San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1889-09-17
.naU mere was sometnlng wrong

friends wishing us better luck next time"
Better luck was not, however, in store for us,
for We were no sooner well out III the chan
mel than we encountered very heavy weather,
the ship rolling heavily with every wave.
We now discovered that her rigging was
most defective. 1t had been done in great
hurry by the dockyard workmen, and not by
the crew, as was usually the case. Our main
mast began to ''wabble" from side to side
with every roll in menacing fashion, the
shroudS being too loose to afford it muck sup
port. Indeed. it was considered advisable t"
have men told Off with axes, ready to cut
away the shrouds and other rigging in the
event of the mast going overheard We ran
for the nearest port, that of Corunna, where
all hands were soon busily at work setting
up the rigging.
Among the very first things had learned
by heart, as a child, were those most exqui-
sitely beautiful and touching lines of Wolfe
on the death of Sir John Moore. which be-
gin:
Not drum was heard not fun'ral note,
AS his corse to the rampant we hurried,
Not soldier discharged his farewell shot
Ger the grave where our hero we buried.
Those lines, the perfection of poetic pathos,
and the story of the calamity fought action
of Corunna, then so familiar to me in all its
details, made my short stay there most inter
esting.
Having refitted in the harbor of Corunna,
we steamed and sailed for the Cape of Good
Hope, touching for coal at the island of st.
Vincent. After leaving the cape we followed
the sailing ships course, and keeping in the
trades" ran before them for several days at
a rapid pace.
There is always a heavy sea about the
thirty-sighth degree of southern latitude, es-
pecially near the islands of st. Paul
and New Amsterdam, the point at
which sailing ships bound for India
generally quilted the trades and made
north for the Bay of Bengal As we
neared those islands, we came in for ter
rife weather, the sea seeming to roll noun
tains high. Not long after we changed our
course to the north, very heavy storm
pursuing us all the time, We were caught in a
cyclone. In the twinkling of an eye our
great heavy mainyard snapped in two, and
every yard of canvas we had been carrying
was not only rent into ribbons, but disap-
peared altogether.
The Transit strained and groaned as if each
moment were to be our last. No boats
could have availed us anything in such
sea. Our lives depended upon the badly
built and badly rugged troopship that heaved
and moaned beneath u.s. as if she were some
huge sea leviathan in its death agony.
The men were ordered to the pumps and
so it was no longer any secret that some
thing very serious was the matter. The
steam pumps worked well, and during one
long and dreary night and day our men
worked the hand pumps for their lives, all
ranks helping in relief of five minutes at a
time. Since leaving the cape the donkey en-
CINE had pumped night and day to keep the
water down in the after part of the ship
where, owing to an injury to our stern port
received at the cape, the, ship made much
water every hour
In that one long, very long, day and night,
we pumped over 500 tons of water out of the
ship In the ships strainings while the cy-
clone lasted we had sprung a very serious
leak. For the distance of over twenty feet
it extended subsequently to about thirty feet
the rivets had broken off, and when the
ship heeled over toward the opposite side this
rent gaped, and tons of water rushed
through the opening. Had this terrific gale
lasted another day nothing could have saved
us.
Although we had to face extremely heavy
weather and very great sea for about a
week afterward, when the cyclone passed,
and all pressing and immediate danger was
at an end, the relief was great to all on
board-to sailors as well as soldiers There
had been no cooking while the cyclone lasted,
and our first 'sea pie"-the common dish in
excessively bad weather-was real lord
mayors feast to most of us. Almost all the
milf
thanks to the lightheartedness and hopeful
ness of men under 25-I should say our aver
age age was about 22-the dangers of the sea
had not sat very heavily uponus
AS we neared the Straits of Sunda, be-
tween Java and Sumatra, we had lovsly
weather and calm, sunny sea, which soon
made all forget the dangers and discomforts
we had experienced. We had still to depend
upon our steam pumps to keep us afoat, for
although many sails and blankets had been
expended in trying to stop up the leak, the
ship still made water.
Having steamed through the Straits of
Sunda, we changed our course still more to
the northward, keeping close in to the shores
of Sumatra, intending to run through the
Straits Of Banca to Singapore. We entered
the Straits of Banca about daybreak July 10,
1857, with sea like glass, no ripple even on
its surface.
We had just finished breakfast, and l had
gone on deck and was lighting my morning
cigar from that of brother officer when /
was jerked off my legs quite suddenly, and
the deck on which l stood heaved and shook
violently beneath me. looked up, and the
masts seemed to bend forward at a danger
Gus angle; for one moment they looked as if
they would topple over. l heard the officer
on the bridge shout: Stop her." down the