The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1873-05-02

mandS at home, and of course has to
presarve discipline among me and the
! children, and don't mind a tellin' you
! she does it.
81 suppose, sir, one of the 1onesom-
est feelings that a man can have Is to
find himself in the water away out on
the ocean and see his ship sailin'
away from him. Leastwise | know l
never felt so deserted before as | did
| on that afternoon when [ tumbled Oft
the old AlbecOre's forecastle and seen
her sailin' off from me OF course
| the main yard was aback, but that
amt no way to stop ship not If you
want to stop her dead, which was par
ticularly desirable to me about that
time, but as | told you afore, it was all
along of the confusion which always
perw ails, and always did perwail, and
always will perwail on board a ship
whenever q man tumbles overheard or
a fire breaks out sudden, or when she
fetches up a sudden on a rock or ice
berg. It's the suddenness of the thing
that does it, you see, and not the dan
ger. I've been on the Jersey coast in
down and a hard gale blowing from
the eastward and she driftin' in shore
at the rate of a couple of knots, and
all hands ready to let go both anchors
and cut away the masts. Well if the
anchors didn't hold, that ship would
go ashore, and though allhands would
be likely to lose the number of their
mess, the discipline of that ship would
be preserved to the last, and all orders
would be obeyed, 'cause there would
be time to get ready for the event, and
it would be expected; but if that same
steamer, through an error III the chrO-
nometer, or from Overrunning her
reckoning, was to have run onto that
same shore sudden, why every man
would be for hisself and the Lord for
the whole of 'em, and there would be
all sorts of confusion. If all hands
had know'd | WAS a gOin' overheard
that AFTERNOON, why when the helm
was put down, she would 4 shot up in
STAYS well to wind ard of me, the after
wards would have been braced about,
the head yards would have been left
aback, the ship would a stopped dead
| in the water and would drifted down
atop of me- and | might a been picked
up as little Billy TOoley was off the
| Cape of Good Hope without ever low
erin boat. But YOU see it weren t
| to be so, and arter the main-yard run
in of course she wouldn't go round,
and when she fell off she got way on
| her and a1cay she went couple OF
lr.Ots an hour. Isuppose If it hadn't a
beenfor them single whips | was tellin'
| you on they never would got that
stern boat down so neatly. If she'd
| been rugged with any of them detachin'
apparatuses, which never was no good
in no ship I've been in, It's ten to one
she'd been swamped afore she got
clear of the tackles, cause them things
always operated too soon or else not
soon enough, but with these whips all
you had to do was to let go and they
unrove and your boat was all clear
from the ship and all right.
''Twas a lucky thing for me that
| had the life buoy, for although | could
swim like a fish | couldn't have kept
up long in that cold water and with
all my clothes on, and anyhow | was
mighty glad when the chap in the boat
heard me holler and pulled for me
| They had 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 ! 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 arte1
it shut in dark Scotty and the Other
chap give it up and resolved to lay by
| till morning. SO them two laid down
alongside of me, and we all went tC
sleep In the morning the fog was as
thick as ever, so there was nothing fo1
it but to just 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 that we
had no great fear but that we should
soon be aboard of some craft, and the
greatest trouble was that we were get
ting precious hungry. The fog had
wet the clothes of the other two chaps
and we was able to squeeze enough
water out of them to quench our thirst
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 Wiggins' beans, and more'n once
that morning Scotty said to me:
"''Tom, if the Lord spares my life
out of this scrape I'll never turn up
nose at anything in the way Of grub
eL II guess it must have been about
eleven 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 rig
ger away to the westward, her courses
! lust above the water. Whether she
was our shlpor not don't know, but L
suppose she was, because | knew the
| ol5 MIN wOu16 look for us as long as