The Republican journal., 1884-07-17
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In An Open Boat.


My name is William Pearce. | have
used the sea for about ight-and-twenty
years, have sailed in all kinds of ships in
all sorts of apacities-boy, ordinary sea
man, sallmaker bosun's mate: crossed
the Atlantic seventeen times. and been
around the world eight been shipwreck
ed thrice likewise overheard during
seven hours of darkness, and picked up
al day break With my head in a life buoy :,
know pretty nigh the best and the worst
OF the weather that's to be found at sea :;
and am therefore capable OF taking my
oath to this, that OF all the bad jobs that
ever | was in, or that ever heard of any
other sailor being in, there's nothing to
beat the sutferngs us men of the schoon
er Richard WaTbIick had to endure when
the laundering of that vessel obliged us
to take to the boat.
The schooner sailed from Runcorn
with cargo Of coal for Plymouth. She
Was twenty years old. and trit1e over a
hundred tons burden. There were five
ofa crew, and nothing particular happen
ed until We We're abreast Of the Bristol
Channel, when there blew up a heavy
gale of wind from the BASTARD. There's
no call to describe it, it was Of the regu-
lar kind, full OF wet, and raising a sea a
sight too big for a vessel Of one hundred
tons pretty nigh chock a block with coal
and with twenty years OF hard use in her
hull. However, we scraped through the
gale, and two or three more that follow
ed fast, until one morning we were some
where betwiXt the Scilly Isles and the
l. "A. J.
er blowing and raining hard, the sea
rough, bitter cold-as YOU may calculate
it was, the month being January-aEd
everything invisible that was more than
halt mile oil. The wind was east and
north, and we were ratching along under
very small canvas. when, being turned
in, as it was my watch below. and the
Land O. Nod close aboard, | was reused
up by loud cry on deck and tremen-
dous crash. | tumbled up as fast as ever
| could pelt. and found the schooner go
ing down and the men getting the only
boat we carried overheard. 1t was no
time for questions. You could feel the
vessel settling under Your feet. Just like
standing on soft mud and sinking III it,
The seas were washing over the deck,
and growing heavier as her bulwarks
sank lower. There was nothing but
white water to be seen on the starbOard
bow-no rocks nothing showing above
the froth but | didn't want any one to
tell me that we had run fou, of the Seven
Stones. There was no time to do more
than launch the boat and roll into her
DAILY was the last man in, and scarce had
he jumped when the schooner plunged
clean out of sight, going down like a
deep-sea lead, so suddenly that it took
my breath away.
"There's no sensation worse than that
a man feels when he looks for the ship
he's been forced to abandon and finds
her vanished under the sea. The ocean
never seems so wide as then The whole
world appears to be made of water.
Sailors are a class of men little given to
talking and when they come clear Of
such jobs as this they say next to moth
ing about it, and so people think that
either they're men without the capacity
of feeling, or else their sut1erings We're
not equal to what might be supposed.
Had people who take these views been
in that boat along with us they'd look
sharp in altering their opinions. The
suddenness of the disastel-our being
one moment safe, and the next tossing on
the sea in life boat, with the schooner
gone, nothing saved but what we stood
in, not a mOrsel of food nor a drop of
drink of any kind, the wind blowing fit
to freeze the eyes out Of our heads, every
mothers son of us soaked to the skin
and drifting fast away toward the Allan
tic-took our senses away for a spell.
We sat holding on and staring like daft
men. The captain was the first to rally.
''He called out, A bad job it's bad
Job. ladsn several times, and then said,
No use letting her drive too fast. We
mustn't let her blow away into the ocean :
and with that we lashed the two oars to
the painter and flung them overboard
"ihis brought her head to wind and
slowed her drift; but. for all that, every
hour was carrying US farther and farther
toward the open sea, and away from the
Scilly Isles and the Cornish coast, which
were our best chance, so that all the hope
that was left us was being picked up by
passing vessel. Yet there could be no
worse month in the year than january
| for that likelihood. How long were the
gales and the frost going to let US last
| We were far to the nor'ard of the fair
way, in part of the sea that every yes
| sci was bound to give a wide berth to.
| The weather, as | have said, was so
| thick that you couldn't see half a mile
Off ; and though of course it was sure to
clear in time and open out the horizon,
SO that vessels could have a view around
them, the question was, Where would we
be when it came on fine?
"Unlike a good many others who have
gone through such dreadful messes as
this, our sutferings began the moment
we tumbled into the boat. In the lowest
latitudes that ever was in | never felt
such cold. Had the water been fresf
our clothes would have frozen into cover
ings of ice. The air was full of spray
and squalls of sleet came rolling up. We
sat in the bottom of the boat in a lump
to keep her steady, and for the shelter 0
one another's bodies, and those who were
to Windward-that is. in the foreport-
would Shift from time to time, and others
take their place. We had no mast no1
sail, nothing but the two IS we rode to
1t was Monday, and all through tht
daylight we sat lifting our eyes above
the gunwales, and trying to pierce th(
haze for a vessel. 1t was blowing abou
half gale of wind, and it kept steady
Now and then we'd ship dose of water
and bale it out with our caps; but it KEEP
our feet soaking and ! reckon it wa
worse than being without boots at all
The boat did we'll, and the oars were
kind of breakwater, and helped her. AT
ter four in the afternoon the night drew
on. We never could get used to th
darkness The daytime was bad enough
but the night made our sutferings mad
dening. The wind, when the sea wa
black, would take the feel of solid ice
We couldn't see one another, and tha
made talking a kind of foolishness; ant
so we never spoke-whch caused ever
one to feel himself lonely man upon th
sea. Likewise the noise of the waite
would sound stronger. Ii the daytime
took no notice, but at night I'd find my
self listening to the crying of the wind u
in the dark, and the Kissing that rose al
over the ocean from the breaking of tn
waves.
81 don't know what my mates did
but that first night | never closed NJ
eyes, never tried to shut them, neve