Waterbury evening Democrat., 1891-08-12

| sLrlPs or It nylng lnto the sea Hke smoke.
 struggled back again onto the poop, but the violence of the wind was al- most more than could bear; it beat the breath out of me; it stung my face just as if it were filled with needles; it roared in my ears; it resembled a solid wall; it rolled me off my knees and hands, and obliged me to drag myself against it bit by bit, by whatever came in my road to hold on to.
 Cornish lay upon the deck with the end of the main-brace in his hands, having taken the necessary turns with it around the capstan.
 l laid my weight against the bar and went to work, and, scrambling and panting. beaten half dead by the wind, and no more able to look astern with out protecting my eyes with my hands than I could survey any object in a room full of binding smoke, I gradu- ally got the main-yard round, but found had not the strength to bring it close to the mast
 saw the boatswain speak to the steward, who left the wheel to help me with his weight against the capstan bar.
 do think at that moment that the foatswain transformed himself into an immovable figure of iron. Heaven knows from what measureless inner sources he procured the temporary strength; he clinched his teeth, and the muscles in his hands rose like bulbs as he hung to the wheel and pitted his strength against the blows of the seas upon the rudder.
 Brave, honest fellow! a true seamani a true Englishman! We'll would it be for sailors were there more of his kind among them to set them examples or honest labor, noble self-sacrifce and duty ungrudgingly performed!
 The seas struck the ship heavily as she rounded to. 1 feared that she would have too much headsail to lie close, for the foresail and foretop-sail were in ribbins -t they might show enough roaring canvas when coupled with the foretop-mast staysail to make her pay off, we having no aftersail set to counserbalance the effect of them.
 However, she lay steady, that is, as the compass goes, but rolled fearfully, wallowing deep like ship half full of water, and shipped such tremendous seas that constantly expected to hear the crash of the galley stove in.
 l now shaded my eyes and looked astern. The horizon was a dull blank; nothing was in sight but the rugged line of water and the nearer, deep, dark, wider shadow of the leaden pour ing clouds.
 CHAPTER XXI. "t
 In bringing the ship close to the wind Tn this terrible gale, without springing a spar, we had done what I never should have believed practicable to four men, taking into consideration the size of the ship and the prodigious force of the wind; and when looked aloft and considered that only few hours before, so to speak, the ship was carrying all the sail that could be put upon her, and that three men had stripped her of it and put her under clOse-reefed maintop-sail fit to encoun- ter a raging hurricane, I could not help thinking that we had right to feel proud of our endurance and spirit.
 There was no difficulty now in hold ing the wheel, and, had no worse sea than was now running been promised us. the helm might have been lashed and the vessel lain as comfortably as smack with her foresail over to wind ward.
 The torn sails were making hideous noise on the yards forward, and as there was no earthly reason why this clanor should be suffered to last, I called to Cornish to get his knife ready and help me to cut the canvas away from the jack-stays. We hauled the braces taut to steady the yards, and then went aloft, and in ten minutes severed the fragments of the foresail and topsail, and they blew up into the air like paper, and were carried nearly half a mile before they tell into the sea.
 The wind was killing up aloft, and I was heartily glad to get on deck again, not only to escape the wind, but on account of the foretop-mast and top-gal- lant-mast, both of which had been heavily tried, and now rocked heavily as the ship rolled, and threatened to come down with the weight of the yards upon them.
 But neither Cornish nor I had strength enough in us to stay the masts more securely; our journey aloft and our sojourn on the yards, and our fight with the wind to main tain our hold, had pretty well done for us; and in Cornish took notice of tn at air of lassitude and dull indifference which creeps upon shipwrecked men when worn out with their struggles, and which resembles, in its way, the stupor which falls upon persons who are perishing of cod
 It was fair. however, since I had some rest, that l should now take a | spell at the wheel, and I therefore told , Cornish to go to the cabin lately occu- pied by Stevens, the ships carpenter, and turn in, and then crawled aft to the poop and desired the boatswain to go below and rest himself, and order l the steward, who had not done one- l tenth of the work we had performed, to stand by ready to come on deck if l 1 should call to him.
 l held my post at the wheel being l anxious that the boatswain and Cornish should recruit their strength by sleep, l for if one or the other of them broke 5 down, then, indeed, our case would be } deplorable.
 The force of the wind was stupendous, and yet the brave maintop-sail stood 5 it; but not an hour had passed since the two men went below when a mon- ster wave took the ship on the star