The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1885-07-17
STORIES of GREAT WAVES.

LILY IL GItl Id III " " . 1
George P. Morris. ~
STORIES OF GREAT WAVES.
IAN Old Sea Captain Tells of Wonders Per-
formed BY Storm Waves.
New York Tribune.
Captain Parselle, of the White Star
steamship Adriatic, has been blowing
the boundless main these forty years.
He has navigated every ocean and al
most every known body of water large
enough to float a ship. During recent
years he has commanded some one
of the Liverpool steamers of the
White Star Line, and has thousands of
acquaintance IN this city who know
well what an honest, bluff, straightfor-
ward old sea dog he is. This introduce
ton to the Tribune readers would be
wholly unnecessary but for the miracu-
lons nature of the stories which are to
follow. and which, SAYS Captain Par
selle, "are as true and sure as that the
sun is now shining at us here on my
deck"
The conversation which had preceded
these wonderful tales had referred to
the storm wave lately encountered in
mid-ocean by the Gernanic. The cap
tain explained what sort of a sea it was.
The newspapers called it a tidal wave"
he said, "but it was nothing of the sort.
Tidal waves only occur in bays, frths,
md rivers which are SO situated as to
be peculiarly sensitive to the influences
of the moon and Of gravitation. AT
least that is how 'rneterologists explain
them. But though l have studied their
theories with labo-ious care, I have en-
countered tidal waves that had an origin
far more subtle than in the local situa-
tions that make water especially excit-
able.
"For instance, I saw q tidal wave
once from Il high bluff on the banks Of
) the Ganges. Ut was a perpendicular
wall of water advancing at the rate of
, about twenty miles an hour. 1t was
; perfectly straight, except at the very
4 top, where il crested into a foam that
: had not strength enough to fall. 1t
was about seventeen feet high. That
e was a pure tidal wave, and l have never
= yet been abe to work out its origin or
! cause.
/ "Now a storm wave, such as struck
e the Germanic, is a very different thing,
o and is explicable upon thoroughly we'll
9 defined meteorological principles. The
:, windi in n first.class ocean storm is hope
g lessly cratic. I have known it to blow
from every point of the compass within
Z half an hour. 1T blows with terrific
o force and of course, creates tremend-
ously heavy seas in every direction
whence it blows. The sea RECEIVERS very
slowly, SO that after the wind has
veered from south to north, the seas
d come at ysu ingulfng waves in every
g conceivable direction. Now, there is o
: point where the influence of all these
o seas unite, producing a wave that reach
of es Incredible. attitudes with a force that
II is simply irresistible. That is a storm
n wave, and shat is what knocked the
!. Germanic. Nc seaman can locate it,
=, and if you happen to be in its path all
d YOU can do is-take it.
IS "Have I ever encountered one? Well,
y I should sag so. l don't often tell these
t stories, for if a man tells many of them
H. he is in da,ager of losing his reputation
~ for varacity. The yarn l am going to
n 6Dlu lloW, HoWtNtls 10 Lux y 40 49,
m own experience, and whether anybody
b. believes it oc'not; it is so. Thirtv-three
wears ago I was the chief officer OF a
9OO-ton ship. We sailed between Lon
don and India. JOne eXening, wheuaa
ly few hours ont from London, i'll the Eng
u lish Channel, thettime came to relieve
to the watch. THAT was s o'clock. The
r. sky was a little murky but not absolute
n, " cloudy. The channel waters were
.c calm. The h~reezeHwas fresh, blowing
We from the west;a such Il rate as to com
T. pei us to sail under "a reefed mainsail
he and doub!e-reefedttopsails. On our LEI
IS side was a brig. Ny captain and ]
~ were standing together on deck. I had
nh given orders forthe watch to be called,
r. and they were Their assembled on the
n poop deck. The captain said to me
al Mr.. Parselle, / think the light ought
OF to be visible by fiji misunderstanding The
n, ~, Eddvstone light. Suppose l go alof1
ard look Unanswered.
az wentu Up the rigging till l got abont
sixty feet aloft, and suddenly, wher
=, inst in that perilous position, l heard {
or terrible shout from the deck. ! looked
On down to see what was. the matter, ant
le iust, as I did so a mountain of water
ng struck us amidships. 1t picked me
ne right off my feet and hurled me- cleal
w throngh the rigging, f1attened me
e. against the mast whence | fell down in
re to the maintop. The rest of what hap
i'd pened l discovered after recovery. Ih'
Il wave took off every strip of rigging ant
en- canvas, all the yards, boats and arms
~, and left.the ship with only her NEST
We standing. We ran back to the Isle o
rs Wight, and anchored in the Solent t.
ad ascertain the extent of the damage, an
II we discovered the most wonderful. thing
of all. The ship had been sheathet
with copper, and that wave had stripped
81 its top shees off for eighty feet OF tn
ship, length, as clean as q mechanic,
be shears could have done!
le "How did it happen? Don't ask me
,ee I suppose there may have been a intl'
he hole in the copper, and the water wa
n. ne forced into it with such iln~measurabl'
~. mower as to have the effect | have de
he serlbed. But you rememberl told yol
vo there was a brig to the leeward of us
lie, The next morning we saw her lyins
astegn of lis in the Solent. Her mast
were and il al army of carpenter
had been at work clearing OF her deck
az y. they could not have left her more bar
,c 10 rem than that wave did Her watcl
Of had been swept overload and ever,
IN man of them lost.
'es aWeN, that was a storm wave TO
' - YOU, but I struck one in'ls77 that wa