The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1893-05-18

not find an opportunity Of transmitting
it to the world, but I will not fail to
make the endeavor. At the last momert
will inclose the MS. in bottle and
cast it within the sea.
An incident has occurred which has
given me new room for meditation Are
such things the operation Of ungoverned
chance? had ventured upon deck and
thrown myself down without attracting
any notice among II pile of ratlin stuff
and old sails in tie bottom of the yawl.
While musing upon the singularity Of
my fate, unwitt---y.ly daubed with q
tar brush the edges Of a neatly folded
studding sail which lay near me on a
barrel Tie studding sail is now bent
upon the ship. and the thoughtless
touches Of the brush are spread out into
the word Discovery"
have made many observations lately
upon the structure Of the vessel. Al
though well armed. she is not, think, a
ship of war. Her rigging, build and gen.
sral equipment all negative suppose
ton of this kind. What she is not can
easily perceive; what she is l fear it is
impossible to say. know not how it is,
but in scrutinizing her strange model
and singular cast of. sEars. her huge size
and overgrown suits Of canvas, her Sc
verely simple bow and Anticipated stern,
there will occasionally flash across my
mind a sensation CT familiar things, and
there is always mixed up with such in
distinct shadows of recollection an unac-
countable memory of old foreign chron-
icles and ages long ago
have been looking at the timbers of
the sl.in She is h1ilt of q material to
which am stranger. There is q
peculiar character about the wood which
strikes me- es rendering it unfit for the
purpose to which it has been applied. /
mean its extreme porousness,, considered
independently Of the worm eaten con-
dition which is consequence of naviga-
ton in these seas, and apart from the
rottenness attendant upon age. It will
appear perhaps an observation some
what overcurious, but this wood would
have every characteristic of Spanish oak,
if Spanish oak were distended by any
unnatural means.
In reading the above sentence curl
Gus apothegm of an old weatherbeaten
Dutch navigator comes full upon my
recollection. ''It is as sure" he was
won't to say when any doubt was enter
tanned of his veracity. ''as sure as there
is sea where the ship itself will grow
in bulk like the living body of the sea-
man."
About an hour ago made bold to
trust myself among group of the crew.
They paid me no manner of attention,
and although stood in the very midst
of them all seemed utterly unconscious
of my presence. Like the one I had at
first seen in the hold, they all bore about
them the marks of a hoary old age.
Their knees trembled with infrmity
Their shout ers were bent double with
decrepitude. Their shriveled skins rat
tied in the wind. Their voices were low,
tremulous. I'd broken. Their eyes glis-
tened with he rheum of years, and their
grey hairs -eamed terribly in the tenn
pest. Arc. I'D them, on every part Of
the deck, lay scattered mathematical in
struments of the most quaint and obso-
lete construction.
mentioned some time ago the bend
ing of studding sail. From that period
the ship, being thrown dead of the wind,
has continued her terrific course due
south, with every rag Of canvas packed
upon her, from her truck to her lower
studding sail booms, and rolling every
moment her topgallant yardarms into
the most appalling hell of water which
it can enter into the mind of man to
imagine. have just left the deck, where
I find it impossible to maintain foot
ing, although the crew seems to expert
ence little inconvenience. It appears to
me miracle of miracles that our enor-
nous bulk is not swallowed up at once
and forever.
We are surely doomed to hover con-
tinually upon the brink of eternity, with
out taking final plunge into the abyss.
From pillows thousand times more
stupendous than any have ever seen
we glide away with the facility Of the
arrowy sea gull, and the colossal waters
rear their heads above us like demons of
the deep, but like demons confined to
simple threats and forbidden to destroy.
am led to attribute these frequent
escapes to the only natural cause which
can account for such effect. I must
suppose the ship to be within the inf1u-
ence of some strong current or impetu-
GUS undertow.
I have seen the captain face to face
and in his own cabin; but, as 1expected,
he paid me no attention. Although in
his appearance there is to casual OBJ
server nothing which might bespeak
him more or less than man, still feel
ing of irrepressible reverence and awe
mingled with the sensation of wonder
with which regarded him. In stature
he is nearly my own height-that IS.
about 8 feet inches. He is Of well
(, knit and compact frame Of body, neither
robust nor remarkable otherwise. But
it is the singulafity Of the expression
which reigns upon the FACET is the in
tense, the wonderful, the thrilling evil
dence Of old age, SO utter. so extreme,