Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1888-05-25

was "veered" out to them; the second
"sheet" and our last, was held in re-
serve to use if one of the chains should
part.
Both engines, under full steam,
were working for all they were
worth, while four men at the wheel
held the Monococy to her moor
ings.
Even now there was no steady
wind, but only great blasts, whirl-
ing faster and faster, which lashed
the waves with fierce fury until the
sea seemed a seething caldron of
foam, held down and pressed smooth
by the wind, and bursting forth in
the intermitting lulls to wash over
our decks, sweeping the. hatchways
and guns.
Everyone obeyed the captains final
order for all hands to go below, and
the hatches were battened down.
The cabin was dark Every NOV
able thing had been put out of the
way, the hanging lamps and mirrors
taken down, and nothing left save
bare tables and benches screwed to
the floor
NY sister and l sitting near to each
other, in the dark, could not hear our
own voices aboye the din of the
storm now raging, furiously.
All! we had never seen anything
like this Asiatic hurricane in the lake
winds of America There the wind,
no matter how boisterous, is straight
forward; it blows one way. You
know where to find it. But the ty-
phoon, sudden and eccentric storm,
is in form a spiral curve, which de-
scribes a huge circle in its course.
The center of this circle is said to be
quiet and calm, but all the seafaring
people | have met, who have witness
ed the phenomenon, have been, as we
were, in the vortex of the great gyrat-
ing disk, and have never seen the
calm center of typhoon.
Booml came the wind striking the
| iron n-clad gunbost, first on one side,
then on the other.
Boom! boom! beating the seas from
beneath the great ship and lifting her
into the air, only to bang her down
again, grating on the sandy bottom of
the bay with cruel, crashing sound.
At nine o'clock the storm was at it's
height. Everything breakable on
board was smashed to atoms, the
glass and crockery ground to powder.
At each waillng blast we knew the
Monocacy stood the chance of parting
chains, and we of being dashed to
pieces with her-that the storm might
drive against Us any one of those
strange ships which we had seen rid
ing at anchor in the Bay, or that we
might ourselves be drifting toward
the island where the lighthouse stood
We we're all speechless, and calm
enough, too overawed in the presence
of such awful power to realize any
distinct thought or emotion. The
close air, the bowling din. combined
to stupefy US, and all, even the captain,
full under torpor, as of narcotic.
We were clinging to the tables and
benches in the ward room, and had
fallen in the lethargy near the place
where 1 first heard the report of the
coming storm. Here again the young
officers came to examine. and report
the movements of the glass. 1t rose,
faster than it had fallen. The air
lightened, and reached US refreshing
ly through the ventilating shafts.
At mid day we were on deck again.
The wind was going down, the sky
lifting, and sunlight was fast making
its way to earth through the dark,
brassy mist. When this, in turn,
cleared the Bay OF Yeddo stretched
out before US; but, alas, no longer
proud and gay with the masts of
many ships. No craft of any sort
was visible. All had been scattered,
driven out to sea, or wrecked in the
storm, and the waters were strewn
with their timbers and debris.
| Our good ship was unhurt, no rope
had broken, nor iron given way, and
we bad no parted chain. But her
paint was gone, and bruised and
beaten by the storm she bore the
shrunken look of age, which o tenn
pest of grief or misery may bring sud-
denly to the fairest face of youth.
| Notwithstanding the force of the
Monocacy's well-tried strength, we
had drifted mile and more. Far
ther away from US than when the
storm developed it, the tall, white
lighthouse now kept sentinel as be-
fore, but across the rocky ledge of the
island where the beacon stood,
stretched the wreck of the Portu-
guese ship, dismembered and DESC
late. She had struck the rock in one
of those fearful blasts, and lay broken
half in two.
The dark, fast-aying clouds soon
turned their gold and silver Innings
outward, and the day beamed calm
and beautiful; as days will often beam
after the iercest storms; but as this
storm had exceeded in fury all other
storms; so the day surpassed in
beauty all the days that we had
known. Sky, air and ocean 80 lately
shrouded in gloomy mists and temp
est, were now united in glow of
prismatic splendor; the dancing sun
beams flashed in countless rainbow
hues; while the pillows threw back
their radiance from the shining sea
below.
| A Bad Scratch.