Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1872-09-16
TERRORs OF THE CYCLONE.

In our school-boy days we gathered
from the primitive books then in use an
indistinct idea of rotatory storms, water.
spouts and other startling freaks of ma
ture incident to the ocean but the vivid
description by Brooklyn clergyman,
Rev. I. De Witt Talmage, who with a
party, underwent the phenomenal exper-
iment of being forty hours in Septem-
Der cyclone in the northern Atlantic,
has impressed us with the belief that we
do not, after all, know much about rota.
tory storms. DR.. Talmage was a pas
senger on board the steam ship Greece,
which arrived at New York some days
ago. and in the course of detailed sto-
ry of his experience of the voyage from
Liverpool, he states that during the Sat-
urday previous the weather had been
rough, and the sea heavy, but the ves-
sci went on rapidly and, except to nov
ices, the motion was exhilerating and
pleasant.
just before ten o'clock in the evening
there was crash like the booming of a
battery. The sails of the ship were torn
into ribbons. and even those that were
then reefed were torn into tatters. In
fact. it seemed as if a squall had sudden
ly struck the ship, but it did not require
but moment to discover that the noble
craft was in a cyclone. The vessel was
now every minute or SO on its beam ends.
and would right imperceptibly, and anon
the PROV would pitch forward and down.
ward, and it would seem as if it never
would come up. The engine would be
heard, at long intervals, going puff, puff,
scarcely audible-and then would seem
to stop altogether. The steamer was
going but three miles an hour. The
machinery had failed three times before.
If it failed for minute now, to the bot
tom the ship must 60. The storm reach
ed its highest pitch at one in the morn
ing The sea, which had been breaking
over the ship, stove in the skylights,
and the cabin and state-rooms became
about knee-deep in water, with more
coming. Everybody on board. those be-
longing to the vessel as we'll as passen-
gers, gave up the ship. cit was only
matter of time, and the Greece was
to 60 under. The steerage passengers
500 in number-broke out into prayers,
groans, struggles, shrieks, curses, indie
scribable. The cabin passengers were
equally demonstrative.
Human nature and temperament came
out mover before Some were calm,
some scared, some cursing, some pray
ing, more asking others to pray. The
ship appeared more like an egg-shell
than anything else, and was under the
lashing, angry waters more than half of
the time. From ten o'clock on Satur-
day evening to five o'clock Sunday after
noon, this storm and its scenes lasted
with variations and aggrayations, to cor
rectly describe which, pen would fail.
When the storm perceptibly lessened,
| and danger was passed, fervid prayer
! went up to heaven, giving blessings for
| deliverance-and never did prayer fol
, those at sea sound so sweet to human
t ears or so comforting. By Monday the
ship got out of the cyclone, when it was
S found that among other accidents, seams
as wide as ones finger were made II
| the sides of the ship.
, This rotatory storm was of limited ex.
Y tent, about fifty miles in circumference,
E and the Greece was almost the only out
ward-bound steamer that encountered
4 it; and, according to all reports, it wa;
+ the severest storm that has ragged on the
; ocean plane of European-American pas
: sage for twenty-five years. Its locality
was about nine hundred miles from New
: York, off Halifax. On the arrival O
h the Greece at New York the passenger
: held meeting, and thanked the officers
Y and crew for the skillful manner il
: which the ship was handled under the
e trying circumstances.