Oh Captain, My Captain

New York Times (March 25, 1852)

Woe To Those Who Through Storms Come

RNLI Gorleston lifeboat station was established near Norfolk, England in 1866 - the same year one of its private launches, Rescuer, capsized killing 13 of its 16-man crew. According to the Beccles & Bungay Weekly News, on January 13, 1866 both the Rescuer and Friend of All Nations set out to respond to a distress call when Rescuer hit a sand bar, lost her rudder and was upturned by a wave, trapping its 16-man crew beneath her hull. Two men managed rescue by boat-hooks extended from Friend of All Nations, who continued to pursue the disabled Rescuer saving two more men - both exhausted, one of whom died a few days later in hospital. The 12 others were never seen again. They left behind 9 widows and 22 children.

The Rescuer drifted ashore near Wellington Pier and was returned to service shortly thereafter.

Loss Of The Kursk

It's still widely unknown what destroyed the forward torpedo sections of the Russian submarine Kursk. A collision with an American spy sub. A botched training exercise. But whatever the Kursk hit, she hit it hard enough to spring the triggers in her torpedo room, igniting an explosion recorded nearly a 100 miles away. Out of the 118 crewmen, only 23 survived the initial blast huddling together in the aft section of the boat. The escape hatch was busted. There in a dimming light, the Captain scratched a few notes later found his is breast pocket:

"All the crew from the sixth, seventh and eighth compartments went over to the ninth. There are 23 people here. We made this decision as a result of the accident. None of us can get to the surface.... I am writing blindly...."

If a rescue had been possible, it would have come too late. The Russian Navy wrote off any hope of survivors almost immediately. So as water leaked in slowly through the propellor shafts, 23 unknowing men waited in darkness. Neither heroes, nor harbingers... just men waiting to die.

Misery Of The Francis H. Leggett

She left Grays Harbor, WA in 1914 with a belly full of railroad timbers headed on a southern course for San Francisco, and she carried 67 passengers and crew. But some 60 miles southwest of the Columbia River tributary, the Francis H. Leggett caught strong winds and with them, an angry roll of sea. The waves were unprecedented, rising high enough to pitch the steamer wildly in the escalating winds. To the horror of all aboard, the Chief Engineer reported the Leggett was taking on water. Both passengers and crew worked every bilge pump aboard to empty the hull, but nothing could be done. Water rushed in faster than it could be pumped out, and every greyback pushed the steamer lower in the water. Distress calls went out, but no one would answer in time. The captain was at a loss. Horrified with his options, he ordered the steamer abandoned, the crew and passengers lowered in lifeboats a fraction of the Leggett's size into the same waves that continued to pound his command. But before it could be done, another wave washed over the steamer proving more than she could bear. The Leggett went down amidst screams and wailing terror.

Three ships responded to the distress calls, but none found more than wreckage and drifting timber. Two survivors were found clinging hypthermic to hunks of debris and the body of a woman was pulled from the water, but the rest of what was left would be returned to shore with the tides.

Despite the misery of loss, timbers salvaged from the tragedy were used to construct a home in Manzanita, Oregon.

Tragedy of the Brig Pocahontas

The Brig Pocahontas set sail in the late fall of 1839 from Cadiz, Spain on a return trip to Newburyport, MA. Carrying mostly domestic goods, the 12-13 man crew (the manifest was never found) sailed in good time until being engulfed in the second of three tempests to hit the coast of Massachusetts around that Christmas.

Thinking it better to drop anchor and wait out the storm, Capt. James G. Cook ordered the anchors dropped until daybreak, until the crests had eased themselves and passage to harbor was again possible. But Cook's judgment was not as it should have been, and so close to shore, too much slack was to be had in the shallow waters. The anchors dragged inland in the big waves and the brig was marooned on a sandbar. And there she stayed, beaten for what must have seemed like an eternity until all crew and the ship herself were lost.

By early morning, the news from Plum Island had reached town and citizens had lined the beach to see what, if anything, could be done. But the scene was hopeless. One by one the remaining sailors dropped into the sea and disappeared. "And all that remained were the faces and the names of the wives and the sons and the daughters."

What following account of the tragedy is excerpted from Awful Calamities: The Shipwrecks of December, 1839.

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The Raft of the Medusa

(Le Radeau de la Méduse by Theodore Gericault, 1818-19)

Beached some 60 miles off the shore of Africa, the passengers and crew of the Frigate Medusa constructed a raft to be towed by the Medusa's two launches to shore and safety. But fearing that the passengers of the raft may overcome and threaten those in the rescue boats, the raft was cut free, adrift with few supplies and no navigation.

In the first night 20 died or killed themselves. Storms on the sea proved the center of the raft (60ft long x 20ft wide) to be the only stable area, and so men fought to reach it. By the fourth day, only 67 remained of the original 146. Survivors resorted to cannibalism and the weak were thrown overboard and drown. By the eighth day, only 15 remained. Once rescued, only 10 of those 15 survived.

Nearly all in the two rescue boats survived, including the captain, who upon reaching Senegal commissioned an expedition to return to the wreck of the Medusa for the gold aboard.