San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1888-03-26

Pacific ocean was in the mellow sweetness OF
the wind and in the gentle undulatlOnS OF the
silver-laced swell; but scarce had we passed
the height of 40 dogs 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, lnsomuch
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 2 o'clock i'll the afternoon,
the air was so 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 i'll 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 a scattering of torn
paper, leaving nothing but the bolt ropes be-
hind The bursting of the topSail was like
the explosion of large cannon. In a breath
the brig was SmOthered with frOth torn up in
huge clouds, and hurled over and ahead of
her in vast quiverng bodies that filled the
wind with a dismal twilight of their own, in
which nothing wa, visible but their terrific
speeding. ThrOuCl these singing, soft, and
singing masses of spume drove the rain in
horizontal steel like lines, which CLEANED in
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 a 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, wel5ering 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 fierceness did not come
to its height till about l o'clock in the middle
watch. Long before then the sea had grown
mountainous, and the dance of our egg shell
of brig upon 1t 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
It's volume perpetually maintained by ton
loads of sea, falling i'll 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 foundering 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,