The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1876-01-06
A Terrible Experience of Shipwrecked
SailOrs-A Heroic Rescue.

At four O'Clock in the afternoon on
Monday, Nov. 20, small coasting vessel,
named the Water Witch, left st. Johns
bound for Cupids, small port on the
northern shore of Conception Bay The
run was short one, being a little over
forty miles. Soon after leaving the har-
Dor strong gale from the southeast set
in, accompanied with a dense fall of
snow As darkness closed in the gale in
creased in violence, hurting the snow
flakes on its wings and driving the huge
Atlantic waves, with sullen roar, far up
the dark cliffs. The night was intensely
dark. The little vessel, with twenty-tour
souls on board, four OF them women, was
battling with the waves endeavoring to
double Cape St. Francis, at the entrance
of Conception Bay. Unhappily the Cap
tain Rugged the shore too closely and at
$50 O'Clock the startling cry from the
lookout was heard, Crooks ahead!" The
words had not passed his lips three min
utes when the vessel struck against rock
with great force. The Captain and two
men leaped upon low shell of rock that
concluding that this was the only chance
of saving their lives. The water was
deep at this spot and the vessel rebounded,
UuU was HACSOAUAy AuAAVA q 0CVOuu bAuAC
against the rocks few yards distant from
the place where. she first struck. Here
nine more of the men leaped for their
lives and managed to cling to the surface
of q sharply -slanting rock, over which at
times the waves were breaking. The
Water Witch reeled under the tremen-
dous blow, staggered back few yards
and sank, carrying down with her eight
men and four women. The situation OF
the poor fellows who were now clinging
to the rocks was terrible in the extreme.
Strange to relate, the vessel had been
carried into small inlet called Horraud's
Gulch, little north of Pouch Cove. The
entrance Of this gulch is but few yards
wide, and had she struck to the right or
left of it not soul could have been saved,
as the shore is steep wall of rock. The
rock upon which the Captain and two of
the crew leaped is small, projecting shelf
on the north side Of the inlet, while that
to which the others were clinging is on
the opposite side. The position Of the lat
ter was fearful to think of. They were
holding on to slippery, sloping rock,
only q few feet above the surface of the
water and barely large enough to give
them room to crouch on its surface. The
spray dashed over them with every wave;
at intervals heavy sea broke over the
rocks as, huddled together, they clutched
it for dear life.
They dared not move, for the sea was all
around the rock, and . few feet off they
could see dark, perpendicular cliff
shooting 600 feet up into the midnight
sky. The huge waves were laundering
at their feet and the snow-storm roaring
overhead. A few feet from them they
knew that some of their nearest connec-
tons lay dead at the bottom Of the sea.
The position Of the Captain and his two
companions was not quite 80 perilOus, as
they found it possible, though at great
risk, to scramble up from the shelf on
which they first found footing. They
heard the voices of their companions on
tile other sideof the gulch, and cheered
them By telling them that they were about
"a make - attempt I'd scale the rocks and
bring them succ0r. The nearest honse
lNAe q tn di1saaGs of ) mile, md thsmen
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