Waterbury evening Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury, Conn.) 1887-1895, 1891-07-29

it comes in advance of gale or it fol-
lows gale"
'.In advance" he said. eff you are
going~to turn in, keep your clothes on.
There was Il laundering gale in the sun
this afternoon, and if you clap your
nose over the ships side you'll smell it
coming"
The captain went on deck and 1 laid
down to get little sleep before the
storm, which felt was approaching,
should arrive. Twas awakened by one
of the hands striking eight bells, and
at once tumbled up and got on deck.
The night was darker than it was
when had gone to my cabin; no star
was now visible; an inky blackness
overspread the confines of the deep,
and inspired sense of calm that was
breathless, suffocating, insupportable.
The heavy swell still rose and sunk the
vessel, washing her sides to the height
of the bulwarks, and making the rud-
der kick furiously.
The moment Coxon saw me he told
me to go forward and set all hands to
close-reef the fore-top-sail. 1 did his
bidding, calling out the order as went
stumbling and sprawling along the
main-deck, and letting GO the hal1iards
to wake up the men, after
cropping for them. Indeed, it was
pitch-dark forward. might have
been stone-blind for any thing could
see, barring the thin rays of the fore
castle lamp glimmering family upon
few objects amidships.
Owing to this darkness, it was a
worse job to reef the top-sails than had
it been blowing a hurricane in day
light. 1t was a quarter to one before
both sails were reefed. and then the
watch that had been on deck since
eight o'clock turned in.
Here were we now under almost bare
poles, in a dead calm; and yet, had the
skipper ordered both the fore and miz-
zen top-sails to be furled, he would
not have been doing more than was
justified by the extraordinary charac-
ter of the night-the strange and mon
strous sub-sweli of the ocean, the
opacity of the heavens, the sinister and
phenomenal breathlessness and heat of
the atmosphere.
The captain, who was on the star
board side of the wheel, called me over
to him.
care the decks clearp"
''All clear, sir"
"Foretop-sail sheets?"
"Ready for running, SIR"
''How's her head, nowP" to the man
at the helm.
Nor west half north"
Keep a brisk lookout to the south
ard, SIR" he said to me; land sing out
if you see the sky clearing"
saw him, by the binnacle-light, put
his finger in his mouth and hold it up.
But there was no other air to be felt
than the short rush first one way, then
another, as the ship rolled.
"Stand by the starboard braces"
suddenly roared the skipper; and the
men, awake to sense of great and
perhaps perilous change close at hand,
came stumbling and stumbling along
the deck.
A wonderful panorama was now be-
ing rapidly unfolded in the south.
All down there the sky was clearing
as if by magic, and the stars shining;
but as watched, great flying wreaths,
like mighty volumes of smoke pouring
out of gigantic factory chimneys, came
rushing over and obscuring them,
though always leaving few brightly
burning in foreground which adj
vanced with astonishing rapidity to-
ward the ship. TO right and left of this
point of the horizon the sky cleared
only to be obscured afresh by the flying
clouds. Soon, amid the solemn pauses
falling upon the ship between the in
tervals of her pitching, for she had now
swung right before the swell, we
could hear the coming whirlwind
screeching along the surface of the
water. The contrast of its approach
with the oily, breathless, heaving sur
face of the sea around us and all
ahead, and the utter stagnation of the
air, produced an effect on my mind,
and, believe, upon the minds of all
others who were witnesses of the sight,
to which no words could give express
sion-an emotion, if you like, of sus-
pense that was almost terror, and yet
terror deprived of pain by wild and
tingling curiosity.
But sucn gale as am describing
travels quickly; all overhead the sky
was first cleared and then massed up
with whirling clouds, before the wind
struck us; the white surface of the sea,
clearly lined like the surf upon beach,
was plainly seen by us, even when the
water all around was still unruff1ed;
and then, with q prolonged and peal
ing yell, the gale and the spray it was
| lashing out of the sea were upon US. In
a moment our decks were soaking
the masts crcaked, and every shroud
and stay sung to the sudden, mighty
strain; the vessel staggered and reeled
stopped, as heavy swell rolled I'M
der her bows and threw her all aslant
against the hurricane, which screeched
and howled through the rigging, and
then fled forward under the yards,
which had squared themselves as the
starboard braces were slackened.
1t was lucky for the Grosvenor that
the gale struck her astern. So great
was its fury that had it taken her
aback, doubt if she would have
righted.
The wind was blowing true from the
south, and we were bowling before it
due north, losing as much ground every
five minutes as had taken us an hour to
get during the day.
The sea now began to rise, and it
was strange to watch it. First it
boiled in short waves, which the wind
shattered and blew fiat. But other
waves rose, too solid for the wind to
level; they increased in bulk as they
ran. and broke in coils of spray, while
| fresh and lar xuouac cI1ooaadad and