Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1885-01-02

matter. After that nobody was so much
respected in The forecaste as Dandy.
But whenone of the crew tried after
ward to chaff Badly about the licking,
he got a slap across the jaw that made
his teeth rattle, and Badly said: We'll,
| yeou can't dew it, ef Dandy kin,
"All this time we'd been carrying on
sail and the Blue Coat was just humping
herself. Captain Salisbury knew thing
or two about ships, and he wasn't going
to let any rival ship get in ahead of him
if he knew il. After the Arst two weeks
he used to ask the lookout, about every
time sail was reported, if it was a
square sail or rattle. A rattle was the
name he gave to the three little three
cornered skysails which the Alice car
ried above her royals. He was awfully
excited when the lookout report6d g
schooner topsdil on the weather beam
one day. However, the wind held us
well, and just twenty-five days from the
time we passed Sandy Hook pilot was
coming on board off Pernambuco, and
was telling the. captain that the other
ship had not arrived. We came to
anchor inside the bar before might, and
the old man looked up the consignees
and the custom house officials. He was
regular pie for two days, and then. the
triangles showed up in the of1ing. The
Alice should have left four days after we
did, and her captain swore he didn't get
away for. five, @@ES:
"You know how long ittakes to dis
] charge cargo in a South American port
now, and it was worse in those days. 1t
was the Sd of December when we got
away. l remember that Captain. Sails
bury was walking up and down the
quarterdeck as the land grew faint in the
| distance, and was saying to the little
mate: .Bevins, she's three days. out ..of
Liverpool. Halliday will take, her the
warm passage. The Ranger is fine ship,
but wife and boy, Bevins arc seasick..
Presently the captain. went below, leav-
ing Mr.. Bevins to carry on every stitch
+of canvas the old Blue Coat would
stand. 4
+. "-What made this passage more excit-
ing to us, and perhaps more depressing
to the captain, was the fact that the
Alice's captain had hoped on the rail as
we sailed out by him, and had said he
would be right after us next day. We
didn't believe shat, but we kpew- he
would very soon1ollow.- Captain Sails,
bury headed we'll out to eastward, hoping
+ to catch.the northeast trades better, and
tday and night kept every stitch set. 1t
takes man of nerve to carry on all sail
at night, bit fthatis. the way the famous
passages were made with the old-time
packets aud clippers. We had pretty
good; hek until we were somewhere in
the latitude of the Bahamas, but away to
the eastwardin longitude fifty eight de-
Irgfees. Then it fell a dead calm. A
! gale at sea is sometimes bad, fog is
worse. .-sbut the worst Of all is "a calm.
under a. burning sun. 1t makes me
tifcd even to this day to think of what
we suffered" for FIVE days.. The sails
hung limp and ratified idly as the ship
rolled in the, gentle swells or rushed
against the masts with boom when it
caught us right, And the tar was melt
ing off the rigging and dripping down,
and the pitch was oozing up out of the
deck seams, and running across the deck,
and the men, without cessation, sawed
on the braces day and night or painted
the hull on the sunny side. The cap.
tain got wild, and never seemed to leave
the deck. He would climb the rigging
to look for cat's-paw of wind, and
then come down and curse himself for
getting off SO far to eastward and north
ward. %,..>< ''"-
ITO add to his grief, as the light be-
gan to show in the east on. the mourning
of the sixth day, we discovered a. sail
just appearing as a speck above
the horizon to the southard. The
captains glass was on it ip. "a
minute, and the next moment he
was jhmplng up and down on
the quarterback livid with rage, but
-speechless,z The sail was triangle.
The Alice was overhauling us. Half-an
hour later our royals began to lift with
the breeze that had by that time, ,bfodght
the topgallant sails of the Alice in sight.
All hands were called to set the stun 'sails,s
and no one was allowed thcreaftefsto go
below. MensT6re even kept with braces
in their hands, while the CAPTAIN looked
alternately at the triangles astern and
the trim of his Own sails aloft. Break,
fast was. served to the men on deck. We
drifted along without gaining an inch
on the Alice until about 10 o'clock.
Then without, warning the wind hauled
around on tife other. quarter = The
spanker gibed over in a iiffy ana there
was rush to the braces. The men were
grumbling constantly.<forward, but no
attention was paid to that; although they
had not been allowed four hours of un-
broken sleep in week. when the.yards
were trimmed and the stunsails were
set on the other side we began to gathef
better headway than before, but as. the
captain was noticing this he saw that the
Alice was. favored with still better wind
than he. Just then. Dandy from. the
foretopsail yard shouteds:' ~. -.
't0n deck, there. Boat adrift On the
lee bow, Sir ,E-
"a moment later he added: There's
some one in her.. sir, ]. saw an arm
waved above the gun'ale. =; -.
.'Then he jumped on,a back stay and
came down hand over fist. The captain
and Mr.. Bevins were both looking for
the boat with their glasses, and pretty
soon they saw her. They didn't look
long before the,captain said: The man
was mistaken, .BeVins. There's no one
in her. ~.
"'That's quite right, sir, But see
that, Alice raising us, win your;
"Then both looked over the taffrail
and swore loudly Dandy stepped1aft to
leeward aud touched his hat.
"Captain, said he, there's some one
adrift in that boat, sir. know what |
see, sir, and believe it's a woman. It's
clean murder to leave that boat adrift. /
"The Captain gave one more look at
Il L. A