Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1873-08-22

between the boat ana the Saiey,
md in this very cabin he died IN NOR,
al agony. Then the Captain held
.orth about signs and warnings, and
,bout "compozents" or "will @ the
wisps' floating through the hazy atmos-
ohere and resting on the yard arms
,resacing hurricane, trouble and
ieath. Then one of the sailors who
had consulted dream-book, the only
literature on the ship, averred that he
had had bad omen. Then Mr..
Whitesides gave an account OF wreck
he had experienced on the West coast
If Scotland, of the sufferings in an
open boat, concluding with ''the few
Of us as got to the main land was the
set of fellows as ever |
vas And still the wind howled, and |
the vessel pranced about on her rud- |
Ter. and the waves came laundering |
over the bow, knocking the deck load |
about in all directions.
From all accounts it appears that no
vessel ever dies natural death of old
age. You never see them rotting at
the quays. They come forth in their
bridal array of fresh paint, clean decks,
bright new cordage and white canvass;
they are classed and registered, and
are heard from here and tcere, thread
ing the waters by Indus flood, or
toward the Icy pole, or in the torrid
seas, dark heaving, but, sooner or
later fate stealing on with silent tread,
brings each and every one to violent
end. Sometimes no tidings come back
at ALL, They go down and nothing
shall be known of them till the sea
shall give up her dead. Sometimes
their burning spars and decks are
their own funeral pyre. Sometimes
the crashing storms dash them in
pieces upon the treacherous rocks.
Sometimes they meet in collision, and
graphing in the mortal struggle, go
down to the silent halls of death,
where, in the words of an ex-W. NJ,
of St. Johns Lodge, "the wicked cease
from troubling and the ''wary" are at
rest and sometimes, when hearty
itsurrd. and they aoiU persist in float
ing off the sand-bar, where some ten
der hand has beached them, they
perish miserably by the Providential
upsett:ng of the cabin stove! All
these considerations, with the melan-
choly surroundings, tended to encour-
age Il strong desire to abandon tins
life on the ocean wave"
On the night of the 4th of July 1
dreamed it was Christmas times, and
the "kOonerS" were parading the
streets i'll all directions, blowing
conchs, horns, trumpets, shawms and
hackbllts, and beating drums, cymbals
and tom-toms "exceedingly;" [ awoke
to find it was not all n dream, for We
were now on the fog banks of New
foundland, and u man on the fOrecastle
deck, was believing with a copper
trumpet, prodigiously, and although
we did not, whilst the weather was
clear, come within speaking distance
of any vessel, now when there was
danger i'll proximity, we could hear
the answering horns, sounding like
distant church bells, on all sides.
And whilst we were breaksasting, the
vessel going at the time about eight
knots, and the fog SO thick that. in the
words of the mate ''yOu conld drive Il
peg in it and 'ang oop your at, n
tremendous bray sounded just on our
beam. Rushing mp, we found n bar
luentinc close upon us. 1t was the
EMILY Waters from Matanza,
with sugar for Queenstown. The
| two Captains chatted very pleas
antly together for more than
| IN hour. Both mates and both
| crews seemed delighted thus to fore
| CAT her together upon the briny deep,
and ali went merry as Il marriage bell,
| which made it clear to my mind that
"a fellow-fecling makes us IondrOns
| kind" and that, however the petty,
| carkinG cares of life may harden and
| divide us. human nature is sound at
| the core. But, you see. when Captain
Moriscy of the EMILY Waters began
/ his tactics of ''yanking'' us out OF our
wind, trying to get always i'll such Il
| position to windward as to keep oul
| sails Tapping SO that he might slip
ahead, or, at least, keep up--a spirit OF
| rivalry sprung up, which clrcllm-
| stances soon famed into a spirit OF
! hostility; so that when our boatswain
took the wheel and ''luffed' up, cans
mug the ''E. w. to alter her steering,
aud her Captain to yell out, "Mlnd
your wheel, there, or you'll have hell
| OF a mess" we were all ready to JUS
tify Dst,. fellow, and, if need We're, to
! rIln afoul of the tltcHiY, and sink him
! without mercy. Some of Our crew be-
/ gan to curse the others, and to damn
their own eyes over ''such bloody
tticEcry (which made it equally clear
/ to my mind, that, however yOu may
! attempt to salye over the matter, hui
! man nature is also rotten at the core,
and that any little display of hoggish-
| ness is apt to turn the sweet milk of
I human kindness into waters more bit
! ter than those of Marah
| We We're now in the track OF ice
! bergs as we'll as of fogs and had to
Keep man always on the lookout
! blow ing the mOnOtonOus note on the
/ Jog horn and peering through the
clinginG mists for ice. Passed many
vessels some mail steamers, few
whales, sharks, porpoises, blacktish,
and millions upon millions of jelly
fish, some looking like mushrooms torn
up by the roots, some like lemons cut
into halves, and some again like car
pet tacks. Saw, also two water-sponts,
which merely looked like two big-bel-
lied clouds whose ''navel strings" had
been cut i'll the wrong place. For a
more particular description the curious
reader is respectfully referred to Mitch
ellis school geography, where a wood
cut pictures the whole process of water
sucking, with the addition of two or
three whales ''gamboling upon the
green"
One of the Inman Line passed us
going East on the 10Th of July. When
nearest to her we ran up the flags in
dicating our name Her main deck
was crowded with passengers. After
q little she answered by sending her
ensign to the mizzen gait, and dipped
it by way of salute. We then hauled
down the signals and sent the English
colors to the mizzen peak, and saluted
III return, much to the delight of the
passengers apparently. [ couldn't help
thinking of another flag, rarely seen
except when high advanced in the
cIinging smoke of battle or triumphant
ly waving its blackened tatters over
the stricken field, and of how it would
have filed the heart to see the brave
old battlc-cross, on its field of pure
wiiitc-tloating ont at the masthead
IN response to some snch friendly
courtesy
The Captain was certain of making
land by noon on the 18th July Noon
came and passed but no land; 2 o'clock
and no land Captain evidently anx-