The Portland daily press., 1894-12-05
MAsTs ON THE DECK.
Extraordinary Spectacle and Story OF
the Schooner WO0dside.

| The Bbostay Broke-Mast, BoWspfit'
Booms and Everything Fell With
Crash-Six Weeks of Litigation over
| SaIvage-Fifteen Days Towing Here
The Crew Demand More Wages.
| AT the Portland and Ogdenspurg coai
! wharf just above the sugar rennefy, thSFe
| is one of the most significant slectacles Vi
what the sea can do. when IL attacAs
| vessel, that ever came into this naroof. II
| is a three masted schooner with every one
| of her great masts, nearly three leet III
| diameter, lying PROSTATE on the DECK, ana
with the topmasts and jibboom lying In
| fragments, The masts were snapped
off close to the deck. Bent and twisted
| rigging and cordage is lying about in heaps
| everywhere.
This schooner is the B. R. Woodside. of
| Bath. that was dismasted at sea October
10th. and Just reached here Monday night,
where she will unload her cargo of 822 tons
| of coal She is vessel of 534 tons burden.
| Her extraordinary story is as follows:
| On October 10th, she was about one hun
dred and twenty miles east-northeast of
Sandy Hook. The gale struck her at about
midnight, when every sail was set. and by
six o'clock the next morning every shred of
CANVAS WAS BLOWN AWAY.
Also before that time the forestry. which
extends from the top of the foremost to the
bow. had ported. This brought all the
strait. czl this masts and rigging upon the
bobstays, which are chain cables, and which
run from the bowsrrit down to the bow be-
low As the vessel pitches in great sea
md
strain comes upon the bobstays. AT 7.30 a.
M, the links of one of the bobstays were
pulled apart. AS the vessel pitched the
bowsprit began to sway up and down, anu
the great masts to sway backward and for
ward. 1t was time of terror. The great
seas wer sweeping over the deck, and sud-
denly the raging water tore of the tar
paulin from the fore hatch. 1t was with the
greatest difficulty that Captain Mc'Iown,
and his mate and crew of five men were
able to get it back.into place. Without the
tarpaulin, the water would enter the hold
through the hatch.
At a. M, the second bobstay broke, and
it was the signal for an awful crash that
sent terror into the heart OF every man, 1oI
they fully believed that it was all up with
them then. They were facing the hurrl-
cana, which swept the vessel from stem to
stern. When the bobstay broke, off came
the bowspirt and over backward went every
mast, snapped short off close to the deck.
Bowsprit, masts, jibboom. booms, rigging
and everything came down upon the deck
with one tremendous crash. When the
bowsprit reared up and fell over backward,
one of the sailors, who was on top of the
forecastle, fell
ON HIS FACE IN AFFECT TERROR.
1t was miracle that he wasn't struck and
killed and that all those great tImbers
could fall on the deck without striking any
of the crew was no less miracle.
When they found that no damage was
done, except the breaking of the tafrall,
but the mizzen-top-mast, which fell over
board astern. they rushed to the stem and
with axes and chisels worked furiously and
long to sever the wire rigging and allow
that topmast to get clear of the vessel. 1t
was finally accomplished. ytis,
All this happened "Wednesday morning.
Till the next Friday, they lay in their
sorry plight al the mercy. of tie waves.
When the British steamer Ping Sucey. from
China withstea, picked them up and toWed
them to New York.
There the schooner remained about six
weeks during the litigation as to the sal
wage due the steamer. When they arrived
the owners of the schooner offered the
steamer $1,000 salvage, but it was refused.
After six weeks Of litigation the courts al
lowed the steamer only the $1,000, and 1T
would have been much cheaper for the Eng
lishmen to have accepted the offer.
November 22nd, the tug Mercury started
for Portland with the disabled schooner in
tow. They were delayed at Boston by
change Of tugs and at Gloucester by hard
weather. and were thirteen days getting
here from New York.
This has led to legal proceedings here for
Yesterday five sailors appeared before
United States Marshal Donovan. There
were three Swedes Yankee and negro.
They came from the Woodside. The negro
was the cook of the vessel and the spokes-
man of the party. He told the'maTshal that
they had come to get justice. They had
Skinned on the Woodside at New York at
lump sum for the trip to Portland. They
were to receive So apiece. They thought
that the trip would last only four days. but
it did last thirteen days. They wanted to
get pay for the other days.
Captain McGowns side of the story is that
he wanted the men to ship at SO much
month, but they desired the lump sum. He
couldn't know how long it would take to
reach Portland.
The men went off after counsel, and the
case may come on trial.
When the Woodsde was struck by the
gale she was from Philadelphia to Portland
with coal. She had come to Philadelphia
from the Kennebec with ice. She woulu
have made the trip in fourteen days the
fastest on record except for the storm.
The record now is fifteen days made by the
four-master Andrew Adams of Boothbay.