Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1888-03-28

scene Of ruin. II was visible now 10 its
most trihing detail. The foremost was gone
smooth Of at the deck; it lay over the star
board bow, and the tOpmast hoated ahead
of the hull, held by the gear Many feet of
bulwarks were crushed level; the pumps had
vanished; the caboosc was gonel A COM
pleter nautical ruin | had never viewed
One extraordinary stroke | quickly de-
tected The Jolly boat had lain slowed in
the long boat it was thus we carried these
boats, the little one lying snugly enough in
the other. The sea that had flooded our
decks had hoated the jolly boat out of the
long boat and swept it bottom up TO the
gangway, where it lay, as though Gods
mercy designed it should be preserved for
my use. for, not long after it had been
flOated out, tho brig struck the berg, the
masts fen, and there lay the long boat
crushed into slaves!
This signal and surprising intervention
filed my heart with thankfulness though
my spirits sank again at the sight of my
Door drOw ned shipmates But unless had
a mind to join them, it was necessary L
should speedily bestir myself. So, after "a
minutes reflection, / whipped out my knife,
and cutting a couple of blocks away from the
rattle on deck, | rove a line through them,
and so made tackle, by the help of which L
turned the Jolly boat over; | then with a
handspike pricd her nose to the gangway,
secured bunch Of rope on either side of her
to act as Tenders or buffers when she should
be launched and lying alongside, ran her
midway out by the tackle, and attaching n
line to IA ringbolt in her bow, showed her
over the side, and she fell with splash, ship
ping scarce "A hatful of water,
[ found her mast and sail-the sail furled
TO the mast. us it was used to lie in her--cose
against tho stump of the mainmast; and
though | sought with all the diligence that
hurry would permit for her rudder, ! no
where saw il; but ! met with an oar that had
belonged to the other boat, and this with the
mast and sail | dropped into her, the swell
lifting her up TO my hand when the blue fold
swung past
NV next business was to victual her. /
ran to the cabin, but found the lazarette full
of water, and none of the provisions in it to
be come at. | thereupon ransacked the
cabin, and found whole Dutch cheese, a
piece of raw pork, half ham, eight or ten
biscuits, some candles a finder box, several
lemons, little bag of flour, and thirteen
bottles of beer. These things | rolled up in
cloth and placed them in the boat, then
took from the captains locker four jars of
spirits, two of which l empted that might
fill them with fresh water l also took with
me from the captains cabin a small boat
compass.
The heavy, sluggish, sodden movement of
the hull advised me to make haste She was
now barely lifting to the swell that came
brimming in broad liquid blue brows to her
STEM 1t seemed as though another ton of
water would sink her; and if tho swell fell
over her bows and filled the decks, down she
would go. | had a small parcel of gulnsas
in my chest, and was about u fetch this
money, when a sort of Stag gering sensation
in the upward Slide Of the hull gave me a
fright aul watching my chance, jumped
into Lne boat and cast the line that held her
adrift
! threw the oar over the stern of the boat
to keep her near to the brig, not so much be-
cause desired to see the last of her as be-
cause of the shrinking Of my soul within mo
from the thought of heading in my loneliness
into those prodgious leagues Of ocean which
lay stretched under the sky.
l had risen to step the boats mast and was
standing and grasping it while directed a
slow look round the horizon, in God knows
what vain hope of beholding sail, when, my
eye coming to the brig | observed that she
was sinking. She went down very slowly;
there was horrible gurgling sound of water
rushing into her. and her main deck blew up
with loud clap or blast of noise. | could
follow the line of her buwarks fuctuating
was some feet under. A number of whirl-
pools spun round over her, but the slownesS
of her laundering was solemnly marked by
the gradual descent of the ruin of masts and
yards which were attached to the hull by
their rigging, and which She dragged down
with her. On a sudden, when the last
fragment of mast had disappeared, and when
the hollows Of the whirlpOols were fiattening
to the level surface of the sea, up rose II
body, with a sort of leap. 1t was the sailor
that had lain drowned on the starboard side
of the forward deck. Being frozen stiff he
rose in the posture in which he had expired
that is, with his arms extended so that
whe nhe jumped to the surface, he came with
his hands lifted up to heaven, and thus he
stayed n minute, sustained by the eddies,
whichalso revolved him.
The shock occasioned by this melancholy
object was 50 great it came near to causing
me to swOon. He sank when the water
ceased to twist him, and | was unspeakingly
thankful to see him vanish, for his posture
had all the horror of spectral appeal, and
such was the state of my mind that imagina-
ton might quickly have worked the appari-
ton, had it fingered, into an instrument for
the unsettling of my reason.
rose from the seat on to which had sunk
and loosed the sail, and hauling the sheet aft
put the oar over the stern and brought the
little crafts head to an easterly course. The
draught of air was extremely weak and
scarce furnished impulse enough to the sail
to raise a bubble alongside. The boat was
about fifteen feet long; she would be but a
small boat for summer pleasuring in Eng
lish July lake waters--yet here was l in
her in the heart of a vast ocean, many
leagues south and west of the stormiest, most
inhosptable point of land in the world, with
distances before me almost infinite for such
u hoat as this to measure ere could heave a
civilized coast or a habitable island into
view!
At the start had mind to steer north
west and blow, as the wind would suffer, into
the South sen, where perchance might meet
a whaer or a Smithsonian from New Hol-
land; but my heart sank at the prospect Of
the leagues of water which rolled between
me and the islands and the western American
seaboard. Indeed, l understood that my
only hope of deliverance lay in being picked
up, and that, though by heading east should
be clinging TO the stormy parts, l was moro
likely to meet with ship hereabouts than by
sailing into the great desolation of the north
west. The burden of my loneliness weighed
down upon me so cruShingly that ! cannot
but consider my senses must have been some
what dullel by sutfering for had they been
active to their old accustomed height, l am
persuaded my heart must have broken, and
that l should have died of grief
CHAPTER V.
SIGHT A WHITE COAST.
Four days did pass in that little open boat.
The first day was fit,, q. a.