The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1885-06-26

against the mast whence I fell down in
to the maintop. The rest Of what hap
pened I discovered after recovery. The
wave took off every strip of rigging and
canvas, all the yards, boats and arms,
and left the ship with only her masts
standing. We ran back to the Isle Of
Wight, and anchored in the Solent to
ascertain the extent of the damage, and
we discovered the most wonderful thing
Of all. The ship had been sheathed
with copper, and that wave had stripped
its top sheet off for eighty feet of the
ships length, as clean as mechanics
shears could have donel
How did it happen? Don't ask me.
l suppose there may have been little
hole in the copper, and the water was
forced into it with such immeasurable
power as to have the effect have de-
scrlbed. But you remember told you
there was brig to the leeward of us.
The next morning we saw her lying
astern of us in the Solent. Her masts
were gone, and if an army of carpenters
had been at work clearing of her deck,
they could not have left her more bar
rem than that wave did. Her watch
had been swept overheard and every
man of them lost.
well, that was q storm wave for
you, but 1 struck one in 1877 that was
much more remarkable. was off the
coast of Japan, captain on one of the
finest steamships afoat. We were in q
typhoon. They call them typhoons
there, but they are identical in character
with our own cyclone and the African
tornadD. 1t was an awful storm, the
worst / ever saw. The wind howled and
shrieked and raved like million of de-
mons loosed from the Styx. The seas
struggled with each other for our pos
session, and roared the most internal
noise as they broke over us in merciless
force. The sky was inky, but not
drop of water fell. My chief officer
and myself were standing on the bridge
directing the helm. Suddenly, directly
in front of us, about hundred yards
AWAY, saw . most prodigious mount
ain of water. Its towering crests was
splashed into a white foam, and ap
peared just between the two yards of
the mast. Above the hellish din of the
storm could hear the awful base roar
of that monster wave as it came toward
us like q steam engine. 1 turned to
my officer. His face was as white as
chalk.
"Here's the last of our good boat, my
boy" said, and turned her nose right
into The wave.
Her bow rose until we we're almost
perpendicular. / almost thought we
should be thrown over. The crest
struck us md blinded me 30 that I
could not see. And then, SO sure as I
am an honest man, her bow fell and
her keel rose, and we passed over that
most terrific wave as gently as chip
over mill pond ripplel Inever was so
dumbfounded in my life, for fully ex-
pected that moment to be the last that
ship would ever know. These two
yarns, mind you, are my own personal
and I give my word Of
honor for their truth.
"Abont three weeks ago on my last
trip back to England we called at
Queenstown. There met my friend,
Mr.. Thomas Gray, the secretary of the
London Board of Trade, thoroughly
man, whose word is as good
IS his bond. He told me in good faith
;he following story and said he knew it
20 be true: Some time ago, precisely
when don't just now remember, new
light was being put in the Eddystone
lighthouse This house, you know
tands on solid rock, which the sea
ntireIy covers at high water. The
'uilding is circular iron tower. hollow
n the center, and about nine feet in
iameter. The materials which were
Ised to fix the new light were brought
y steamers to the rock, and holes were
pened in the base of the lighthouse,
trough which they were admitted into
his hollow space. Then they were
oisted up by derricks to the top of the
ghthouse.
"One afternoon the son Of the archi-
oct, young man just about of age,
as standing at the top of the tower,
,oking down into the hollow space, .
lstance of hundred and forty feet to
le rock below. Suddenly he became
lzzy and fell headlong into the abyss.
nst at that opportune and Providential
oment storm wave, such as I have
zen describing, broke against the
ght house. The hole in its base had ]
ot been closed, and in the twinkling {
an eye, at the very moment the young {
an fell, the water rushed in through 6
ese holes, up the hollow tower, and l
ceived the falling form. Receding
the water left him, alive I
ID none the worse for his ducking, on |
q rock at the towers basel q
"The sea saves lives as well as de- +
urs them" n