The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1893-09-07
LOST AT SEA.
Only Hundred Feet D.tweon Life and Il
CertnIn Death.

| Certain Death.
| At midnight on the night OF the 18th of
| August, 1869, the order was passed along
the decks of the ship to stand ready to
| hcave her too. We were midway between
the island of ST. Paul and the Cape of Good
Hope, racing for the cape. For eight hours
we had been driving on like n wild loco.
motive, followed by the mighty waves OF
| the great Indian ocean, but the ship could
no longer outrun them, though driven by
the power of hurricane. She must be
brought head to the sea to save her. Dur
ing the next 10 minutes the chances against
her were as 20 to l. and at the critical mo.
ment her decks were SO deuged that the
| grent fabric seemed to be settling down
under our feet Men cried out and thcn
shut their eyes and ceased to breathe 1t
seemed an aye before she swung around to
meet the waves head on, and the wheel WINS
dashed to keep her on the port tuck, but
when that had been done human hands
could do no more
Running off before the gale we had not
felt it's full force. but now it was enough to
appal the stoutest heart. The roar of Nj
agara would have been drowned n hundred
times over. There was such a shriekinp
and screaming from up aloft that one be-
came cowardly in spite of himself, and the
motion of the ship obliged every man to
lash himself where he stood. 1t was the
brightest of moons and the clearest of skies
and yet the hurricane came out of the west
as if driven by all the steam power of n con-
tinent. Now the ship almost stood on her
rudder as she went climbing up the slope of
wave which seemed TO roll higher than
our mastheads; now she went racing down
on the other side with the speed of n rail.
road train, and it seemed us if the abyss
was Il thousand feet deep that she must
find bottom. From 1880 to daylight it
seemed simply question of how quick the
end would come.
AS the sun came up the wind dropped n
little, but the spectacle was one on which
many of the men refused to look The
great ocean was II bed of froth, and rising
out of the froth were regularwalls of green
water crested with foam, which reared
themselves to n height of 40 or 80 feet and
raced into the eastern horizon ut IL speed of
n mile Il minute. Sunrise found us dashed
where we were at midnight, and noon had
come before any man dared move about
The gale had broken, and the spoondrift
was no longer flung over US like fresh snow
but it would be hours before we could get
the ship on her course. The men were nib
bling Mt the only food to be got at when
the lookout gave an alarm. On our star
board bow, drifting ut the same rate as we
heaved clearly into view, was a man dashed
to n hatch cover. He was not above so feet
away, and as we gathered at the rail he
waved his hand to us. Somewhere to the
west of us his ship had foundcred during
the night.
AS we had the wind and sea in orr favor.
we tried to float him out Il buoy 1t would
almost reach him and then whirl away
astcrn, as if carried by some current ere
atctl by the hull of the ship. If he shouted.
we could not hear him, but each time we
pulled the buoy back TO make n fresh trial
he encouraged lis with II gesture We made
dozen attempts before we gave it IN, and
then we got out the signal gun and tried to
fire line over him. With an ordinary sea
running his chances would have been good
II too rough for boat, we could have got
the buoy to him or sent him II line by the
gun.
With the gale still piping and the waves
running so tremendously high we could do
nothing rs it ought to be done. Twice the
line fell fairly over his float. Once it was
just as the foam smothered him, and he
could neither see nor act, and again he got
hold of it with his right hand, but could
not stand the strain of pulling in and had
to let 90. 1t was Il horrible thing to stand
and watch that man and imagine his feel
ings. y hundred feet from him was Ger
tain salvation, but. he could not reach us
and we could not reach him.
After he let 20 of the line lie seemed TO
realize that IL WAS Il useless fight and he
waved his hand to us as if TO say that we
need make no further efforts, but we tried
both buoy and cannon again. The sea WA,
determined to have his life, and after two
hours work the mate signalcd to him that
we could do no more until the sea went
down. just then some mys; crious action
OF wind and wave began TO increase his dis
lance from us. He noticed it as soon as we
did, and making II gesture which meant
"Goodby" he turned his face away from us
and was soon out of sight, drifting away
into an cXpanse whose nearest shore was
the coast of Africa.
Poor man. signed the mate when he
could no longer make out anything through
his glasses.
Poor man. sighed every one else aboard
when it was known that he had disappeared
and that another sunrise would witness Il
corpse dashed to the wreckagc and tllm-
bling about OH the still angry bosom of old
ocean. NJ. QUAD.