The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1888-04-13

Pacific ocean was in the mellow sweetness OF
the wind and In the gentle fluctuations OF the
silyer-laced swell; but scarce had we passed
the height Of 40 degs when the weather grew
sullen and dark, a heavy bank OF clouds OF
livid hue rose In the northeast, and the WIND
came and went in small gusts, the gusts VENT
ing themselves in dreary means, insomuch
that our oldest hands confessed they had
never heard blasts more portentous.
/ The gale came on W tn some lightning and
several claps Of thunder and heavy rain.
Though it was but o'clock in the afternoon,
the air was 50 dusky that the men had to feel
for the ropes; and when the first OF the tenn
pest stormed down upon us, the appearance
of the sea was uncommonly terrible, being
swept and mangled into boiling froth in the
northeast quarter, while all about us and IN
the southwest it lay in a sort Of swollen hud-
die of shadows, glooming into the darkness
of the sky without offering the smallest
glimpse Of the horizon.
In few minutes the hurricane struck US.
We had barred the brig down to the close
reefed maintopsail; yet, though we were
dead before the outfly, its first blow rent the
fragment of sail as if it were formed OF
smoke, and in an instant it disappeared, flash
ing over the bows, like scattering OF torn
paper, leaving nothing but the bolt ropes be-
hind. The bursting of the topsail was like
the explosion of large cannon. Ina breath
the brig was smothered with froth torn up In
huge clouds, and hurled over and ahead OF
her in vast quivering bodies that filed the
wind with dismal twilight of their own, in
which nothing was visible but their terrific
speeding. Through these singing, soft, and
singing masses of spume drove the rain in
II ,,aI
the lightning stroke, as though indeed they
were barbed weapons of bright metal, darted
by armies Of invisible spirits raving out their
war cries as they chased us.
The storm made loud thunder in the sky,
and this tremendous utterance dominated
without subduing the many screaming, hiss
ing, shrieking and hooting noises raised in
the rigging and about the decks, and the
wild, seething, weltering sound Of the sea,
maddened by the gale and struggling in its
enormous passion under the first choking and
iron grip of the hurricanes hand.
But though the first rage of the storm was
terrible enough, its ierceness did not come
to its height till about o'clock in the middle
watch. Long before then the sea had grown
mountainous, and the dance Of our egg shell
of brig upon it was sickening and alright
ing.
No man could show himself on deck and
preserve his life. Between the rails it was
waist high, and this water, converted by the
motions of the brig into a wild torrent, had
its volume perpetually maintained by ton
loads Of sea, falling in dull and pounding
crashes over the bows ON to the forecastle.
There was nothing to be done but secure the
helm and await the issue below, for if we
were to be drowned it would make a more
easy laundering to go down dry and warm
in the cabin, than to perish half frozen and
already nearly strangled by the bitter cold
and flooded tempest on deck.
There was Capt. Rosy; there was myself,
by name Paul Rodney, mate of the brig, AM
there were the remaining seven of a crew,
including the carpenter. We sat in the
cabin, one of us from time to time clawing
his way up the ladder to peer through the
companion, and we looked at one another
with the melancholy of malefactors waiting
to be called from their cells for the last jaunt
to Tyburn.
Thus it continued till daybreak, when
something of its midnight fury went out of
the gale. The carpenter made shift to sound
the well, and to our great satisfaction found
but little water, only as much as we had q
right to suppose she would take in above
By noon the wind haA weakened yet, but the
sea still ran very heavily, and the sky was
uncommonly thick with piles of duslzy, yell
lowish, hurrying clouds; and though we
could fairly reckon upon our position, the
atmosphere was so nipplng it was difficult to
persuade ourselves that Cape Horn was not
close aboard
We could now work the pumps, and a
short spell freed the brig. We got up new
maintopsail and bent it, and setting the
reefed foresail put the vessel before the wind,
and away she ran, chased by the swollen
seas Thus we continued till by dead reck-
oning we calculated that we were about
thirty leagues south of the parallel of the
Horn, and in longitude 81 degs west. We
then boarded our larboard tacks and brought
the brig as close to the wind as it was proper
to lay her for a progress that should not be
wholly leeway; but four hours after we had
handled the braces the gale, that had not
veered two points since it first came on to
blow, stormed up again into its first fury,
and the morning of the 1st of July, A D.
1901, found the Laughing Mary passionately
laboring in the midst of an enraged Cape
Horn sea, her jibboom and foretopgallant-
mast gone, her ballast shifted, so that her
posture, even in calm, would have exhibited
her with her starboard channels under and
her decks swept by enormous surges, which,
fetching her larboard bilge dreadful blows,
Numbered in mighty green masses over her.