New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1885-07-01
STORIES OF GREAT WAVES.

SIVkIES OF GREAT WAVES.
An 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 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
we'll 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-
lous nature of the stories which are to
follow, and which, says Captain Par
selle, ssare 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 Germanic The cap
tain explained what sort of sea it was.
The newspapers called it tidal wave"
he said, "but it was nothing of the Sort
Tidal waves only occur in bays, frths,
and rivers which are so situated as to
be peculiarly sensitive to the influences
of the moon and of gravitation. At
least that is how meterologists explain
them. But though I have studied their
theories with laborious care, I have en-
countered tidal waves that had an origin
far more subtle than in the local situa-
lions that make water especially excit-
able.
"For instance, I saw tidal wave
once from high bluff on the banks Of
the Ganges. It was perpendicular
wall of water advancing at the rate of
about twenty miles an hour It was
perfectly straight, except at the very
top, where it crested into a foam that
had not strength enough to fall It
was about seventeen feet high. That
was pure tidal wave, and I have never
yet been able to work out its origin or
cause.
"Now a storm wave, such as struck
the Germanic, is very different thing,
and is explicable upon thoroughly we'll
defined meteorological principles. The
wind in first class ocean storm is hope
lessly cratic [ have known it to blow
from every point Of the compass within
half an hour. It blows with terrific
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
come at you ingulfing waves in every
conceivable direction. Now, there is a
point where the influence of all these
seas unite, producing wave that reach
es incredible attitudes with force that
is simply irresistible. That is storm
wave, and that is what knocked the
Germanic. No seaman can locate it,
and if you happen to be in its path all
you can do is-take it.
Have 1 ever encountered one? Well,
I should say so. I don't often tell these
stories, for if man tells many of them
he is in danger of losing mis- reputation
for varacity. The yarn lam going to
spin now, however, is true It is my
own experience, and whether anybody
believes it or not, tits So Thirty three
years ago I was the chief officer of
900-ton ship. We sailed between Lon
don and India. One exening, when
few hours out from London, in the Eng
lish Channel, the time came to relieve
the watch. That was o'clock. The
sky was a little murky but not absolute
y cloudy. TIE channel waters were
calm. The breeze was fresh, blowing
from the west at such a rate as to com
pei us to sail under a reefed mainsail
and double-reefed topsails. On our lee
side was a brig. Ny captain and I
We're standing together on deck. I had
given orders for the watch to be called,
and they we're then assembled on the
poop deck. The captain said to me,
Mr.. Parselle, | think the light ought
to be visible by this time'-meaning the
Eddystone light. Suppose go aloft
and look, answered.
Il went up the rigging till I got about
sixty feet aloft, and suddenly, when
just in that perilous position, 1 heard a
terrible shout from the deck. I Hooked
down to see what was the matter, and
just as I did so mountain of water
struck us amidships. It picked me
right off my feet and hurled me clear
through the rigging, fatrened me
against the mast whence / 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
it's top sheet of for eighty feet Of the
ships length, as clean as q mechanics
shears could have done!
How did it happen? Don't ask me.
I suppose there may have been little