Holmes County Republican. [volume] (Millersburg, Holmes Co., O. [Ohio]) 1870-1895, 1873-05-15
MrLLERsBuRe HOLMES COUNTY o. THURSDAY, MAY 15 1873

in you on they never woald got that
stern boat down so neatly. If she'd a
hsan riggsax ith any Of them detaeh-
ing apparatuses, whifh neye<.was no
ship I've been in tits ten to one she'd a
been swamped afore she got clear of the
tackles, cause them things always ope-
rated too soon or else not soon enough; !;
but with these whips all you had to do
was to let 60 and they unrove and your
boat was all clear from the ship and all
fright. = a ie
"'Twas lucky thing for me that l
had the lifebuoy, for although l could
swim like fish couldn't have.kept up
long in that cold water, and with all my
clothes on, anyhow l was mighty glad
when the chaplin the boat heard me hol-
Ter, and pulled for me. They had a
hard job pullin' me into the boat, all
soaked as was, and was so numbed
that could not help myself much but
they got me in at last, and l laid down
in the stern sheets completely beat out.
How we missed the ship don't know,
but know that we did miss her; and
arter it shut in dark Scotty and the 9TH
er chap give it up, and resolved to lay
by till morning. So them, two laid
down alongside of me, and we all went
to sleep. In the morning the fog was
as thick as ever, so there was nothing
for it but to jest lie still in hopes some
vessel would come along and pick us
up. We was right in the track of YES
sells, fishermen, and others, so we had
no great fear but that we would soon be
aboard of some craft, and the greatest
trouble was that we were getting pre-
cious hungry. The log had wet the
clothes of the other two chaps, and we
was able to squeeze enough water ont of
them to quench our thilst bit. As for
my clothes, they was wet enough, but
too salt to be good for anything. That
was the time We would have liked to
have had some of old Virgins beans,
and lnore'n once that morning Scotty
said to me:
"Tom, if the Lord spares my life out
Of this scrape I'll never turn up my
nose at anything in the way of grub"
guess it must have been about elev-
en- by the look of the sun when the fog
lifted, and we looked all around, you
may be sure, for our ship or any other
that we could get aboard of, but the
only sail in sight was square rigger
away to the westward, her courses just
above the water. Whether she was our
ship or not don't know, but suppose
she was, because 1 knew the old man
would look for US as long as there was
any chance of finding us, cause he
wouldn't like to lose the boat for one
reason, and then taking three of us out
of the crew would make him rather
short-handed.
"Away to the northward OF us, about
three miles or so, was big iceberg, and
as soon as Scotty claps his eyes on that
he says:
"My lads, there's plenty of good
drinkin' water on that berg, and like
wise birds. 1 don't like the looks of
the weather to the southwark, and l
think Wen be safer on that there island
than in the boat, if it comes on to blow"
Well, Ned and me hadn't neither of
us been much among ice, and we said
we'd 60 anywhere that Scotty thought
best, and so says to him, 'Scotty, you
shall have charge of this expedition,
and Ned and me will do whatever you
think best" Es- j.
$50 Ned and me we pulled the boat
and Scotty steered. 1 suppose we was
will nigh an hour afore we reached the
berg, cause we had to pull round to
leeward of it, and then pull along till
we found a good place to land. We come
to place at last where the sea had worn
away place about twenty foot across
and made little bay like, and we pell-
ed the boat in here and landed. 1t was
a pretty good ting to haul the bost up,
but she wern't very large boat, and
we managed at last to get her up on a
little ledge where we thought she would
be safe. Then we started for water,
and sure enough, as Scotty had said,
we come to little pond of as good wa
ter as ever was drunk. II
Scotty had gone off by himself to see
what he could find, and by and by he
came back and said he'd found a place
over on the south side of the island, =
where the sun of the waves or some
thing or other had made kind of
cave that would be good place for us i,
to sleep. So we take everything out of
the boat that would unship, the rudder,
thwarts, stern sheets, bottom board,
oars, &C., and carries them over to
where Scotty had found this cave. Sure I,
enough, when We got there we found !,
the most complete place you can i'm .
agine; il we had a made it ourselves,
we couldn't have made it any better It !,
wasn't very large, that's fact, but it
was big enough for us three, and it was .
a good protection from the rain, which
was comm down pretty lively, and ,
from the wind, which had been bree
zin' on steady all day, and was now !,
blowin' half gale. We laid all the ,
boards we had brought over onto the
oars and made a kind of platform,
and laid down on the boards, and was
more comfortable than we'd been any
time since we left the old ship. Scotty =,
said as how the berg was a ground he
thought, else tLere'd been more mo-
ton to it, for the sea had got up by this
time, and was breakin' with great {
force on the weather side of the berg, !;
sending the spray sometimes nearly up !,
to where we was, and we was pretty I,
high up too. Scotty said as how he was
sure we'd get out of this scrape, cause
says he, sit stands to reason il this berg
hadn't been here we'd had to stay
in the boat, and, in the gale that's
comm on, we'd a most likely got
swamped, but here is this berg all ready
for us to land on, and, now we are
landed, here is thi little house for us to 7
live in, and rs soon as ever it's dark :
we'll catch some birds for our supper;