The Portland daily press., 1884-10-27
IN A CYCLONE.
Thrilling Experience of the Ship
Martha Cobb.
Her Set Sails Blown to Ribbons and
Deck Swept
CAPT. GREENBANK,s NARRATIVE
OF "A REMARKABLE PHE-
NOMENON.

New YORK, Oct. 25.-When Capt. Green
in this port last night, hustled into the office
of Snow & Burgess, the shipping merchants,
No. &c South street, this morning, with bis
books and papers under his arm. be was greet
ed with hearty congratulations from o dozen
of his friends on his escape from shipwreck in
the furious cyclone which he encountered Dur
ing his passage from London. "Yes," said the
captain to a reporter, 1--WE had some pretty
stiff weather, and no mistake. II the ship
had not been good one. we should have gone
down. Indeed, I thought it was all up With
us when the squal str0ck US We left Lon
don on the 29.h of August for this port with
cargor of chalk and cement. We had in all a
crew of 10 men on board, including the officers
SO the vessel was we'll manned. From the day
we left port we had head winds blowing strong
ly from the west, and our passage was conse-
quently much delayed. The storm which we
encountered occurred on September Is, in lat.
46o, long $50 49,. The wind blew q steady
gale from the southwest, veering to the south
for eight or nine hours. We were sailing at
the time under reefed foresail and two lower
suddenly, as we had been having westerly
winds, during all the previous part of the
voyage, and it died out just as quickly, leav-
log US rolling about in heavy sea and dead
calm early in the evening. About twenty
minutes afterward, without the slightest warn
ing, the most terrific squall ever experienced
struck the vessel, the wind coming directly
from the northwest. The ship was thrown
over on her beam ends by the violence OF tie
blast, and would have gone over completely,
believe, had not the halliards been parted and
the sails loosened. II was quick wors, bat not
a moment too soon. Every sail THIS had been
set was blown TO ribbons, and the rigging was
considerably damaged. As soon as the
vessel righted, she was rolling heavily in the
trough OF the sea, and every sea that struck
broke completely over her decks. Everything
movable was washed overheard and it was
fortunate that we lost none of our crew. The
squail seemed TO have spent it force in about
fifteen minutes,and it settled down to a steady
gale. Il was found that the cargo had shifted
during the squall, and that considerable dam
age had been done. just how much the loss
is cannot say, for have not yet had time to
Hldho AA 1ANooblSAbiOAs LIS aCJluclk ana LD6
loss of our sails delayed us about eleven days.
We were obliged to get on as best we could
with short ssils Daring the remainder of the
passage, We encountered heavy westerly winds
and high seas"
"Was not the squall which you passed
through very unusual one for such high lati-
tude?"
"Yes; never encountered ssch hurricane
before in north Atlantic voy ages. The storm
was regular cyclone, and was what sailors
call revolving gale. Such storms are fre-
quently encountered in tropical regions. They
are psculisr on account of the sudden changes
in the direction of the wind, and the caIms
which prevail just before the approach of the
squall. We must have passed through the
very centre of the cyclone. A remarkable in.
cident OF the storm was the extraordinary va
riatons of the barometer, which observed
during the gale. In four hours the barometer
fell from 3035 inches to 28.55, and then rose
quickly to 29.70.''
The Martha Cobb is a full rigged chip, own
ed by Francis Cobb OF Rockland, Me, and has
1888 tons registry. She was built in 1879, and
had been furnished with new outfit OF sail.
She is now lying in the bay off Stapleton She
will remain in port some time for repairs
after discharging her cargo.