Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1888-07-12

the forecastle, giving the flying sheets of
water there no heed. In minute block of
sea tumbled upon me and left me breathless:
the icness of it cooled my minds heat but
not my resolution. was determined to Judge
as best could by the light of the foam of
what had happened, and holding on tena-
ciously to whatever came to my hand, and
progressing step by step, got to the fore
castle AMI looked ahead.
Where the ice was the water tumbled in
milk; twas four or five ships lengths distant
and could distinguish no more than that. [
peered over the lee bow, but could see no ice.
The vessel had gone clear; how, knew not
and can never know; but my own fancy is
that she split the bed with her own weight
when the sea rose and threw the ice up, for
she had loated on sudden, and the noises
which attended her release indicated that she
had been forced through channel
returned aft, barely escaping q second
deluge, and looked over the quarter; no ice
was there visible to me- The vessel rolled
horribly and perceived that she had de-
cided list to starboard, the result of the shift
ing of wha. was in her when the ice came
away from the main with her; and it was
this heel that brought the sea washing over
the bow. / took hold of the tiller to try it,
but either the helm was frozen immovable,
or the rudder jammed in its gudgeons, or in
some other fashion fixed.
Had she been damaged below? was she
taking in watera 1 knew her to be so thickly
sheathed with ice that, unless it had been
scaled off in places by the breaking of her
bed, | had little fer until this covering
melted or dropped off by the working of the
frame) of the hull not proving tight.
should have been coated with ice myself had
| stayed but little longer in my wet clothes
i'll that piercing wind; so l ran below, and
bringing an armful of clothes from my cabin
to the cook room, was very soon in dry at
tire, and making an extraordinary figure,
don't question, in the buttons, lace, and "trip
peries of the old fashioned garments.
Meanwhile, was crazy to ascertain if the
schooner was taking in water. If there was
sounding rod in the ship did not know
where to lay my han1s upon it. But he is
poor sailor who is slew at substitutes. There
were several spears in the arms room ipirati-
cal plumber, no doubt with mere spikes for
heads, like those weapons used by the CATERS
and other tribes in that country; they were
formed of a hard heavy wood / took
length of ratline line and secured it to one of
these spears, and carried it on deck with the
powder room bulls eye lamp; but when l
probed the sounding pipe found it full of
ice, and as it was impossible to draw the
pumps l flung my ingenious sounding rod
down in passion of grief and modification.
Yet was not to be beaten. Such was my
temper, had the devil himself confronted me
l should have defed him to do his worst, for
had made up my mind to weather him out.
l entered the forccastle, lantern in hand,
pried open the hatch, and dropped into the
hold. 1t needed an experienced ear to detect
the sobbing of internal waters amid the
yearning gushes, the long gurgling washings,
the thunderous blows, and shrewd rain like
hissings Of the seas outside. / listened with
strained hearing for some minutes, but dis
tinguished no sounds to alarm me with as
surance of water i'll the hold | could not
mistake. / hearkened with all nv might.
but the noise was outside. | thanked God
very heartily, and got out of the bold and
put the hatch on. There was no need to 90
aft and listen. The schooner was by the
head, and there could be no water in the run
that would not be forward too
Being treasured in respect of the stanch-
ness of the hull, / returned to the fire and
proceeded to equip myself for prolonged
watch on deck. While was drawing on a
great pair of boots heard a knocking in the
after part of the vessel 1 supposed she had
drifted into a little field of broken ice. and
that she would go clear presently, and fin
ished arming myself for the weather: but the
knocking continuing l went into the cabin.
where l heard it very plain, and walked as
far as the lazarettc hatch, where stood lis
tening. The noises were kind of irregular
humping, accompanied by peculiar grind
ing sound. In moment guessed the truth,
rushed on deck, and by the dim light in the
air saw the long tiller moving to and frol
The beat of the beam seas had unlocked the
frozen bonds of the rudder, and there swung
the tiller, as though like dog the ship was
wagging her tail for joyi
The vessel lay along, rolling so as to bring
her starboard rail to level with the sea: her
main deck was full of water, and the froth
of it, combined with tho ice that glazed her,
made her look like fabric of marble as she
swung on the black fold ere it broke into
snow about her seized the tiller and ran
it over hard a starboard and l had not held
it in that posture half minute when, to my
inexpressible delight, l observed that she was
paying off. Her head fell slowly from the
sea; she lurched drunkenly, and some tons
of black water rolled over the bulwarks; she
reeled consumedly to larboard, and rose
squarelY and ponderously to the height of
the surge that was now abaft tho beam. In
a few moments she was dead before it, the
helm amidships, the wind blowing sheer over
the stern with half its weight seemingly gone,
through the vessel running, the tall seas
chasing her high stern and floating it up
ward, till looking forward was like gazing
down the slope of a hill.
My heart was never fuller than then. l
was half crazy with the passion of joy that
possessed me.
However, was still in situation that
made prodigious demands upon my GOODNESS
and wits. The wind blew southwest, the
schooner was running northeast: the bulk of
the icebergs lay on the larboard bow, but
there were others right ahead, and to star
board, where also lay the extremity of the
island, though 1 did not fear that if could
escape the rest 1t was q dark night; me-
thinks there should have been q young moon
curled somewhere among the stars. but she
was not to be seen.
I could.just make out the dim, pallid loom
of the coast of ice upon the starboard beam,
and a blob or two of faintness-most elusive
and not to be fixed by the eye staring straight
at them-on the larboard bow. But it was
not long before these blobs, as / term them,
grew palmer, and half a score swan into the
dusk over the bowsprit end, and resembled
dull small visionary openings in the dark
sky there, or like stars magnified and dimmed
into the merest spectral light by mist |
passed the first at distance of quarter of
a mile; it slid by phantasmally, and another
stole out right ahead.
This could have gone widely clear of by
a little shift of the helm: but while / was in
the act of starboarding three or four bcrcg
suddenly showed on the larboard bow, anu l
saw that unless l had a mind to bring the
ship into the trough again l must keep
straight on. So | steered to bring the berg
that was right ahead little on the bow, with
n prayer in my soul that there might be no
low lying block in the road for the schooner
to split upon. 1t went by within pistol shot.
was very much accustomed to the sight of
ice by this time, yet l found myself CHANGING
at this mass with pretty near as much won
der and awe as if l had never seen such q
thing before 1t was not above thirty feet