The New Bloomfield, Pa. times. (New Bloomfield, Pa.) 1877-188?, 1878-06-11
FOUR HOURS OF MORTAL TERROR.

iOOh NOOhO VI HaOuiFG
THE schooner Louis Walsh, from
L Baracoa, made fast to the pier next
south of Fulton ferry recently, and the
first thing that Capt. McDade did was
to call for coach. A helpless sailor
was taken to his home. This was First
Mate O'Donnell, whose father owns the
schooner, and whose brother-in-law is
her Captain.
The Louis Walsh sailed form Baracoa,
Cuba, on the 9th of April, with cargo
of bananas and cocoa nuts. She is q trim
little vessel, and rides rough sea like
nautilus. The weather was fine until
the third day out, but just after they had
passed Castle Island it began to blow up
from the southwest rather fresh. When
Mate O'Donnell made his appearance
on deck that morning he was rather
gloomy, and his old friend, Patrick
Downey, the steward, who had been
around the world with him, asked him
what was the matter.
Something is going to happen," he
replied, CT had terrible dream last
night"
Downey tried to cheer him up, but
when a few hours later he saw two
sharks swimming after the schooner,
he remembered what O'Donnell had
said, and began himself to feel appre-
hensive. The wind stiffened and be-
came gale, but the little schooner be-
ing fixed for it, scudded along at twelve
knots an hour. In the early evening
the wind abated q little and there was
some rain, but shortly before midnight
gust from the southeast caught the
schooner unprepared. Then the wind
seemed to blow from all points of the
compass, and the sea ran very high, and
the darkness was so intense that it look
ed like black wall, illuminated now
and then by flashes of lightning. The
crew could not sleep, and made their
way to the deck, and when O'Donnell
stepped on deck for his watch at mid
night he felt so nervous, his dream and
the storm being associated in his mind,
that he asked Downey to keep his COM
pany during his watch.
At o'clock the storm was at its
height. The Captain tried to jibe, so as
to get out of the trough of the sea, but
gust of wind whipped the main boom
around, and a piece of the tackling
snapped one Of the spokes of the pilot
wheel and whistled by Capt. McDade's
head with the force of a cannon ball.
The men could not see an arms length
in front of tn em, and could barely hear
the Captains orders. Another blow on
the sail bellied it out and strained the
tackling. Something had got to give
or the schooner was over, and the iron
traveller" an inch and half thick,
did snap, and the main boom was
adrift.
Mate O'Donnell knew what had hap
pened, and, crawling along the deck
with the second mate, John Peterson,
they caught some of the main boom
tackling. O'Donnell threw it around
Delaying pin near the main throat hal
yards, hoping thereby to hold the main
boom. Every instant they expected to
go over.
"Lower sail, John,' the mate said to
Peterson as he tried to secure the blight
to the Delaying pin.
Peterson felt for the main throat hal
yards. If he could only lower sail and
ease her off the danger would be lessen
ed. Just then and there came a gust
that made the timbers creak and sound
ed on the sails like a cannon boom.
Peterson heard swapping noise, and
knew that the Delaying pin to which
O'Donnell had fastened the tackling had
broken. f
The cordage turned around one of
O'Donnell's legs so tight that he was
lifted clean from his feet as the wind
slapped the main boom around, and
threw him against the gunwale. He
struck on the small of his back, and