The Potter journal. [volume] (Coudersport, Pa.) 1857-1872, 1865-04-12
Never Say Die.

Forty hours the "Old Beaver" India
man, homeward bound from Canton hae
been lying there off the Cape of Goo,
Hope-hull to-every yard of canvas
close furled and secured in double gask
cts.
The ship had been hauled to under bare
poles, at noon on Saturday, and it was
eight bells in the first forenoon watch
Monday morning. Forty hours of as fail
wind as ever blew wasted! But we
could do no better. The oldest sailors in
the ship said they had never seen the
seas run so high and break so furiously.
Kept off on her course, under all the can
vas we could show, the ship would have
foundered in an hour. Hove to as she
was, she lay as comfortable as she would
have done in her berth at the foot of Wall
street, though not SO quietly perhaps.
She was rolling tremendously, but then
that was nothing new for the Old Beaver.
She always rolled in any weather. Old
Charley Latham swore that man might
just as well be the snapper on the end of
a coach whip three miles long as a man on
the Beavers royal yards, and she going
anywise free.
All our quarter deck people and pas
sengers were still below at breakfast when
one bell was struck, and just then | saw
Charley Boguet, an active young sailor
loungirg in the starboard watch, spring
up into the larboard forerigging, and be.
gan to climb aloft' 1t was a daring act
and very difficult one too, for the ship
so rolled and slat, that sometimes Charley
would be pinned to the rigging unable to
move hand or foot. Then watching his
chance, he would go up a dozen ratlines
like monkey.
Looking aloft to see what was taking
Charley up without orders, l discovered
the bort yardarm of the foreroyal adrift,
and the sail Stating like mad. That was
what Charley was after, to secure that
sail
| vas at that time lad ten years old,
and could climb wherever the best sailor
In the ship dared to go. But | remember
how L trembed and shuddered that mern.
ing, as grasping my fathers trumpet l
screamed with all my might of lungs:
"Charley, ahoy e ee Come down, sir
L say, you Charley! get down out of that!
l might as we'll have baWlsd at the gale
to hush and be quiet, for not word did
charley hear; and if he had, be would
not have needed me an atom.
He gained the royal yard and laid him
self ont on it just as my father, the chief
mate and several of the gentlemen pas
sengers, alarmed by my yells, came iur-
ryiDg on deck.
Charley secured the SAIL and watching
the starboard roll, flung himself in along
the yard, and caught hold of the rova
riging with bis hands But the ship
brought up with studded jerk, and slat
back to port so quick that the man failed
to get hold with his feet, and when the
ship was down, rail to, On that side, he
stuck right out straight, at right angle
with the royal mast, clinging to the rig
ging with his hands onley. The next surge
Of the ship to the starboard slat him ia
against the spar with violence that il
seemed must have stunned him and broke
his hold entirely.
My father, though for thirty years
commanding ship, had no other oath
than "by hemp" that he ever swore by,
and that morning, ten times, when Char.
ey swung out at right angles from the
royal rigging hanging on his hands, my
father would exclaim:
There, by hemp! he's gone"
Then as the next roll of, the ship would
dash the poor fellow 10 against the mast
ny father would clap his hands and cry
out:
"No, be sticksyet ~
But Charley, though he had been a
could not have elung there long.
His desperate grip was at length broken,
Just as the ship was on even keel, and
endlong whirled over and over, down he
came, checked somewhat, first by some of
the fore topsail gear, then striking the
buGt of the fore course, and from thence
falling upon the port anchor, twisted and
doubled up, quivering mass, having
scarcely the semblanee of humanity.
."Mr. Montgomery" my father said to
the chief mate, after we had all stood for
ten minutes | think, gazing upon the
spectacle, "there will be a ham
mock and slung shot for poor Charley
at noon"
There was a couvulsive movement of
the mangled mass, nervous clutching of
the hands, the CORY head twisted itself
out from under the shattered thigh, and
bubling with blood, the lips cut, and hid
sous, muttered distinctly:
"Avast there, Capt'n-I'll live to see
you launched over the side yet :"
No one had dreamed of there being life