The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1883-10-13

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the matches and breaks in the deck, and en-
deavoring with but poor success to put the
bilge pumps in order That night the
wind increased to gale, with binding
lightning and scourging squalls of rain and
electric hail that stung like whip-lashes.
The ship was too water-logged to attempt
successfully the seaman's usual maneuver in
heavy blow and lay her to. She only
fell off again into the trough of the sea,
which swept her deck completely, and
drove us from the pumps. 1t soon became
apparent that the hull must in some way
be kept head to sea- With the greatest
difficulty we succeeded in oyerhauling
enough of the chain cable, outside the ves-
sci and in over the bows, to reach our
jury foremast, and there lash it. Securing
to the chain all the spars, lumber, and old
sails we could find, we let go the anchors
easily, and cutting away the steppings of
the foremast, managed to slide the whole
mass overheard with heavy lurch of the
ship, Immediately paying out through the
hawse-pipes fifteen or twenty fathoms
more of chain.
The tangle of spars, chain, and riggiilg
foated hundred yards or SO ahead, and,
being almost under water, drifted much
more slowly than the ship, SO that by their
action as drag, together with the little
rag of a mizzen hauled fat aft, the only
sail remaining set, the hulk was kept almost
head to sea.
The sails ahead, spreading out in the
water served to break the force of the
waves making the ship ride more comforta-
BILE, although each heavy sea broke over
the bows like a deluge and running aft
waist-deep clear to the taffrail, poured out
in great spouts through the shattered bull
warks.
The straining ship, wallowing like a
mad buffalo in the sea, sent up the most
life-like groans and screams of pain from
her tortured timbers, as, bufeted back and
forth from sea to sea, she rolled and pitched
till our brains began to reel. As recall
the resounding blows of the waves upon
the vessels sides and deck, the believing of
the wind, the swash and crash of tons of
water in the hold, the cargo adrift, and
sugar-bags tumbling around as pebbles roll
up and down beach, each one hundred
pound battering-ram upon the white pine
ceiling of the hold, the wild commissions of
the laboring hulk, the seams opening and
closing and planks saving back and forth
against each other as if the wreck were
breaking up, the pumps clogged with half
dissolved sugar and pieces of bamboo bags,
while the water swept the decks so as to
drive us into the scanty rigging of our jury
mizzen-mast, where we lashed ourselves to
keep from being blown away, expecting
that each heavy plunge of the quiyering
bows would be the last, ,-as recall all this,
| wonder that our reason held, and can
hardly understand how we calculated so
logically as we did our chances of survival,
discussed so coolly such projects as lashing
leaky oil barrel alongside the bowsprit to
becalm the sea ahead, and even joked about
the ships being like Paddy's boot "a hole
in her forefoot to let the water in, and a
hole in her heel to let it out,-or like the
Mary Dunn of Dover, with three decks
and no bottom.
The morning of the ninth day dawned,
or rather glimmered, upon cherries, cold,
gray sky streaked with flying scud, and the
air full of rain and spume fakes that stung
our faces and hands like the pricking of
needles, and almost blinded us if we at
tempted to look to windward We had
nothing to expect for some days but living
gale, which, veering gradually around the
southern half of the compass from north
east to northwest, showed clearly that we
were in the lower radius of cyclone that
must have destroyed everything in the path
of its vortex, judging by the severity of
what we experienced some two hundred
miles away to the southwark.
Toward the close of the forenoon, one of
the men above me in the rigging scrambled
down, and placing his face close to mine,
shouted excitedly from the hollow of his
hand, "Sail on the port quarter, sir! On
drawing ourselves higher up the rigging,
we saw, through the flying spume-drift, a
large vessel lying-to under storm canvas
and apparently weathering the gale hand
somely With much difficulty and consid-
cradle danger of being washed overheard,
we brought an ensign from the locker and
secured it, union down, to the rigging above
us, where it blew out straight and stiff as a
board. Our hulk was by this time low
enough in the water not to be visible at
any great distance, and the entire absence
of top-hamper made it extremely doubtful
that we could be seen by the watch of the
ship, who were in all probability crouched
behind their weather cloth for protection
from the gale. As the vessel drew nearer
and her outline became more distinct, we
made out that she was on the port tack
and fore-reaching enough to carry heI
across our bows. Thus we were on her lee
beam, and had much better chance Of
being seen than if we had been to the
windward.
We clung there in the rigging and
watched her graceful motions. She wa'
careened enough to let us see her slant
decks running with water, her matches
tightly battened down, the coils of running
gear triced up clear of the deck, her black,
taunt spars reeling overhead from the pres
sure on the little strips of white canvas
round and full as the breast of swan, and
in the mizzen rigging a square black tar
pauIin with few oil-skin coats visible
behind it. She rolled heavily, but with
that easy, graceful sweep that betokens {
well-trimmed cargo, now revealing thu
whole outline Of her decks and then shut
ting out the scene with her high blacl
bulwarks. Her cleanly cut and sweeping
Yankee bows would be buried in asmothe
of foam clear to the knight-heads, and theI
rise dripping and quivering, revealing th'
glittering copper nearly to the fore-foot
and, as the sea rushed aft along the blacl
and shining sides, her after-body ros
slowly until her heel was flung out with ;
ponderons flourish, and then sank agaiI
with fierce swash from under her round
ed counter As she was slowly forging
by us not a quarter of mile away, Ou
hearts were gladdened by the sight of thu
American flag, and below it an answering
| pennant flying out from her monkey -gaff
In another instant her watch below tum
bled out of the forecastle, and we could sex
them all busy ungriping their lee boat anc
, running line forward outside of all to thC
bows. Then we began to fell that we had
done wrong in flying our signal of distress
for no boat, we thought, could live a mo
ment in such an awful sea, and any attempt