrighted out of all presence of mind, and lacked the judgment to convert to their use means which might have been rendered available…."
