Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1883-08-17
SILENT PETER.
a Thrilling story of the Sen.

Frank H. Converse in Forest and Streaml
That sailors are naturally supcrstitious
goes without saying And this is not SO
much to be wondered at when one takes
into consideration two facts-the igno-
rant and unlcttered condition of many of
them, and the strange, even mysterious.
nature OF certain sea phenomena which
they are constantly encountering.
A singular, and, | must confess, mex
plicable, illustration of this came into my
experience when was quite youngster,
making my second or third voyage before
William and Mary. / had left the ship
Tonawanda, known to many Philadcl-
phians, in Savannah, and with nine other
ordinary and able seamen gone on board
the William and Mary, receiving fifteen
dollars (wnges were low in those days. for
the "run" to New York.
The William and Mary was a small,
full-rigged ship, whose antiquated APP
pearance indicatd that she must have
been built during the past century. Her
masts, sails, spars and rigging were alone
of modern make, while her hull was
strangely old-fashioned. The stern, which
was high and overhanging, was carved in
most fantastic manner, though the
carvings were partly concealed by the
many coats of coaltar which had been
Literally applied, voyage after voyage.
Her beam was full onc-third the entire
length of the box-like deck, with it's
shoulder-high bulwarks, and the bows
were rs bluff and swelling as those of
Dutch galliot.
The captain, Robert Thurber, was an
Englishman from somewhere about Deal.
if / remember rightly. His two officers
belonged in the south Of England. They
were all quiet men, not given to bullying
or clustering, and MS the crew was very
good one (for in those days the merchant
service was not made up Of the mixed
foreign element composing our present
day crews) the voyage proceeded without
any incident worthy OF notice, until the
little event that | am about TO relate.
BY the time we got up with Hatteras,
the wind, which had been for the most
part from the south and southwest, haul
ed round into the nor'west, and began to
blow as it only can off that stormy cape
in the month of February and March.
Being crank, and very deep with her
heavy cargo, the William and Mary was
not very marked success on wind-in-
deed, / am inclined to think that she
made nearly ms much leewny as Roadway,
for the thirty-six hours that the nor'west-
er lasted.
1t was in the middle watch, the second
night of the gale, and blowing harder
than ever. Under three-reefed topsails,
fore staysail, and reefed spanker, the old
ship with her yards braced sharp up
against the backstays, was staggering
along through, into, and under, trem-
endous cross sea, nearly as fast as one
could whip n crab through barrel of
soft tar-to use sailors smile. AS she
butted up against the tremendous pillows,
or sank into the great abysses that yawn-
ed beneath her keel, sea after sea broke
over her continuously, keeping the waist
80 full Of water, that Captain Thurber
had the lookout stationed in the slings of
the foreyard, and called the rest Of the
watch up in the gangway on the lee side
Of the quarter, for it was almost impossi-