Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1889-05-12

was one of awful suspense; no human cr-a
ture could long have endured it without
giving way to some outbreak Of intolera-
Bile emotion. The blood flowed thick in
the veins; the brain throbbed confusedly;
the breath came in difficult signs. With a
sudden but maj site upward graduation,
the minor roar swelled 10 defening shrieks
OF noise; there was vision of white fury
of waters as.ern; blast as cold as winter
swept from the tsffrail 10 the bowsprit;
the darkness shut down and became abso-
lutte, so that the observer seemed plunged
into impalpable pitch; and then
with a paralyzing shock the hurricane
smote the vessel, beating her down into
the sea as by G sheer weight of giant
hand. The next instant, with shudder
and spring. she leaped forward, stag.
gered, and leaped again. Fragments of
the boiling surge hurtled along her decks,
striking what they encountered with the
force OF grape shot. The mizzan mast
broke off within a yard of the deck, and,
lsshing forward, struck the main mast
and brought it down in ruin, though the
noise of the crash was inaudible in the
yell of the frenzisd gale. The steamer
was rushing onward at headloDg speei,
yet she seemed to be standing still, so
fast did wind and sea fly past her. She
reeled, staggered, leaped, was buried and
rose again, again to be overwhelmed. 1t
seemed another world, another age, COM
pared with the sunlight and calm Of
few minutes previous. Blind, whirling,
weltering chaos had engulfed all thing;
nothing could be seen, nothing head.
nothins done nor directed; only awful
plungipgs and strainings could be felt,
and thunderous blows and shocks. Only
by thse signs could it be known that the
vessel was still above the water, still
being swept onward. Whittier, and TO
what fate, none could foretell.
The sea was at first beaten fiat by the
wind, though great pieces of water were
stripped from the surface and dashed
through the air; by and by, however,
waves began to form, but irregularly, some
rolling low, some reaching alOft and stalk
ing gigantic. One OF these, hurrying
through the blackness, mounted the steam
er's stern and traversed her deck to the
bows, carrying with it the funnel, the Ee-
manning mast and every thing on board
that offered resistance. That wave struck
the forecastle with report like
the bursting Of siege gun, stove
through the oaken planks, AID
dashed hundred tons of water through
the opening All therein we're drowned
and crushed to pieces, and the bodies Of
several were whirled out again and carried
like rags off into the waste Of the tornado.
Heavily, the ship rose from the blow; it
seemed as if she could never rise again.
But up she came, and the weight of water
went booming aft, breaking down parti-
lions and deluging cabins and state rooms.
More than fifty men were killed or disa.
bled by that single buffet, and the survi-
vors believed that the end OF all them could
he not many minutes distant.
But it SO happened that no catastrophe
of equal terror followed. The ship drove
on, sometimes threatening to breach 10,
yet maintaining her steerage way beg ond
sll expectation, on the whole; and when
some time had passed-how long, no one
ever knew-the hurricane fell faint, and
IN breath or two, as it seemed, died
quite away. The darkness lightened,
and Straight overhead appeared patch
of sky half yelled by wheeling shreds of
mist. They were in the centre of The
tornado; and now the waves leaped up
with a rebound so breakneck and astound-
ing that all sense of vertical and horizont
al was lost, and the vessel reared and
pitched like a maddened bronco. This
phase of the battle between ship and storm
babe fair TO be more dangerous than the
opening experience; bat, however that
might be, il did not last long. The inky
cloud shut down again; again rose the
Shrek of rushing winds, coming now from
the opposite point of the compass, and
once more the dismantled and bruised
hulk sprang forward on her fear
ful race. galvanized, as it were, into pre-
ternstural activity by force not her own
Slipped bare as she was, and weighted by
the water she had taken on board, she
moved more steadily than at first. Nor
could the nerves of those who still manned
her continue to respond as before to the
call of horror. The worst was past for
them, even should death itself be In store.
None knew at that time who were living
and who were dead; each held on to what
ever support was nearest him and waited
in darkness and uncertainty for what might
come. The engine fires had BEEN put out,
and all tn men available were taking turns
at the wheel, in desperate and unequal
struggle to keep her before the wind.
Some felt that it would be relief if the
ship would founder and 90 down. But she
went on, outstripping death itself. Sud
denly one of the passengers, who had been
alternately praying and blssphemil z
in the cabin, broke out in vel
OF med laughter, and rushed up
the companion way ard out on the
deck. The hurricane caught him and
hurled him forward he was jammed be
tween the stump of the nainmast and the
sh.ft of one of the anchors, which had
somehow been carried there; the wind
turned his coat over his head and whipped
il into ribbons in moment; IN another
moment he WAS naked to the waist; then
ne was twisted and beaten and lasted
about until he was q shspeless mass OF
bloody flesh and shattered bones. At
length sudden pitch of the vessel loosen
ed the anchor, and it and the corpse went
overheard together, and the ship swept on.
1t was perhaps an hour after this, ard
long after the most ssnguine had yielded
dun. bly, to despair, that the steamer rose
on a monstrous wave, which mounted ana
beneath her until it seemed as If
it would cad by carrying her through the
sky; then, with last furious effort, flung
her forward and slipped back under her
keel. The great vessel Wac carried on by
the impetus of the onset, and fell with an
appalling crash, not on the sea again, but
on the solid earth. Her voyage was over,
and she was in port at last.
HeI iron ribs were crushed by the fall,
but her frame still held together, and all
motion ceased. The wind still shrieked
and the sea beloved and Numbered, but
. : ..,.,,o, atruok the chin She seemed to