Waterbury evening Democrat., 1891-08-12
The Story of a Wreck.
Thrilling and Romantic Account of
 6 Mutiny at Sea

Thrilling and Romantic Account of
 6 Mutiny at Sea.
 BY w. CLARK RUSSELL.
 mad ges,9culations as they whirled past. But the rest. some clinging to the mast, others seated with their arms folded, were silent, like dead men already, with fixed and staring eyes-a ghastly crew. 1 saw one of the two raving men spring onto the gunwale, but he was instantly pulled@ down by another.
 But what was there to seep It was a moments horror-quick-vanis as some monstrous object leaping into light under a flash of lightning, then instantaneously swallowed up in the devouring gloom.
 Our ship had got way upon her, and was surging forward with her lee channels under water. The long-boat dwindled away on our quarter. the spray vailing her as she fled, and in a few minutes was not to be dis tinguished upon the immeasurable bed of foam and wave, stretching down to the livid storm that still ragged upon the far horizon.
 My Godr' exclaimed Cornish, who stood near the wheel unnoticed by me. 'I might ha' been in her! l might ha' been in her!"
 And he covered his face with his hands, and sobbed and shook with the horror of the scene, and the agony of the thoughts it had conjured mp. l
 CHAPTER XXI N
 The wind blew very hard but was not as violent as had frequently seen 1t. The ship managed to hold her own very we'll, with her head at the west. AS never knew what moment a ves- sel might heave in sight l bent on the small ensign and ran it half way up. l then took the telescope and swept the horizon carefully but no vessel was in sight. As was very tired yielded to the suggestion of the boatswain and went below hoping to get couple of hours sleep.
 had slept three-quarters of an hour when l was awakened by the steward rushing into my cabin and hauling upon me like madman.
 What is itP" I cried.
 ''Oh, sir," responded the steward, half dead with terror, ''the ships sink ing, sir! We're all going down! I've been told to fetch you up. The Lord have mercy on us!''
 1 rolled onto the deck in my hurry to leave the bunk, and ran with all my speed up the companion-ladder; nor was the ascent difficult, for the ship was on level keel, pitching heavily, indeed, but rolling slightly.
 Scarcely, however, was my head up through the companion when I thought it would have been blown off my shoulders. The fury and force of tho wind was such as l had never before in all my life experienced.
 Both the boatswain and Cornish were at the wheel, and, in order to reach them, l had to drop upon my hands and knees and crawl along the deck. When near them, l took a grip of the grating and looked around me
 The first thing 1 saw was that the main-sail had blown away from most of the gaskets. and was laundering in a thousand rags upon the yard. The fore-sail was split in halves, and the port mizZentop-sail sheet had carried away, and the sail was pealing like endless discharges of musketry. All the spars were safe still. The lee braces had been let go, the helm put up, and the ship was racing before hurricane as furious as a tornado, heading southeast, with wilderness If foam boiling under her bows.
 This. then, was the real gale which the thunderstorm had been nearly all night bringing up. The first gale was but summer breeze compared to it. The terrible beating of the mizzen- top sail was making the mizzen-mast, from the mast-coat to the royal mast | head, jump like piece of whale bone. Al though deafened, bewildered and soaked through with the screaming of the gale, the thunder of the torn canvas and the spray which the wind tore out of the sea and hurled through the air, still | preserved my senses; and, perceiving that the mizzentop-mast would go il the sail were not got rid of. 1 crawled of the mast and let go the remaining l sheet.
 With appalling force, and instanta- neously, the massive chain was torn through the sheave-hole, and in less time than l could have counted ten, one-half the sail had blown into the main-top, and the rest streamed like the ends of whip-cord from the yard.
 l crawled to the fore-end of the poop to look at the main-mast; that stood steady; but while 1 watched the fore mast the foresail went to pieces, and the leaping and plunging of the heavy blocks upon it made the whole mast quiver so violently that the top-gallant and royal-mast beat to and fro like g bow strung and unstrung quickly.
 l waited some moments, debating whether or not to let go the foretop. sail sheets; but, retlecting that the full force of the wind was kept away from it by the maintop-sail, and that il would certainly blow to pieces if touched a rope belonging to it, dropped on my hands and knees agair and crawled away aft.
 'I saw it coming!" roared the bosor n my ear. Fl had just time to sing out to Cornish to slacken the lee braces and put the helm hard over"
 "We shall never be able to runv beloved back. Shell be popped, a1 sure as a gun, when the sea comes We must heave her to while we can l No ;,,ly oE Ln C.,