ROMANTIC STORIES OF FAMOUS FAMILIES.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2092, 18 January 1908, Page 3 (Supplement)

ROMANTIC STORIES OF FAMOUS FAMILIES.

A SCOTTISH EARL AS A SAILOR, BEFORE THE MAST. THE STRANGE CAREER 0E LORD ABERDEEN’S BROTHER. SEVEN TITLES OF PEERAGE THROWN AWAY FOR LOVE OF THE SEA. (Tit-Bits.) For lovo of a maid many a man of high degree has gladly flung titles and great inheritances to the winds; others, whose names are well known, have filled lowly roles, such as. those of steward, market-gardener, jockey, and hail-porter, before wearing coronets as peers of the realm ; through lack of means to maintain their dignities an Earl lias earned his bread as a small farmer and a Baron has lived and died a- country doctor. But even in the romantic story of our peerage the cases are very few in which the possessors of titles and great wealth have voluntarily turned their hacks on them to lead a life of humble and sordid toil. It is the strangest of these romances—a romance stranger indeed than fiction of which wo propose to tell the story. GEORGE-SIXTH EARL OF ABERDEEN- . Forty-three years ago, on March 22nd, 1564, Georg; Hamilton Gordon succeeded his father as sixth Haul of Aberdeen, as Viscount Gordon and Formartine, Baron Haddo, Alethlie, Tarves. and Kellie, and as a Baronet. In addition to these oreat titles this amiable young Scotsman became the lord of estates so vast that they would have made more than one entire Scottish county ; while in his veins flowed tho blood of noble ancestors who tor centuries had held the highest places in his native land. THE CALL OF THE SEA. Seldom has-a young man succeeded co a more splendid inheritance than this heir of the Gordons; and perhaps never has such good fortune been held so lightiy. As a boy this Scottish Earl had never been like other boys of his rank; ior the- pi ospect of a coronet- and large possessions was as nothing to him compared with his overpowering love of sea. His greatest delight was to be allowed to go out in the herring-boats and to spend the nights of toiling w.tli the fisherman, every man ot whom was his staunch friend; and when he "row older he would gladly have bartered all Ids titles for the chance of a seafaring .life, even bciore tho mast.

AN EARL BEFORE THE AIAST

And thus it happened that after he had “cumc into his kingdom, and was at last master of his destiny, be determined to gratify lus aml)l ' lion. Ho had an uncle, the Hon. Arthur Gordon, who was Governor of Brunswick, and before be bad worn his splendid and burdensome dignities two years the young Earl, then only twenty-four years of age. set sail from Liverpool .in the good ship loliioiui, bound on <1 visit to his iclativc. . So'far from curing him of Ins passion for the sea, this voyage, which lasted nearly seven weeks, strengthened his resolve to become a sailor at any cost; and, after a month spent under the Governor’s roof at New Brunswick, be decided to drop bis rank and as “George H. Osborne” to ship as a common sailor before the mast. He would shake himself- free from the trammels of a position which was odious to him, and as a plain sailormau would begin to enjov life in his own way.

WHA’i’ HAWKINS SAID ABOUT

OSBORNE

Of these early days as a sailor interesting accounts are given by some of bis shipmates, rough men, but good friends to Osborne. "I sailed from Boston,” says one of them, Hawkins by name, “in June (1866) in the brig R. AVylio. Osborne and I were in the same watch, and we bdeame very intimate. When Os-: borne joined the ship ho was not dressed like a sailor, and I was surprised to find he had shipped as ere. His, hands were tender and they soon got blistered. But lie was always active, willing, and energetic, and too'k a fair share of all the work, making himself most popular with officers and crew. . . He told me Osborne was an assumed name and that bis real name was Gordon ; but he said I must not mention it on board the ship.” CARRYING. SACKS OF CORN AT VERA CRUZ. It was Osborne's great ambition to prove himsei'.f a good sailor, and to work bis way from the lowest rungs of the ladder to the command of a ship. And how gallantly he “put bis bade into it” is proved by this testimony of another ship-mate on board the Arthur Burton : "I observed,” says this man. “that Osborne, in helping to discharge the cargo (of corn, at Vera Cruz), did not appear to work like a man who bad been u'osd to it; bis hands seemed soft, and his legs seemed to totter when carrying the sacks of corn. He never gave in, but be said to me lie could not expect to carry as long as one of us fellows could.”

DEEPLY ATTACHED TO HIS MOTHER.

Althouii Osborne bad thus cut himseil adrift from his rank and old life lie never failed to write regularly to his mother, the Dowager Countess, to whom be was devotedly- attached, and also to bis brother, the Earl of to-day. To the latter he wrote in March. 1867: “I. have never an approach to a double of -on or of mamma. I know there cannot be her double in the world. She has no equal. My best love lo dear mamma ;1 think of her only: she is always in my thoughts.” To Duly Aberdeen be wrote, later: “I. must come and. see yon soon, though it is so long since I have heard that a sort of vague dread fills my mind—l. mean, were I to return and not find yon. How many times lias this thought come to me in tlie dark and cheerless watches of the night! hut T have to drive it from mo as too dreadful to. thin'k of.”

That the young Earl wan of a very affectionate nature, not onlv his home letters hut his relations with nil his follow-sailors abundantly approve ; in fact, everyone he met on his travels seems to have lined the warm -hearted Scotsman, ifo was ./so of a highly religious turn of mind, and his mess-mates often told how he used to read the Bible and port ions of the' prayer-hook to them, and try to inlluenee them ill good directions. VP THE NAUTICAL COLLEGE, BOSTON. ■Viter a vear or two of his rough sea life Osborne spent n lew months ashore at Boston, .studying at the Nautical College, and lodging m the house of a riding-school teaohoi. When he left once more lor the sea, he got his landlord to give him a testimonial, which ran jm) s - . 0 whom it may concern. his is testify that Mr. George 11. Osborne has lived in my house the past loui months, and I can most cheer [ill > recommend him as. a voting man ot good habits and kit'd disposition, ji’ E Pears-on.” , , ,• On- his next voyage Osborne had or mate his friend Small, who Horn being the Earl’s equal thus bocaine h.■ superior officer. “As mate Small savs, “it was my duty to -select one man to he in my watch, and f selected George for the purpose. I knew [ could chat freely with him. though. I was an officer. He would not- take advantage of it as many men would. Tims innocently <H<l the nuito <n a “tramp” patronize- the holder ot seven titles of peerageund the lord ol 58,000 acres 1

LIVED ON HIS SAILOR’S WAGES.

Osborne was not- Miily determined to live on his p- -,v wages a.s a seaman, hut. to make a. nest-egg tor a rainv il-av, and he soon had 50do s to his credit, in -tile bank. Once, however, lie -departed from this economical resolve mid drew two cheques lor 0100 each on. his bankers m Scotland, much to his later regret. “I have never," he wrote to his mother. “had -any self-respect since I found means to get that money in New York. I h-a-ve never had any idea-sure in life since. 1 despise myself for my fooli-di weakness. J shall never Hold up mv head again. rough: times at iSEA. The storv of his wanderings which he wrote home to his mother records many a ■•thrilling episode and escapes from death. Several ’times his vessel narrow!v escaped being wrecked 1 , once, after'toiling at- the pumps tor seven-toon liouu-s tlie \viit< v r-l<>yKo<i schooner was sinking ta.st when a fprtumto change of wind, -accompanied liv floods of rain which beat down tho sea, enabled it to roach- the harbor; while lie gives a. thrilling account of going out on the main boom one -dark and stormy night to cast off the reefearing, -tii-o skipper shouting out to him -to hold on. “Our boom was ; (Jit Ion",” lie says. “Imagine that swinginwWk ail'd forth and bringing up short by the shoots at every roll, -and you can guess what a. jerk it- gave me at every -swing.”

HIS LAST AND FATAL VOYAGE

It was on January 21st, 1870. after nearly four vears of this -rough -seafaring life, that Osborne started on liis Inst -asi'd- fatal voyage; six days later his romantic career Came to a tragic close. “Oil the -morning of J.aiiunrv 27th,” says the skipper of tho Hera. “I was alarmed in my cabin by a cry of ‘Man .overboard.’ I rushed -oil deck and found: that the man overboard was Osborne. Rupcs and id-auks were thrown to liim.-Mh-e boat'was cleared away, dm t- it. was impossible to launch it in time to do any good. I saw Osborne struggling in tiie water. I am quite sure lie must have been drowned-. He cannot have been picked l up, as no vessels were in -sight. When I first came on deck after the -alarm I heard Osborne cry out from t-lio water; but tiro cries soon ceased, and before- it- was possible to lower the boat. The water was very cold, and even a good swimmer must -have perished very soon.” HOW THE ACCIDENT HAPPENED. • The second mate of the Hera given the following graphic account ot tho sad catastrophe: "We wen- lowering tile mainsail. Osborne and I were side by side, hauling or the came rope. The ship gave a heavy roll an-d tiho down.-h-iul gut- stick; then with another haul the down-haul got taut. Osborne -and I were- both caught in the bight of the- down-haul. I escaped, but Osborne was dragged across mo and into tho sea. It was the work of a second. J saw him come' to the surface. I threw -hum a rone as soon nc I possible* could. I heard, what I believed' to lie Osborne’s last cry before the boat was ready. Wo never heard or siw !mn again.”

END. OF A ROMANTIC CAR EE II

Thus perished in the very prone of his young manhood George Gordon, sixth Earl of Aberdeen, one of Five, most amiable and high-minded men who have ever figured oil the roll of the British peerage, a victim to his passion for the sea and' for romantic adventure. There ns no room to tell the rest of the story at any length:— how the widowed mother waited long, weary months without news of her son; how the suspense became an agony ; how the Rev. William Alexander, ' the Earl’s old tutor, volunteered to go in search of him; and how finally he brought home the sail news that the young lord had perished at sea. A little later his younger brother, John Campbell Gordon, .established his claim to the Earldom of Aberdeen- and to the other titles and estates which George Osborne had so gladly abandoned to lead the roaming life of ia seaman.