Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1876-10-11


board were in his hands. don't think
he thought of his own. He might have
stood the shock without the burns, or
the burns without the shock; but both,
and this awful heat, no."
Poor, brave little Joe
While we were talking a sudden COM
motion came on deck, and the vessel
began to rock heavily. The hurried
stam ping of feet, the rattle of cordage,
and shouting of orders, portended a
swiftly coming storm, though there was
not yet breath of wind, and we still
sheltered in the little airless stateroom,
through which no draught could be
coaxed. Soon the headlights were put
on and matches battened down. The
one sperm-oil lamp in the cabin flick
cred heavily, as if oppressed by the
lifeless atmosphere, casting only the
dimest of rays through the stateroom
door. In the cabin were assembled
most of the passengers, CHASTITY looking
from the sickly yellow cast of the lamp,
yet not from fear.
The storm that came with such sud-
den fury did not beat down upon us,
but rather kept plucking the great ship
from her brazen bed and hurting her
back upon it in q rage of spiteful cruel
ty that would never be satisfied. Little
Joe, locked in his berth for safety, al
ready unconsciously suffered for
breath. Several of us by turns tried to
fan him, but beaten and tossed from
side to side as we were, the effort was
nearly useless. No air penetrated our
grave-like confinement. In world
full of hurting winds we, helpless, lock-
ed up with death, gasped for one
mouthful of air. More than one in the
low cabin lay in deathlike swoon long
before morning, but while despair is a
narcotic, terror is q powerful stlmulant,
and the most of us, sitting and pant
ing as we were, were yet intensely
alive to every sound.
Nothing can convey to the ear that
has not heard them, the awful dread
inspired in tie helpless passenger of a
storm-tossed ship, by hearing the
strange sounds whose cause he cannot
see lhe tortured groans of the strain
ing timbers; the shrieks of the shrink
ing cordage; the rushing, maddened
whirl and flap Of the riyen sails--like
nothing SO much as the wild scream of
q terror crazed animal; the hurried,
stumbling tread of storm-beaten men,
bravely fronting an unseen, terrible
force; the sharp crack of a breaking
spar; the sullen thump of the vessel &s
it falls back upon it's cruel bed; or the
ponderous blows Of the waves as they
fall with vicious thud upon the poor
shin's quivering sides, are all thous
and times more dreadful to the useless
passenger than would be the most hor
rible dangers which he could see and
face.
Underneath these sounds, common
to every ship in furious storm, we
heard a sound for which none of us
could account. A long, thunder-like
roll and sudden blow, then sharp
knock and heavy fall; again the roll
and blow; again the knock and fall.
Endlessly repeating itself, this sound
which was below, and now above us, or
on either side, acquired monotonous
awfulness like the pangs of useless
remorse. 1t conquered all other
sounds, and with them all thoughts or
emotions not connected with itself
Life, death, hope, fear, pain, sorrow,
We're as nothing compared with that
che urdertone of mysterious menace.
| We overland this is much more Won
derful than that we should have forgot
ten the greater things-forget the petty
discomforts of our situation, the driz-
zles and sometimes streams of water
that poured through the drought-sunk-
en- boards of the ceiling, the heat, and
|
things as well as great passed UNDECIDED
under the nightmare oppression of this
| terror.
Afterwards we learned its simple
meaning. Besides the brandy and gun
powder, we really had on board num-
Der of the unmounted cannon, which,
with the balls, we had been told in
Liverpool formed our cargo. One of
these, a monster, more insecurity lash
ed than the others, had broken loose
during the storm, and rolled and tum-
bled from side to side over its slum-
bering fellows, in sullen resentfulness
trying to beat its way out of its unquiet
prison in the lower hold, down to the
region unvexed by storms. 1t was q
real danger, this vagrant cannon, but
mao we KNOWN just now real AMI 1mml-
nent was the danger of its beating a
hole through the ships bottom, / think
we should have stuff ered less than we
did through that long night of darkness
and fear. The unknown is immeas-
urable; and the immeasurable defes
courage, while it brushes reason.
! 1t was only one night, that long
agony of sufocation and dread? They
told us SO afterward, the captain and
the others to whom the fierce battle
had made the night seem short; but we
never believed them.
Through that time whether it was
one night or twenty-five watched our
poor little Joe as well as we could amid
the tumult and dismay; but when the
morning came, and the storm had
ragged away from us leaving the gay
Arethusa torn, battered, and half
wreck, and we were once more per
mitted to let in the daylight and the
freshened air, we saw a coming glaze
and set of brave eyes and mouth, and
a distressful heaving of the noble little
frame, that told us all care was vain
Once only during the night the