Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-12-08

smell icei thought /, with q half look q
him, for believed he was Joking. For M
part, it was all ice to me-one dense, yellins
atmosphere Of snow; every fake barbed
and the cold Of bitterness beyond words
He fell a-snifhng again quickly and vehe
mently, and stepped to the side, sending |
thirsty look into the white blindness ahead
while heard him mutter, s'There's ic,
close aboard, there's ice close aboardl'' Al
he spoke the words there arose loud anc
fearful cry from the forecastle.
"Ice right ahead, sirl'
Ice right ahead, sirP' repeated the chic
mate, whipping round upon the captain.
81 see it, sirI I see it, sirl'' roared the
skipper. Hard a starboard, men. Hard a
starboard for your lives. Over with it"
A CLOSE CALL.
The two fellows at the helm sent the
spokes flying like the driving wheel of .
locomotive; the long ship upborne at the
instant by huge Pacific sea, paid off like
creature of instinct, sweeping slowly but
surely to port just in time For right on
the starboard bow of US there leaped out
into proportions terrible and magnificent
within a musket shot of our rail an iceberg
that looked as big as st. PauPs Cathedral,
with stormy roaring of the gale in its "a
vines and valleys, and the white smoke OF
the snow revolving about its pinnacles and
spires like volumes OF steam, and volcanic
noise of mighty seas bursting against its
base and recoiling from the adamant of It's
crystalline sides in acres of foam.
We were heading for it at the rate of
IL miles an hour as neatly as you point the
end OF thread into the eye of needle. In
few minutes We should have been into ii,
crumbled against it, dissolved upon the
ruh Tuafara ohonf - nd hovx
less end. Boy as 1 was, and bitter as was
the day, I remember feeling a stir in my
hair as stood watching with open mouth
the passage of the mountainous mass close
alongside into the pale void astern, while
the ship trembled again and again to the
blows and thumps Of vast blocks of floating
ice.
"Ice right ahead, SIR" came the cry
again, nor could we clear the tumble Of
bergs until the dusk had settled down,
when we hove-to for the night. No one was
hurt, but suppose no closer shave of the
kind ever happened to ship before.
Again, and this time once more of Cape
Horn. 1t was my third voyage; I was still
a midshipman and in the second mates
watch. came on deck at midnight and
found the ship hove to, bfeasting what in
this age OF steamboats,, and, tor the matter
OF that, perhaps in any other age. might be
termed terrific sea. She was making good
weather OF it; that is to say, she kept her
decks dry, but she was diving and rolling
most hideously, with such swift headIong
shearing of her spsrs through the gale that
the noises up In the bIackness alolt were as
though the spirits of the inmates of thou
sand lunatic asylums had been suddenly en-
larged from their bodies and sent yelling
into limbo. The wind blew with an unen-
durable edge in the sting and bite of it. The
second mate and I, each with rope girdling
his waist to swing by, stood muf1ed up 70
our noses under the lee of square Of can
vas seized to the mizzeh shrouds.
A TIME TO DRINK COFFEE.
Presently he roared into my ear, "Sort of
night for q pannikin of coffee, eh, Mr.. Rus
sell?"
SAY, ay, sir" replied, and with that
myself from the rope, 1 clawed
my way along the line of the hencoops-the
decks sometimes sloping almost up ard
down to the heavy weather scends of the
huge black billows-and descended into the
berth. It was not the first
time I had made q cup of coffee for myself
and the second mate in the middle watch
during cold weather. An old nurse who
had lived in my family for years had given
me an apparatus, consisting of spirit lamp
and funnel-shaped eontriYance of block
tin, along with several pounds of very good
coffee, and with this / used to keep the sec
ond mate and myself supplied with the real
luxury of a hot and aromatic drink during
wet and frosty watches. The midshipmen's
berth was a narrow room down in the tween
1eck, bulkheaded off from the sides, fitted
With double row of hunks one on top of
mother, the lower beds being about foot
lbove the deck. There were five midship-
men all turned In and fast asleep. The
others, who were on watch, were clustered
under the break of the poop for the shelter
here.
A lonely one-eyed sort of slush lamp,
with sputtering wick and sinking fame
swung wearily from blackened beam, rem
1ering the darkness but little more than Wis
ible. I slung my little cooking apparatus
near to it, filed the lamp with spirits of
wine, put water and coffee into the funnel,
and then set fire to the arrangement. 1
stood close under it, wrapped from head to
loot in cleaning oilskins-looking a very
Dloated little shape, don't doubt, from the
quantity of clothing wore under the water
proofs-waiting for the water to boil. The
'eas roared in thunder high above the scut-
les to the wild and sickening dipping of
he ships side into the trough. The hum
ming of the gale pierced through the decks
With the sound of crowd of bands of music
n the distance, all playing together, and
ZACH one different tune. The midshipmen
nored, and coats and small clothes hanging
rom the bunk stanchions wearily swung,
prawling out and in like bodies dangling
rom gallows in gale of wind.
FIRE BETWEEN DECKS.
All in a moment sea of unusual weight |
md fury took the ship and hove her down to |
he height, as you would have thought, of |
Ter top-gallant rail; the headlong move !
nent sent me sliding to leeward; the fore |
hatch of my ou'wester struck the spirit |
amp; down it poured in line of fire upon |
he deck, where it surged to and fro in a |
heet of fame, with the movements of the /
hip. 1 was so horribly frightened as to be |
Imost paralyzed BY the sight of that flick /
ring stretch of yellowish light sparkling /
nd leaping as it swept under the lower /
unks and came racing back again to the /
ulkhead with the windward incline. I /
ell to stamping upon it in my seaboots, lit
lie fool that was, hoping in that way to
xtinguish it. A purple-faced midshipman
coupled one Of the lower hunks, and his
ong nose lay over the edge Of it. He opened
is eyes, and after looking sleepily for mo-
ng from under his bed, he snufied bit,
nd muttering, "Doocid nice smell; burnt
randy, amt it?'' ne turned over and
rent to sleep again with his face the other
ray.
Twas in an agony of CONSERVATION, and
ct afraid Of calling for help lest 1 should
e very roughly manhandIed for my care
sssness. There was deal of ''raf1e'' un-
er the hunks; sea boots, little bundles of
lothing, and know not what else; but
hanks to Cape Horn everything was hap
lily as damp as water itself. There was
therefore, nothing to kindle, nor was there
ny aperture through which the burning
pfrit could run below into the hold; so BY