Passaic City record., 1891-09-19
A SAILORS STORY.

II ~ OA1 1IOlb NJ ~ 1 O1b Is
We had touched at st. Helena to leave
a detachment of soldiers and some
stores, aud had left that historic spot
several days behind US, when the brig
caught fire and we had to abandon her.
There was no hope of saving her from
the first, and we congratulated ourselves
on having a smooth sea and time to pro-
vision the boats and get the people off.
One hour after noon on the 18th day
of February, 1862, the brig Gull, bound
from Liverpool to the Cape of Good
Hope, and having forty eight souls
aboard, burned to the waters edge and
sank, leaving us $50 miles off the Afri-
can coast. With the other boats shall
have nothing to do, for never one was
afterwards heard of. In the boat to
which l was assigned there were nine
people-four of us belonging to the
crew and Che other five passengers. Of
these three were young Englishmen, 60
ing out to the Cape to try farming, and
the other two were women. They were
aunt and niece, and just why they took
passage on the brig or whether
they were going beyond the Cape,
can't tell you. Being only plain sail
roman, I knew nothing about the pas
sengers, except as l picked up word
here and there. The aunt was nearly
fifty years old and the niece not over
twenty, and if there was ever hand
somer girl ahoat IN an English ship 1
never had the luck to see har.
There was some confusion, as matter
of course, when we took to the boats,
but we got away from the brig in good
shape, with no one lost or hurt and
with water and provisions enough to do
us for a week. We were in charge OF
the boatswain, and but for terrible ac-
c1dent l know we should have pulled
through without mIshap or suffering.
He was an oldish man, good sailor,
and he had authority over all in the
boat.
When the boats got together it was
found that the Captain had the only
compass. He ordered that we were to
hold up to the cast and to keep together,
and when we headed away for the Afri-
can coast the long boat was leading and
the rest of us were strung out In line.
Had the weather been fair our mishap
would have been nothing to talk about;
but at midnight that night, while we
were following the long-boat by the
lantern hung aloft, a fierce and sudden
squall came out of the east and almost
proved our destruction. 1t was followed
by gale which soon kicked up a tre-
mendous sea, and we got over drag and
lay head to it all that night and all next
day until an hour before sundown. Dur
ing all these long hours we had to keep
bailing to prevent being swamped, and
by daylight it was impossible to see
cables length away for the flying drift.
It was bad enough for the men, but those
two poor women might as well have been
dead. They lay on the bottom of the
boat, covered up as best we could do it,
and when the gale at last broke hardly
expected to find them alive. They were,
though, and at the hour named food and
water were served out and the boatswain
began seeking to cheer everybody up.
By night the wind had died fiat away
and the sea was fast going down. The
worst was over, and we could now shake
ourselves and utter congratulations. The
passengers had been terribly sick, and
each of them had given himself up as
lost, but row that things had mended
we could almost be said to be jovial
crowd. While the boatswain got one OF
the men to singing to increase our cour-
age, he whispered to me that he was full
of anxiety. We had two water-kegs, but
they were leaky and had lost much of
their contents. We had sheltered the
ships bread as much as we could, but a
rood hail of ii had oeen spoiled. You
might figure that we had dropped to
three days supply, and that wasn't the
worst of it. That gale must have drift
ed us at least hundred miles farther off
the coast.
The boa.swain talked these matters
over with me because he knew me to be,
begging your pardon, sober, steady
lad who could look the worst in the face
and help to meet it. We were not to say
ANYTHING to the rest until next day. As
there was no wind to move us, and as
everybody was badly used up, it was de-
cided that we lay to as we were for the
night. 1t had come nine o'clock or
later and some of the men were asleep,
when the ooatswain went forward and