The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1873-01-24
Breaking a Waterspout-Miracu-
lous Escape of the Rhine.
A C7ear>Aeaded Eai1os's Erpedient in the
AbSeace Of q Gun-A Cyeao IN
Mortal IeTrOr-A Pie
nom IN Mid Ocean.

The Rhine, q sailing vessel of ,OO6
tons, which has just arrived from London,
encountered an immense waterspout
about ,29O miles out John Richardson,
one of the seamen, describes the phenom-
enon thus:
About the time that you ask me, boss,
the ship Rhine was running along at the
rate Of four knots an hour which was
pretty good speed for such an old tub, l
tell you. think l heard the first mate
say that We were In latitude 40 degrees,
when We took the sun at y o'clock that
day. We had been out of heavy gale
only twelve hours, and the sea was rum
ming pretty high a about . o'clock in
the afternoon, something seemed to hap
pen, the like of which | never saw before.
| The sea seemed to 90 down suddenly as
though something had been thrown on
the top of it and bad fattened it out all
| over. Then the wind won't down and We
stood stock still We looked anxiously
for another squat, but there were no
signs Of 1t in the sky or around the edges
Of the horizon. At O'clock we couldn't
see ripple on the water; it was Just as
smooth as the smOOthest glass | ever saw.
! The sails hung perfectly motionless and
| the atmosphere seemed to get heavy A
! fellow felt as though he would like to
take full breath, but that if he tried he
| couldn't As we hadn't anything to do,
and had been worked Tretty hard for
| fnrty-eight hours previous, we (the crew,
! | mean assembled arou.ld the fprecastle,
and to drive away the nasty feeling that
/ we all had-a feeling of something rough
! somewhere around thai was only waiting
| for good chance to make trouble for US
/ haUoD tallipT iOl-aS opd
| to one another. Somehow or other.
! though, nobody seemed to be interested
! by anybody's warn, and no one laughed
at a Joke felt just as bad as the rest,
/ | guess, for ] couldn't see any fun in
anything either Then we didn't say
anything for little while, and think /
must have fallen aslee7, for was waken>
ed up suddenly by hearing the captains
| bass vOice-he had n voice like bull
sir-singing out, "All hands on deckr;
jumped up Us quick as / could-I
couldn't jump very quick, for You see I'm
| Old-and fastened aft TO the maiumast
The other fellows were there ahead of me,
and when | got up to them they all turn.
ed in different directions like madmeu. |
noticed that the faces of most Of them
were white as chalk, and that the captain
was as red as hood His face always
got that way when he was excited in n
gale didn't know what was the matt
ter, and as | looked around me at the
confusion. the cause for which | couldn't
see, felt my heart do what it hadn't
done for seventy years--heat against H.
/ ribs ] saw the second mate and asked
him what was the matter He ans xered
me by telling me to % to the main brace
or he would pitch me overheard went
there pretty quick; not because / was
afraid of going overheard but because
was afraid that something terrible was
going to happen, and that even my weight
might save the ship. When | got to the
rope, fellow standing near me said,
"PuH, old man; don't you see the water
spout?'
followed the direction of his eyes,
and there, sure enough, not more than
half a mie from US, was the biggest
water spout that | had ever seen in all nv
life 1t lowered above the ship at least
two hundred feet, and seemed to be the
breadth Of half the ocean. 1t was coming
towards Us like a steam engine. and the
water for hundreds of va DIS ahead of it
was boiling like water in n kettle We
braced the yards around, put the VI heel
hard port, and did everything that Law
in our pow er to get out of the way Of the
terrible destructi. n that TGas rushing upon
Us. There want breUth OF wind stir.
ring, and there we lay right in the ath o1
the water spout, unable to do the least
thing to save ourselves from the death
that we felt sure mus: come in Il few mo
ments
There were about seventy steerace pas
seEgers with US, the most of wnom were
women and children, and the way they
screamed and went on was enough t.
take the heat out of any man One ole
woman caught me round the legs and
begged me for Gods sake to save her
while every one was rushing around try
! ing to find some shield from the approach
ing crash. The captain swore and went
, on terribly because we couldn't move ar
| inch and seemed TO be going out of his
: mind, for saw him deliberately knock :
man down who was standing near him
Some of the men ran down the forecasGle
ladder that they might not see the msclYe:
t die
: What | have been telling you now a!
: occurred in a moment, but the water
r spout had come much nearer to us, and
D we could hear the HRS and splash of the
= water as iU came whirling on. Just Their
| heard young gentleman in the cabir
) ask tue Captain WuCInGI lie ldu u Gu4i VI
board The captain said l., O., and the
young mans face :urned as white as snow
and | saw him shake all over He pu
his hand to his head and staggered to-
ward the main hatch. and in another mo:
> ment he would have fallen down tween
decks, when suddenly there was a cry
! from above that sounded like the roar o.
I | a mailman Ii was heard above the IouC
p roar Of the surfing water, and every eve
, was turned in the direction that it came
from 1t came from a shipmate that vi
, called Jack" He was a smart fellow ar
his feet, and wa a regular monkey
among the ropes when he got aiolt in {
, storm There be was, with heavy block
of wOnd In his hands, that he held above
his head, and was shouting TO u, "Stanc
from under = He was Oh the main-vard
arm-the yard that carries the "storm
sail" you know We all ran forward
aud, when the coast was clear, Jack
gave the block swing and sent it down
on deck as quick as fash. it struck a
piece Of sheet iron that lay near the main
hatch, and made a terrific report that
! sounded like cannons 5. We kept Oul
ewes on him, for he seemed about to fall
D tut be caught hold Of the port bowlines
and r. gained his balance just then the
= snip care6neu over on ner Deam enus
urched back again, and then stood steady
az before Nearly every one was thrown
down, and some of the passengers were
badly hurt. As soon as we got upon oul
feet we saw no more Of the water spout
but in its stead the whole sea was just a.
white as though it was composed of soaI
1 suds
We felt that it was over, and that th,
noble Jack" had aved US by his cool
headedness, but it was some time before
we could recover from the paralysis tha
, seemed to have stricken US all