Connecticut western news., 1882-05-24
OFF CAPE HORN.
A Narrow Escape from Collision al
 Sea


 "Come, sit thee down by me, love, come sit
 thee down by me,
 And I will tell thee many tale of tho dangers
 of the sea-"
 We had narrow escape from collision in the Fearlittle while beating around Cape Horn on passage to San Fran cisco many years ago, writes Kenne- becker in the Boston Journal. We were standing off shore under three close reefed topsails, in company with an English barque. Our ship was beating him badly and the captain was delighted q was mate then), and wish ing to be on the right tack for a south west wind, which he felt sure was com ing, wore the ship at dark and stood in shore, as there was then plenty of sea room. The gale increased, and we took in our reefed foresail and mizzen top sail. Tho captain had mind to take in the foretopsail, and take it easy, but I had been watching the barque which was to windward of us while in sight, and knew that she must now be in our track. pointed this out to the captain, and he at once saw it in the same light did. The night set in as black as ink at 4 o'clock in the afternoon.
 At I went below, and the second mate, brave, smart man, was officer of the deck. I could not sleep much, for am a nervous fellow, and just before eight bells struck heard the leokouts sing out, "Light, on and then heard the second mate run forward. I knew no light could be seen far from us, and I was on deck in an instant. At that moment the officer yelled from the fore castle, "Hard up hard up square the after yards l" His watch were all on the cross-jack braces instantly, and by that time was at the forecastle door calling my watch, "On deck, men on deck, for your lives p They were on the weather main brace in less time than l am writing this, and that sail was shivering in the wind. The captain had now got on the quarter deck, and ran forward to examine the situation. When got to the knightheads saw sight that made my blood run cold. Our ship was clipper, as sharp as a steam boat. Her long, razor-like forefoot was such resistan to the sea that it made the movement of paying of, as we call it, slow, in the condition we were in.
 The wind was blowing 8 "Gvine gale" the sea was very high, and tho barque on the opposite tack with every stitch of her canvas, in but storn spencer was rolling down toward us The ships bow was rising and falling heavily, pointing exactly to the m1dshil section of the almost doomed vessel At first there were Q few long seas be tween us, then one rolled by, and an other. A fearful gust struck us, tn, fore yard buckled and tugged at tn, foremast, and her bow gave way lit tie; fortunately for us we have very lit tie headway. Three seas between us and we headed for the strangers quar ter. As he rolled over on the side O the sea toward us, all of his deck wal revealed by the glare of lantern hung in his rigging. The crew were all hud dled around the capstan, some in tn, rigging.
 Among their shrieks and cries coult hear, "We are lost oh save us we ar lost l" could look right down upol them, and our men were throwing ropes The roar of the tempest, the worst roa of the maddened sea, the darkness al around us, the feeble glimmer of tn lamp, the walls of the crew, are amoni the recollections I shall never lose My heart grew strangely cold and in different, the terror of the scene for moment flew away, and I felt as thougl we had come to our last deadly struggle and that it made but little differen oe We were doing the best we could, an would do to the end. One sea rolle between us 1; the barque's masts incline over our bow, thought, as the flu force of blast after blast now filled ou sails, gave us headway and shot U across the strange vessels stern. One simultaneous huzza of relief froI both crews mingled in that wild whil of wind and sea, as our stern just graze his, and we never knew one anothe again. hailed, and asked, "Wht barque is that p so did our captain; W got no answer. At dark the barqut not so good sea boat as our ship, Ina , confidently been hove to for the nigh 7 and had it not been for our foretop sa there would have been "two more mis- ing ships" As we rolled away from ou , terrible visitor saw my men with buI f dies in their hands. asked them whs that meant they hardly knew. Som had bag of shirts, others had roll ( pants, anything they could grab, all some of them had been stripping then selves for 8 plunge. It was almost l panic among both crews.
 Grape and Canister.
 II : l.