Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1878-05-18
FOUR HOURS OF MORTAL TER.
ROR.
swept Overheard In a storm at
AiRhL out OF Aight of Lnnn

NA8h OuA va Dh& NJ OA LNMU.
The New York Sun of a recent
date says:
The schooner Louis Walsh, from
Baracoa, made fast to the pier next
south Of Fulton ferry on Saturday
evening, and the first thing that
Captain McDade did was to call for
coach. A helpless sailor was then
taken to his home. This was First
Mate O'Donnell, whose father owns
the schooner, aud whose brother
in-law is her captain.
The Louis Walsh sailed from
Baracoa, Cuba, on the 9th of
April, with a cargo of bananas and
cocoanuts. She is a trim little ves-
sci, and rides rough sea like a
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 south
east 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 II had terrible dream
last night"
Downey tried to cheer him up.
but when few hours later he saw
two sharks swimming after the
schooner, he remembered what
O'DonneIl had said, and began him
self to feel apprehensive. The
wind stiffened and became a gale.
but the little schooner being fixed
for it, scudded along at twelve
knots an hour. In the early even
ing the wind abated little and
there was some rain, but shortly
before midnight a gust from the
southeast caught the schooner nm
prepared. Then the wind seemed
to blow from all points of the com
pass, the sea ran very high, and
the darkness was so intense that it
looked like q black wall, illumina-
ted now and then by flashes of
lightning. The crew could not
sleep, and made their way to the
deck, and when 0'Donnell stepped
on deck for his watch at midnight
he felt so nervous, his dream and
the storm being associated in his
mind, that he asked Downey to
keep him company during his
watch.
AT. one o'clock the storm was at
its hight. The captain tried to
ibe, so as to get out of the trough
of the sea, but gust of wind
whipped the main boom around,
and piece of the tackling snap
ped one Of the spokes of the pilot
wheel and whistled by Captain
McDade's head with the force Of a
cannon ball. The men could not
see an arms length ahead of them.
Another blow on the sail belied
it out and strained the tackling.
Something had got to give or the
schooner was over, and the iron
traveller an inch and a-hali
thick, did snap, and the main boom
was adrift.
Mate 0'Donnell knew what had
happened, 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 halyards,
hoping thereby to hold the main
boom. Every instant they expected
it to go over.
Clover sail, john" the mate
said to Peterson as he tried to Sc
cure the blight to the Delaying pin.
Peterson felt for the main throat
halyardS Ii he could only lower
sail and ease her off the danger
would be lessened. Just then there
came gust that made the timbers
creak and sounded on the sails like
a cannon boom, Peterson heard a
sharp swapping noise, and knew
that the Delaying pin to which
O'Donnell had fastened the tack
ling had broken.
The cordage turned around one
of O'DonnolPs legs SO tight that he
was lifted clean from his feet as
the wind slapped the main boom
around, and threw him against the
gunwae. He struck on the small
OF his back, and was thus drawr
along the stern. There the rope
uncoiled, and he dropped into the
sea.
"Cap'n, Pm oyerboard,7 Captain
McDade heard his brother-in- law
scream. 1t was a trying moment fol
the captain. His wife's brother il
the sea, and his main boom whip
ping back and forth, his vessel ca