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

The gale, at times the severest that I
vas ever in, lasted three days, during
which the ship drove something like
eighty miles to the northwest. The
sea on the afternoon of the third day
was appalling; had the ship attempted
to run, she would have been popped
and smothered in a minute
The fury of the tempest and the vio-
lence of the sea, which the boldest
could not contemplate without feeling
that the ship was every moment in more
or less peril, kept the crew subdued,
and they ate as best they could the
provisions without complaint. How
ever, it needed nothing less than a
storm to keep them quiet; for on the
second day sea extinguished the gal
ley-tire; and until the gale abated no
cooking could be done; SO that the
men had to put up with cold water
and biscuit. Hence all hands were
thrown upon the ships bread for two
days, and the badness of it, therefore,
was made even more apparent than
heretofore, when it's wormy moldiness
was in some degree qualified by the
nauseousness of bad salt pork and
beef, and the sickly flavor of damaged
tea.
AS 1 had anticipated, the captain
came round little few hours after
his insulting attack upon me. l think
his temper frightened him when it had
reference to me. like others of his
breed he was bit of a cur at the bot
tom. My character was trifie beyond
him, and he was ignorant enough to
hate and fear what he could not I'M
derstand. Be this as it may, he made
some rough attempts at rude kind of
II 1a1< 20
some grog, and condescended to say
that when l had been to sea as long
as he, 1 would know that the most
ungrateful rascals in the world were
sailors; that every crew he had sailed
with had always taken care to invent
some grievance to growl over-either
the provisions were bad, or the work
too heavy, or the ship unseaworthy;
and that long ago he had made up his
mind never to pay attention to their
complaints, since no sooner would
one wrong be redressed than another
would be coined and showed under his
nose.
1 took this opportunity of assuring
him that I had never willingly listened
to the complaints of the men, and that
I was always annoyed when they spoke
to me about the provisions, as had
nothing whatever to do with that mat
ter; and that, so far as my wishing to
stir up the men into rebellion, my con-
duct had been uniformly influenced by
the desire to conciliate them and rep
resent their conditions as very toler-
able, SO as to repress any tendency to
disaffection which they might foment
among themselves.
To this he made no reply, and soon
cd. hut h.
sullen again, and never addressed me
save to give an order.
On the evening of the third day the
gale broke. Next morning I found
the weather bright and warm, with
blue sky shining among heavy white
clouds and the ship making seven knots
an hour under all plain sail. The decks
had been washed down and were dry
and comfortable while the ship had
habitable appearance which was quite
a change from the hundred hours of
severe work and constant storm. It
was half after nine o'clock and l was
standing near the taffrail sweeping sea
and sky with the glass when suddenly
there leaped into the field of vision the
hull of ship, deep as her main-chains
in the water, which came and went be-
fore my eye as the long seas lifted OF
dropped in the foreground. man
aged to keep her sufficiently long in
view to perceive that she was totally
dismasted.
'It's wreck" said 1, turning to the
man at the wheel; "let her come to
again and huff point. There may be
living creatures aboard of her."
Knowing what sort of man Captain
Coxon was, 1 do not think that I
should have had the hardihood to huff
the ship a point out of her course, had
it involved the bracing of the yards;
for the songs of the men would GER
tainly have brought him on deck, and
might have provoked some ugly in
science. But the ship was going free,
and would head more westerly with
out occasioning further change than
slightly slackening the weather braces
of the upper yards. This 1 did quiet
ly, and the dismantled hull was
brought right dead on end with our
flying jib-boom. The men now
caught sight of her, and began to stare
and point, but did not sing out, as
they saw by the telescope in my hand
that 1 perceived her. The breeze I'M
happily began to slacken somewhat,
owing, perhaps, to the gathering heat
of the sun; our pace fell off, and full
nOur passed DeIOre we brought Gne
wreck near enough to see her per-
manently, for up to this she had been
constantly vanishing under the rise of
the swell. She was now about two
miles off, and took long and steady
look at her through the telescope. 1t
was black hull with painted ports.
No boats could be seen aboard of here
Her jib-boom was gone, and so were
all three masts, clean cut off at the
deck, as though hand7saw had done
it; but the mizzen-mast was along
side, held by the shrouds and back
stays, and the port main and fore
shrouds streamed like serpents from
her chains into the water. L reckoned
at once that she must be loaded with
timber, for she never could keep afloat
at that depth with any other kind of
cargo in her.
She made a most mournful and
piteous object IN the sunlight, slug
gishly rolling to the swell which ran
in transparent volumes over her sides
and foamed around the deck-house.