The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1894-10-15
THEIR GREAT PERIL.

Inc bruised ana exhausted crew cut away
some of the rigging with axes and chisels.
They 1igged tackles to the rudder and tried
to steer the crank and listed craft. 1t was
still blowing gale. Tho sea grew white
and frothy as it ragged and the air was filed
with spray. 1t seemed as though the
schooner's hull must part under the drub-
hing of the waves.
Out of the mist came a st Gamer, and
passed within $50 yards of the disabled
schooner. So close she came that Captain
Mckown thought that she must have Come
to save him. She was SO near that the
skipper. thick as the weather was, could
see men on her decks watching the schoon
er through marine glasses. :
g I le Woodside's crew shouted and pointed
to the signal of distress raised on a stick
dashed to the stump of the mizzenmast. The
steamer cid not alter her course or slow
down. She disappeared into the mist. Even
then Captain Mc1own did not believe that
he had been deserted. He and his crew
were sure that the steamer s captain had
seen them and thought that she must be
standing by, although they could not see
her.
The steamer had two masts and a black
funnel with red top. She might have. been
bound from Savannah for Boston. or she
may have been a steamer Of the Philadel-
phia-Boston line.
Eight drenched and wretched men stood
aft Wednesday afternoon when they saw
bearing down toward them the steamer
Ping Suey, tea vessel from Chinese and
japanese ports.
By four o'clock that afternoon boat con-
tanning Second Officer Barter, of the Ping
Suey, and a volunteer crow of four men.
WAS within hailing distance. Then when
help was at hand the Woodside's crew for
got their perils and privations and declined
to leave. Mr.. Barter tried to induce them
t } abandon the schooner. They would not
listen to it.
WENT TO THEIR RESCUE.
So, although it twas hard for even the
Ping Suey's stout Iifeboat to live in such a
sea, the iifesayers took line from the
schooner.
Three times the steamer tried to take the
dismasted craft in tow, and every time the
line parted. Captain Davis ordered his crew
t o return to the steamer, as it was then
dark. With light placed on the stump of
the mizzenmast guide the Ping Suey
steamed around The schooner all Wednesday
night.
That night the Woodside drifted fifty
miles to the southwark, SO far that had the
Ping Sucy then deserted her she would
probably not have been sighted again for
weeks. A wire hawser was made fast to
the Woodside Thursday morning. and she
was towed without further mishaps. Second
Officer Barter, the plucky young English
man who led the resouing party, remained
for the rest of the voyage on the schooner.
The Woodside's steering gear was re-
paired under his direction, \and he and
several of the Ping Suey's crew took almost
entire charge of.the vessel. The hull of the
Woodside was still tight, and now that it is
all over Captain Mchown thinks that he
might have held out much longer if help
had not come when it did. He said yester-
day that the weather which dismasted the
Woodside was theiworst he has ever en-
countered at sea. The Ping Suey left the
Woodside in Gravesend' Bay Saturday and
proceeded to her. pier.