These four young men were the sons of an old man who lived
in Portland, Maine, and when he heard what had happened he came
right down to the Island to see if he could find their bodies.
They had all come ashore and had been buried in Markdale
graveyard; but he was determined to take them up and carry them
home for burial. He said he had promised their mother to take her
boys home to her and he must do it. So they were taken up and put
on board a sailing vessel at Markdale Harbour to be taken back to
Maine, while the father himself went home on a passenger steamer.
The name of the sailing vessel was the Seth Hall, and the
captain's name was Seth Hall, too. Captain Hall was a dreadfully
profane man and used to swear blood-curdling oaths. On the night
he sailed out of Markdale Harbour the old sailors warned him that
a storm was brewing and that it would catch him if he did not wait
until it was over. The captain had become very impatient because
of several delays he had already met with, and he was in a furious
temper. He swore a wicked oath that he would sail out of Markdale
Harbour that night and 'God Almighty Himself shouldn't catch him.'
He did sail out of the harbour; and the storm did catch him, and
the Seth Hall went down with all hands, the dead and the living
finding a watery grave together.
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