The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1877-08-23
From Adirondack Murray's New Book.
THE BOY PILOT,

The Captain stood another instant in
profound thought, during which his
quick and fearless mind had considered
all the contingencies, and, without a
word to the three men that were with
him, he started for the deck and the pilot
house. He summoned the Chief Engi-
neer and his officers around him, and
stated what he had discovered laid the
whole subject in few terse words before
them, and said:
Gentlemen, in five minutes the sa-
looms will be like an oven, and the win
dows Of this pilot-house wsll be cracking.
Have you anything to suggest"
The first officer, sailor from boyhood,
whose head and beard were already grey,
said promptly:
"Captain, we must beach her." The
others looked their assent.
Z" Its our only course" said the Cap
tain. "Pilot," said he, turning to the
man whose eye was on on the lookout,
"Can you beach herr" The other de-
liberated a moment, and said:
Captain, Pm ready to take any respon-
sibity that man in my position should
take. | am ready to execute any order
you give; but | will not take the respon-
sibility of running this steamer, with 600
passengers aboard, on to a coast
that | know nothing of beyond the
knowledge | have of the lights, the reefs,
and the harbors. 1t would be mere
chance if got her within half a mile of
the shore"
The Captain actually groaned. He
saw and admitted the force of the pilots
assertion Fer a moment not a word
wasspoken, while the ship went tearing on
through the water, and the prmonitions
of rising tumult came 70 their ears from
below showing that the passengers were
alread on the move. He looked for an
instant into each face before him, lifted
his hand and wiped the great drops of
sweat from his forehead, and said:
Gentlemen, what shall we do? |
feel the floor under my feet heating.
The passengers are moving out of the
saloonl What we do must be done
quickly! We are overloaded. Our
boats wouldn't accommodate half, and
besides a boat couldn't live in that sea.
What shall we do?"
Not man spoke They felt as if the
horror of death were shutting down
around them. They were brave, they
were calm. They showed no evidence of
fear. They could meet death as men
should meet it; but they could not tell
how to escape it. Suddenly the Cap
tain's face lighted, with light which
was the reflection of hope, of conjec-
ture, of a possibility. He darted out of
the pilot-house, swung himself down
among the crew, who were busy with
the pumps and the hose, and shouted,
with the concentration of voice that
penetrated the roar of the storm like a
knife:
g Is there man here who knows this
coast?'
When the Captain dropped among
them the men stopped their work and
stood staring at him. Only the old
trapper and Herbert, each of whom stood
above the forward hatch, hose in hand.
directing the streams that the pumps sent
through the swelling tube, downward,
kept their position. The Captain waited
a moment, while the light faded from
his countenance as no response came,
and then, as if in very great despair, he
shouted:
Is there a man here who knows this
coast?"
Again no reply came, and he was upon
the point of turning away when the lad
who had been kneeling under the pro-
lection of the bulwark trying to stop a
rent which the pressure had made in the
hose that the old trapper was tending, rose
out of the shadow and approaching the
Captain said:
:" Yes, sir. | know the coast"
Who are YOU" said the Captain,
hot pla In
not the youth | saw with the old hunter
at the table tonight. How should you,
born in the interior, know anything about
this COAST"
" was not born in the woods" re-
sponded the lad " was born within ten
miles of where we are, and know every
rock, and reef, and point, for | have fish
ed on them all; and | know every beach.
for | used to play on them when bov.''
The Captain looked incredulous. He
had associated him with the hunter and
the wilderness, and il seemed incredible
that he should have been born where he
SAID he was born, and that he should be
en- that boat that night, and be discover
ed by the merest accident at the very
instant of supreme peril.
Captain" said the old trapper, who
had drawn nigh, "Cap'n, whatever the
lad says We can sartainly take for gospel
truth. And if be says he was born here,
he was born here; and if he says he knows
this shore, he does know it; and We can
rely on him to do what he says he can do;
for his words be truth, and his acts be
like his words"
Young o." said the Captain, " have
you any other friend on board beside this
hunter?"
"Sartin he has, said the old man
answering the question for the lad, "there
be Henry there, who has boated with
HIM and camped with him off and on,
and the lad saved his life once, and that 5
a sarvlee that man isn't apt to forgit. |
us, you may set it down, Cap'n, that |
Henry may be the lads friend"
Call him here" said the Captain. |
hoarSely, and then followed him to the !
pilot-house.
LII was with the greatest effort that the |
tour were able to reach the point desic-
mated, for the gale was blowing with in
crease violence, and the iron rods and
the ropes they grasped to steady them
selves were already hot; and even as they
reached the upper deck the flames broke
w.
hre began to run in wavering lines along
.ile inner tmbers of the bulwarks and the
ornamental !. edgings of the upper deck.
nave called you here" said the
oaptasn, TO ask you in the presence of
my oincers II there is any safe spot, any
cove or bay, into which the steamer can
DE run along the coast abreast of u.s.
DO you mean TO beach her, Can
tain?' asked the lad.
s" Yes" he responded, sit is our only
chance. We must beach her. Can Won
do it?'' ~"
|" | can" said the lad simply.
" You can" exclaimed the Captain
" do you mean to say, young man, that !
you can beach this steamer? Gentle :
men," he continued, as he turned to his !
officers, {" If this young ulHn can do what .
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