Walker Lake bulletin. (Hawthorne, Nev.) 1883-1926, 1894-07-25


way she rose and fell we thought she
had sprung leak, for her motion was
now more like that of an old water
logged Quebeccar than of an East Indian
| clipper. About midnight we sounded
the well, but she was dry as bone. The
sea also became much smoother, and we
seemed to be simply rising and falling on
huge swell, instead of going through
heavy sea.
AS the night wore on the force of the
wind greatly abated, insomuch that we
were able to get new topsails from below
and make them ready to bend. 1t was
intensely dark, and as the hurricane
went down an awful stiffness prevailed.
II seemed as if the continued shrieking
of the storm for the last three days had
affected our sense of hearing, or else
there was something strange, as no one
could hear the swish Of the sea, and no
water came aboard. We simply rolled
about in absolute silence.
The wind gradually died away until
1t was dead calm. We lay aloft and
bent the new topsails, and by the time
we were ready to hoist the yards the
morning was beginning to break.
AS daylight came on we were aston
ished to find that instead of being in
clear, open sea we seemed to be in
huge green meadow land. AS far as the
eye could reach there was nothing to be
seen but heaving mass of green. We
had been driven into the midst of the
Saragossa sea. This accounted for the
way she had labored and the deathlike
silence that prevailed. The weeds were
already clinging to the sides and bow of
the vessel. The sun rose clear and bright,
and as the day advanced the heat was
excessive. There was not a breath of
wind anywhere, SO that we lay utterly
helpless amidst this ENHANCEMENT Of
weeds. We could do nothing now but
wait for a breeze to release us. During
the day the swell went down, and by
night we lay quite motionless, and with
most appalling stiffness reigning around.
The night was beautifully clear and
the stars shone out brilliantly; so we
spent our first night among this sea of
weeds and grass, rather pleased than
otherwise at the quiet, which was a re-
lief after the three days incessant
shrieking of the hurricane. At sunrise
the calm still continued, and the men
began to get impatient for a breeze. The
day was occupied in scraping the weeds
from the sides of the vessel. The heat
was intense; there was not breath Of
air, and the sky was without cloud.
AS far at the eye could see, even from a
royal yard, nothing was visible but one
unbroken plain of floating weed. The
frightful stiffness of everything was the
worst part of it. Hour by hour it be-
came more oppressive. 1t was silence
SO intense that one seemed to hear it,
and by shutdown even the nerves of the
toughest old seaman had become so I'M
strung that the putting down of PAN
niken made every one start. Day after
day went on without even a cats paw Of
wind, and the captain soon saw that the
only thing to keep up the mems spirits
was to give them plenty of work. We
painted the ship, tarred down, scraped,
holystoned and did every other conceiv-
able kind Of work until it became hard
to find anything else to do. Curious kind
of creatures crawled about on the top
of the weeds, gazing at our unfortunate
craft with their meaningless fishy eyes.
When we had been thus becalmed for
three weeks the captain thought it ad-
visable to put us on short allowance of
food and water, as there seemed no more
prospect of breeze now than there was
on tue day in which we had first got en-
tangled. At first we tried to get up en-
tertainments, but no one seemed to have
heart for anything, and all our attempts
at amusements failed. The one absorb
ing thought of the whole crew-morn-
ing, noon and night, waking or sleeping
was, "When shall we get breeze?'
What preyed on our minds most was the
appalling stiffness. 1t hung around us
like funeral pail.
One night, while the crew were lying
about the deck trying to sleep, was
suddenly reused by voice shouting,
"Let go your royal halyards."
In moment every one was on the
alert, thinking and hoping that we were
in for breeze. 1t was bright moon
light night-not a cloud was to be seen.
On the forecastle head stood seaman,
waving his arms and calling out that
squall was approaching.
"Where awayY shouted the mate.
"Let gor he yelled in reply.
We now saw that the poor fellow was
raving, and Immediately a couple of
hands secured him. He became very
violent, SO much so that it became neces-
sary to put him in irons. All that night
the poor fellow raved piteously, chiefly
about his wife and child, who he thought
were slowed away in some place all
alone, and where all was silence. For
three days he refused to eat or drink,
and appealed necessarily to us to let him
go and help his dear ones.
On the fourth morning of his illness it
was my turn to watch him. He had
been lying quiet for some time, breath
ing heavily. Presently he struggled vio-
lently, and had to call for the assist
ance of another man to hold him down.