Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1879-02-05


tain Sproul came to her aid He had
lately become gentle. and was less alb
rupt III his manner of speaking to her;
and from treating her rs child had, al
though he hardly knew it, commenced
to love her as II woman. But it was the
mendacious statement of the disrated
steward III the police court that precip-
ltated matters, and caused the captain
to thus address his ward.
Like myself, Helen, you have served
and are now entitled to command; and
II you Will return on board La Belle Htk
enc with such a title as none can cues
ton, Will make you my wife.
Extremes Will meet. In spite CT his
severity, Helen greatly respected the
captain. His stern sense of Justice, man
ly ways, and the terse vigor which char
acterized his htterances, made HIM seem
to her man TO look up to; besides, she
nov regarded him as her protector and
the ship as her home, and she accepted
him.
A few days after this speech, Captain
Sproul came on board in great good hu-
NOR, for he had been married that morn
ing, and had left his wife at the house of
TREND, prior to going on short honey
moon. Before leaving, however, he had
to give his final instructions to Mr..
Cobb.
some days previous TO the wedding
my comrade Hawke had applied forand
obtained HIS discharge, the captain re-
marking that he did not care to have
broken down gentlemen ON board his
vessel, and advising Hawke tc try to
lind some more congenlal employment
on shore. But on this, the captains
wedding morning II terrible event oc-
CURED, which nearly cost him the lives
of his wife, his ship, and all on board,
including his own. The barometer had
fallen, and when the captain came ON
board it WAS blowing quite fresh. We
had Just sent down our light vaIds when
the breeze increased to II strong gale,
and at noon, just rs the great tidal wave
was due, the wind shifted to II hurricane,
bringing with it the "bore" or storm
wave from the sea. Then commenced
to blow such n cyclone us for destruc-
ton has hardly been equalled within II
century. In tnat cyclone twenty thous-
and people persisted, and one hundred
and thirteen villages We're swept away;
and out of fleet of three hundred
of the finest ships and steamers in the
world, only one escaped without dam
age.
When the great wave came rolling
up, La Belle Helene, directly she was
struck, was dragged from her moorings,
while the force of the wind was SO ter
rife that we could not stand upright.
Two vessels locked together had drilted
against us, smashing our boats to
and swapping our peaked
yards as though they were pine-stems
The conclusion caused MS to collide
with another vessel reducing Ter to the
same state as ourselves, and thus four
vessels locked together were swept out
into the stream. We were carried
stern first with almost railway velocity,
the captain and Mr.. Cobb vainly trying
to give orders, while holding on to the
when suddenly the vessel
was lifted up with n tremendous crash,
as though her stern was stove If, and
in less than minute her bow swung
around head up stream, and she lay on
her beam ends. We had struck on
hidden wreck, and in addition to losing
our rudder, had stove large hole in
our quarter, through which the water
was rushing like n waterfall, and we
were filling fast. This disaster, how
ever, cleared US of the other vessels,
which like chips in mil. stream swept
past, leaving us complete wreck, with
bulwarks stove in and fore-lowermast
alone standing. As the vessel settled
by the stern, with great difficulty we
crawled and made our way to the bow
spirit, which seemed each minute to
stand more upright; while with n roar
like the blast of a furnace the wind in
creased in force, or screamed like an
Eolian harp through what remained of
our wire-rigging. The cyclone was
now at its height, and we had been
nearly four hours on the bowsprit, when
there was lull, ana rs cattle, horses,
and the dead bodies of men, women
and children passed us, besides native
boats and portions of wreckage, we
could make out that they saw us on
shore, and were getting the rocket APP
paratus in position; but such was the
force of the wind, that when they fired
the lines fell short, and after several at
tempts they desisted. They pointed
down the river, however, and to wind
ward We saw what appeared to be "A
speck coming up with the tide,which was
running ike a sluico. AS the speck
we could distinguish that
it was man With the features Of
Hawke, and he held up his hand to
show that he had a line attached to
him: and as he was carried toward u,
the captain dropped running tow-llne
over him, and with great difficulty We
hauled him on board. To the line
ubich IIouka hrot1pht with him we