Millheim Journal. [volume] (Millheim, Pa.) 1876-1984, 1881-09-22

Hllllu WHeu sOHeLilIlB JudI OuBAh W bC
done waits for him to do it. Volunteers
were forthcoming. The order WIS
given. Eight hands sprarg aft and
seated themselves in the lifeboat, and
the third officer, Mr.. William Williams,
took his place in the stern-sheets. It
was one of those moments when the
bravest man in the world will hold his
breath. There swung his boats crew
at the devits the end of the fall in the
hands of men waiting for the right
second to lower away. One dark-gr
foamless swell, in whole, huge noun
tains Of water, rose and sank below !;
too much hurry, the least delay, any
lack of GOODNESS, of Judgment, of per-
ception of exactly the right thing to do,
and it was hundred TO one if the next
minute did not see the boat dashed into
slaves and her crew squattering and
drowning among the fragments. The
due command was coolly given; the
sheaves of the fall-blocks ratified on
their pins and the boat sank down to
the waters edge. A vast swell hove
her high, almost to the level of the spot
where she had been hanging, and as
quick as mortal hands can move the
blocks were unlocked only just in
time. Then a strong shove drove her
clear, and in a moment she was heading
for the wreck-now vanishing as though
she had been wholly swallowed up by
the tall, green, sparkling ridge that rose
between her and the steamer, then
tossed like a cork upon a mountainous
pinnacle, with keel out of water. She
had been well stocked with lines and
ife-buoys, for it was clearly seen that
the pouring waters would never permit
her to come within a pistol-shot of the
bark, and the suspense among the
passengers amounted to an agony as
they wondered within themselves how
those sailors would rescue the poor
creatures who had watched them from
the foamy decks of the almost submerged
wreck. They followed the boat vanish
ing and reappearing, the very pulsation
of their hearts almost arrested at mo-
ments when the little craft made head
long, giddy swoop into a prodigious
hollow and was lost to view, until pre-
sently they perceived that the men had
ceased to row. 1t was then seen that
the third mate was hailing the crew of
the bark. Presently they saw one OF
the shipwrecked sailors heave a coil of
line towards the boat it was caught,
life-buoy bent on to it and hauled aboard
the wreck. To this ife-buoy was
attached a second line, the end of which
was retained by the people in the boat.
One of the men on the wreck put the
life buoy over his shoulders and in an
instant flung himself into the sea, and
was dragged smartly but carefully into
the boat. The Parthia's passengers
now understood how the men were to be
saved. One by one the ship-wrecked
seamen leaped into the water, until
eleven of them had been dragged into
the Parthia's boat. The number made
load, and with a CHEEKY call to those
who were to be left behind for a short
while. Mr.. Williams headed for the
steamer. The deep boat approached
the Parthia slowly; but, meanwhile
Captain McKaye's foresight had provided
for the perilous and difficult job of get
ting the rescued men on board the
steamer. A whip was rove at the fore
yardarm, under which the rising and
falling boat was stationed by means of
her oars. one end of the whip knotted
into bow-line was overhauled into the
boat and slipped over the shoulders of
man, and at signal dozen or more of
the Parthia's crew ran him up and
swayed him in. In this way the eleven
men were safely landed on the deck of
the steamer. The boat then returned
to the wreck. the rest of the crew were
dragged from her by means OF the buoys
and hfe-line9, and hoisted, along with
six of the Parthia's men, out of the boat
by the yardarm whip. But not yet was
this perilous and nobly-executed mission
completed. There was still the boat to
run up to the davits. All the old fears
reoccurred as she was brought alongside
with Mr.. Williams and two men in her.
But jack has o marvellously quick hand
and a steady pulse. The blocks were
swiftly hooked into the boat, and soon
she scared like bird in the davits under
the strong running pull of a number of
men before the swell that followed her
could rise to the height of the chain
plates.
To appreciate the pathos and pluck of
an adventure of this kind, a man must
have served as a spectator or actor in
some such a scene Words have but
little virtue when deeds are to be told
whose moving powers and ennoblng
inspirations lie in a performance that
may as fitly be described In one as in a
hundred lines. Such as remember the
faces of those shipwrecked Englishmen
and Canadians, the aspect of them as
they were hoisted, one by one, over the
Parthia's side the bewildered rolling of
their eyes incredulous of their miracu-
lous preservation their expression of
suffering slowly yielding to perception
of the new lease of life mercfully ac-
corded them, graciously and nobly
earned for them their streaming gar
ments, their hair clotted like seaweed
upon their pale foreheads; the passion