651 A. From Phantasms of the Living, vol. ii. p. 144.

The following statement (which was first published in the Spiritualist) was drawn up sixteen days after the incident occurred, through the prompt energy of Mr. W. H. Harrison, and on the suggestion of the late Mr. Cromwell F. Varley, F.R.S., who had questioned Captain Blacklock on the subject.

The steamship Robert Lowe returned to the Thames on Tuesday, October nth, 1870, from St. Pierre, Newfoundland, where she had been repairing one of the French Atlantic Telegraph Company's cables. An engineer on board, Mr. W. H. Pearce, of 37 Augusta Street, East India Road, Poplar, was taken ill with the typhus fever, and on the 4th of October last he died. One of his mates, Mr. D. Brown, of 1 Edward Street, Hudson's Road, Canning Town, Plaistow, a strong, healthy man, a stoker, not likely to be led astray by imagination, attended him till the day before he died. [Brown, it appears, bore the best of characters, and had a strong friendship for Pearce.] On the afternoon before his death, at three o'clock, in broad daylight, Brown was attending the sick man, who wanted to get out of bed, but his companion prevented him. And this is what the witness says he saw: -

"I was standing on one side of the bunk, and while trying to prevent Pearce from rising, I saw on the other side of the bunk, the wife, two children, and the mother of the dying man, all of whom I knew very well, and they are all still living. They appeared to be very sorrowful, but in all other respects were the same as ordinary human beings. I could not see through them; they were not at all transparent. They had on their ordinary clothes, and, perhaps, looked rather paler than usual. The mother said to me in a clearly audible voice, ' He will be buried on Thursday, at 12 o'clock, in about fourteen hundred fathoms of water.' They all then vanished instantly, and I saw them no more. Pearce did not see them, as he was delirious, and had been so for two days previously. I ran out of the berth in a state of great excitement, and did not enter it again while he was alive. He died on Tuesday, not Thursday, and was buried at four o'clock, not twelve. It was a sudden surprise to me to see the apparitions. I expected nothing of the kind, and when I saw them I was perfectly cool and collected. I had never before seen anything of the kind in my life, and my health is, and always has been, good.

About five minutes afterwards I told Captain Blacklock I would stop with the sick man no longer, but would not tell him why, thinking that if I did. nobody else would take my place. About an hour later, I told Captain Blacklock and Mr. Dunbar, the chief engineer, whose address is Old Mill, near Port William, Wigtownshire, Scotland".

The other sailors on board say that they saw that Mr. Brown was greatly agitated from some cause, and they gradually drew this narrative out of him. Captain Blacklock says: -

"Brown came down into the cabin, looking very pale and frightened, and declared in a strong and decided way that he would not attend the sick man any more on any conditions - not for a thousand pounds. I told him that he ought to attend a sick and dying comrade, especially as a storm was raging, and he needed kind and considerate help, such as any of us might need one day. I pressed him all the more, as I wanted a strong, steady man to attend the delirious invalid; besides, it being bad weather, the other men were fagged and over-worked. Brown would not go back, and he left the cabin, as I think, crying, so I sent him out a glass of brandy. Shortly after that, I heard he was very ill, and that his mates had some trouble in soothing and calming him.

"We the undersigned, officials on board the Robert Lowe, declare the above statements to be true, so far as each of the circumstances came under our personal notice, but we none of us commit ourselves to any opinion as to the cause of the phenomenon. We give the statement simply because we have been requested to do so, rumours of the occurrence having gone abroad and caused inquiries to be made.

(Signed) "J. Blacklock, Commander.

"Andrew Dunbar, First Engineer.

(Signatures of six other members of the crew).

"Witness, W. H. Harrison.

"October 20th, 1870".

[Captain Blacklock is dead. The Robert Lowe was lost in 1872, and only one or two of the crew escaped. The account included a description of some distressing experiences of Mrs. Pearcés, which had occurred in London during the few days before her husband's death, and filled her with anxiety on his account; but this anxiety cannot be confidently assumed to have been a condition of Brown's experience].