The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1893-12-29
A WRECK.


before. Up in a shady spot on the shore,
just above the little schooner, was the
wreck of a small shanty, likewise an evil
dence Of the severity Of the gale, it having
come down upon the heads OF its inmates
during the same night.
These two-Ned Fairly and Fred Can
feld-were camping in the open air since
the disaster, and sleeping under the prop
pea up roof, the interest in a gang of men
working on the beached schooner being
too strong for them to find time to patch
up the shanty.
A tug had parted a ~ inch hawser try
ing to draw the Plow Boy off.
Captain jackson, short, sandy bearded
man, with very red face, was shouting
orders and encouragement all day long.
She was dug under and long beams used
in attempts to pry her up and off, in the
manner of the Mississippi steamboat men.
On the fifth day of the little crafts
stay on the shore, she was deserted by the
workers in a body. They held a council
at the noon hour; asked for their pay, and
when it was not forthcoming threw up the
job.
At first Captain jackson went and sat
on the cabin house of his little vessel in APP
parent indecision. Toward night Fred
saw him picking his way up the sand bank
toward the ruins of the shanty.
He had come to ask them if they would
be shipkeepers for him while he ran down
to Buffalo to try to raise the funds; he
could not offer them provisions, for the
last of the little vessels stores had gone
to feed the hands who had deserted her.
But the boys were only too delighted to
exchange the tumbledown shanty for the
snug cabin of the little Plow Boy, and
they began shifting the bareback, soups
and other canned edibles of their store
aboard cheerily.
The next night the western sky looked
threatening. This was late in September,
and fall gales might be expected at any
time. Ned took a long lock about before
he drew the cabin slide.
BY midnight the storm had broken, and
the pounding, gushing surf made shout
ing the only mode of conversation practic-
able. The wind whistled through the
rigging of the little vessel in long walls.
Barrels and barrels of water were being
hurled upon the top of the cabin and her
decks-she could even be felt to sway at
the blows of some of the heavier seas.
Leu 3 Jake u lOOh Ouby cEcu piOpOSCNl'
To have opened any of the cabin win
dows would have deluged the little apart
ment The chums crawled down through
the door into the hold and thence to the
forward deck by way of the forecastle.
Climbing upon the bulwarks and cling
ing to the forestry, stirring sight lay be-
fore and about them.
The Pillow Boy was as completely sur
rounded by water as though she were
afoat, the seas breaking faT up on the
shore and all about her. 1t would have
been hazardous undertaking 20 have at
tempted to have gone ashore.
"Fred!r halloed Ned in his companions
ear suddenly, "this is as big gale as she
came ashore in, and the waters higher,
because it's blowing down the lake. I've
been thinking-are you in for q big trip"
"You don't mean we can do anythingr'
shouted Fred back.
1--WE might get her off and riding to the
anchor if we could get the cable forward.
The way it is made fast just now would
only make her bow swing in further if she
works loose"
Wet to the skin--more nearly drowned
they managed to reach the wheel, when,
working knee deep in swirling water most
of the time, they were able to cast off the
heavy cable from the sheet bits at last.
Fortunately the ships end of the long
cable was still at her bow, so that they
only had to cast the part they loosened
overheard, or they might have been drawn
over the side in the attempt to carry it for
ward.
Clinging to the bulwarks like parrots,
a.1 oiV,
manned the windlass and took in the slack
of the big line as much as they were able
Nor were they any too soon in doing so.
"Boomp' a great sea struck the little
vessel and the boys felt her rise from the
sand. The rushing power of water tried tC
sweep her down the beach and in, but the
cables resistance could be distinctly felt.
If the long line held, the boys knew il
would draw the little craft off with every
sea that tried to wash her farther in and
down the dark shore.
With thrill that set both boys shout
ing they soon felt the little Plow Boy ris
ing, falling and pitching on the inrushing
waves as she swung loose from the shore
the little schooner was off
Then followed a night of heaving and
rolling and backaching work at the pumps
for the vessel leaked quite little-that
Ned and Fred say they will never forget.
They did not grow seasick, because
there was no time to think of it. But they
have since declared that they would moi
have missed the experience for worlds.
The storm eased up in the morning
when the lighthouse skiff brought ole
Captain Jackson out to them; nor was there
ever a very much more pleased man thar
he.
They helped him sail her into Erie har
Dor, when he pressed them to be cabir
passengers ON her later run to Buffalo,
Conyers G. Converse.