The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1879-08-13
The Captain's Story.

"Well, it's purity hot" answered a lake
captain in one of the ferry dock saloons
Yesterday, "but it isn't nothing to the
summer of 1886. We had it, at least
twenty degrees hotter than this right
along for six weeks. I was running the
Mary Jane between Chicago and Buffalo
then, and I've seen the thermometer
stand Mt 13O degrees in the middle Of
Lake Huron"
THAT was awful" sighed one Of the
sitters.
"Well, it was fairish, but we didn't
call it very hot till we got into the st.
Clair river and the mercury went up to
$50 degrees when hanging against the
water butt. The boys used up 728 palm
leaffans on one trip that year. On one
of our trips down we were becalmed for
three days on Lake Huron. We got it
there and no mistake"
"Purty hot, eh?"
"Well, I'm an old man, and / don't
care to 20 lying at this day, bat I'll tell
you few solemn facts. Every sail on
that schooner smoked and smoldered till
they fell to pieces on deck and left US
under bare poles! Yes, sir, we hadn't a
rag aloft as big as your hand. That was
lust at sunrise in the morning, and
within an hour we had to wet down
decks to prevent them burning. went
down stairs to consult the thermometer,
and it lay on the floor all melted into a
chunk of glass and tin! Then began to
realize how hot it was and got fright
ened."
What could you do?"
"WeIl, not much. We had begun to
rig lines over the lee side, so that all
could take to the water, when the top
sail yard came down and killed the
cook. The links in the chains had
melted right out! I never knew case
like it since. but then the weather has
cooled off greatly since 1885,"
"And about the cookp"
Nothing about him. When we
picked the body up to heave it over
board, it had spread out in a mass about
four feet square, and we had to use
shovels before we got through. He was
good young man and a perfect gentle
man, and his mother never blamed me
in the least for scoop-shoveling his rc-
mains over the rail. We finally rugged our
lines and got overheard"
And it was much cooler?"
"Ah! young man, how little you re-
porters know of the great lakes spread
out before your gaze on the maps!
Cooler! Why, the minute we struck
the water we begun squirming like SO
many cells. The lake was red hot. The
water would have cooked an egg in four
minutes. was blistered from head to
heelin not ime. Some day I will take off
my coat and vest and show you my back.
The flesh was actually cooked to depth
of two inches, ,and for over two years the
dogs used to scent cooked meat when l
walked out, and followed me by dozens.
Five surgeons tainted away in heap at
the sight OF my left shoulder, and the
only man I could get to dress my back
was butcher under sentence of DEATH"
1T must have peen terrible. How
did you come out of the calm?"
Well, while I was squtrming in the
water white squall struck the schooner
and down she went. 1t was all over in
!, minute, and air and water were hotter
than ever. I struck out for the Cana-
dian shore. over hundred miles away,
knowing that it was sink or swim, but in
half an hour I was safe"
picked up?"
"Well, no." replied the captain, rs he
scratched his leg. / struck an iceberg
and climbed up into cave near the top!
| tell you it was grateful change to me,
and that's one reason why can never
see hunk of ice and lemon without
feeling grateful to the man who invented
both. ."-Detroit Free Press.