The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1896-01-14
SCHOONER BRUNETTE ASHORE.
The Story Of the Nellie Eaton During
the Great Storm of Last Week.

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the Great Storm of Last Week.
Captain Jonson's Account of the Way tn.
Vanguard Went Ahore-Many Stories
of the Storm on the Maine Coast-Es
cape of A. III. Wallace.
News from the storm, or rather series
of storms is coming in thick and fast,
and there is every Indication that the
total loss will far exceed any figures set
even by the most experienced sailor and
skipper. That there will prove to have
been a series of disasters all along the
coast there is no longer doubt, and that
every section of the coast was visited, and
with the exception of this section, the
coasters and fishermen everywhere
suffered greatly.
Yesterday, Captain Grant of the Paris
Flowering company, received despatch
that the schooner Brunette, Captain
Walch, Portland for Searsport, with a
load of grain in bulk, and deck load of
flour, had gone ashore on Harris island
ledge outside of Port Clyde. Captain
Grant wired to Rockland to have a tug
sent to her assistance. 1t is supposed that
she went ashore during the thick snow
storm off the Maine coast Sunday night.
The accident probably occurred before 10
O. clock, as it cleared up at sea after that
hour. The rock is a very dangerous
point and she is probably badly damaged.
The schooner Nellie Eaton, out from
Boston nine days made this port during
Sunday night, and sailed during the
forenoon yesterday for Calais. Captain
John Morrison reported very remark
able experience, probably the worst re-
ported off the New England coast this
season.
Captain Morrison had the Ill luck to
leave Boston just in time to strike into
the great ice storm of the first of the
month, and was caught off Boon island
light when 1t was at its worst. His
schooner iced up in manner hard to be
described, and even as she lay in this
harbor yesterday she showed marks of
the ice. The men were ordered to cut ice.
but before they made much Roadway all
hands were ordered to man the pumps
the schooner having sprang leak, and
ing in. From that time there was
nothing to do while the binding storm
lasted but to let the ice accumulate while
they stood at the pumps and worked for
dear life, for no boat could have lived for
an instant in that fearful sea.
In the midst of the storm, the flying jib
was carried away with a rush, and the
other sails were badly torn, and to make
matters worse the ice was forming SO
rapidly that it was weighing the
schooner down. When the storm cleared
away it was found that the decks were
covered to depth Of two feet, and every
rope was mass of ice. The enormous
weight of the mass of ice that covered
every portion Of the schooner can be
imagined, and it took the crew all the
time they could take for two days from
their constant work at the pumps to cut
away the windlass so that tho anchors
could be moved.
Captain Morrison was inclined to think
that they were forced to work SO con-
stantly QUITTING ice and manning the
pumps, as it saved them from freezing.
The schooner had full load of corn and
-four, and despite the somewhat crippled
condition of his vessel and the fact that
she was leaking badly, Captain Morrison
decide to continue his voyage to Calais
After making this port he satisfied him
self that the vessel was in condition to
stand the passage all right, but of course
the men will have to do their best at the
pumps.
j. H. Blake, received word yesterday
that the schooner Lula, Portland to Bos-
ton, reached Boston in safety, but simply
a mass of ice. The captain and mate had
their hands and feet frozen on the way
up, and the men suffered fearfully from
the intense cold. The schooner sailed
from here in time to go head on into the
recent storms off this coast that must ac-
oording to all reports, have broken the
record for accompanying cold weather.
The schooner William Thomas. pre-
viously reported below Portsmouth, iced
up and crippled, came in yesterday
and Captain A. Morrison said
chat in all his experience at sea, and he
is an old sailor, he never saw anything
like the weather he encountered on the
way from Boston to this port He left
Boston week ago last Sunday, and
when ten miles off Boon island. at
O'Clock in the afternoon encountered a
storm that proved to be a terror. From
that time until Wednesday, the storm
continued with out showing the least sign
of letting up, and when it ceased, the