Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1891-08-13

under. Whales were still plenty, ard
we took q vote what we should do. and
decided to make for some island and
store the oil, and keep at II; so we bore
away to the south for land.
II reckon we'd been goin' to the south
ard for matter Of a week when there
came on gale, the like of which never
see afore or since. There WASH nothin'
that would stand 1t, and l believe IL
-vvouid- huyo pfUwn Jne buttons OF yer
coats. We took in all sail and let her
go aud IN three hours she was solid
cake of Toe; every drop that struck On
her freeZin' solid, SO that the back and
jib stays hooked like the cable of four
decker, and the shrouds and all the
standin' riggin' was froze in solid heap,
too. l tried TO keep the jib Gear by
kpepin' men there with an AK to chop
away the ice, but she was under water
half the time and we gave il up. 1t
blew for twelve hours and finally, in the
middle of the night, we came to all at
once without any particular shock. In
the mornin' found we had run or slid
on TO an ice-field and were laid up, for,
after we had grounded, another field had
settled in around Us, and there we were,
without any chance OF getting of till
the wind shifted.
"Wall, We stuck to her, and when It
cleared we see we were in the loe OF q
big island. and when i found the ice
twenty foot inshore from us forty foot
thick, made up my mind we'd never
git of-and we never did in the brig
We stuck to ner till the grub got so low
that IL lwas -stervatious then we took 20
the boat, decked IL over. rugged IL as a
schooner, and made sail for the Cape.
In about thirty days we were picked up
by home-bound ship, in starvin' con-
dition, and brought into New Bedford,
and tho owners thought we were lucky
yet, as the brig had paid for herself five
times over.
II staid ashore six months, and then
the owners launched sister brig TO the
Marthy Walker, and offered mo COM
mand. / took IL, and made money
out OF her for ten years a-runnin' I'm
the soalin' trade. But one spring
the owners got IL into their
heads 30 git me to take her down
south for q whaln' trip. and l said I'd
go, and l did. First we fooled around
the regular grounds, and somehow got
odgin' on down south. TO tell the truth,
] was kind of anxious to sec the Old
Marthy again, just to see If she was
there; and so IL come that we worked 10
the south'ard day by day, and in week
We were wf}on the 0.u ~martny went
aground It was cod but clear, and we
were havin the best kind OF weather.
when, one mOrnin'. at daylight, / heard
the lookout sing out Sal, hoI was
on deck in second, ye kin bet-no moro
sliding up on ice-felds for me-but when
got on deck see that what the man
had taken for sal was big berg, dead
ahead, with the ice al melted, SO that q
green hand would have taken it for a
ship every time.
at was rouser, four hundred feet
high, and the nearer we got the stranger
1t looked The men had never seen
nothin' like IL, so we run TO wind'ard of
1t, about five thousand feet, It b!owin'
fresh. 1t was sight, to ye.-reg'lar
mountain; and we stood q lookin' at IL,
when the second mate sings out, It's q
movin1 Down with the helml Haul
her on the windl' Go long says l.
But in second we see the top movin',
slow like, then faster and faster, till 1t
seemed goin' down like an avalanche.
We got tho brig hauled on the
wind, but, bless ye! IL want no use
When that mass OF ice sunk, We could
ubVo uedfu ~, lot SIX mics. the noise IL
made, and we sec q sea coming toward
us. hftccn-foot nigh we got the vessel
SO 1t struck her end for end, but for a
minute thought the masts would GO out
of her. But she met it we'll, and for q
few minutes we were 50 taken up that 1
never looked at the iceberg; then heard
the Sc sond mate say, For heavens sake,
captain, there's the glost of the Marthy
Walker
81 first thought he'd gone crazy, but I
looked where his hand was pIntln', and
there, two hundred foot in the air, was
the old Marthy, sure enough, as natural
as life, standing out from the lco and
riSin' up till she camo TO two hundred
and fifty foot by my Ieckonin', from
water level: and every man and boy on
board saw her Just as plain as they ever
saw anything In thoir lives. only she
looked just le spirit; kind as II a
cloud was IN between her and us But
we see her and she want no living craft.
u was the ghost Of the Marthy Walker.
We see her az ain forty miles 30 the
BASTARD, and she's been seen since.
She'll ways DC SO. n floating about the
south soaas