The county record. [volume] (Kingstree, S.C.) 1885-1975, 1897-04-29
THE FIELD OF ADVENTURE.
THRILLING INCIDENTS AND DAR-
ING DEEDS ON LAND AND SEA.

Two Gloucester Fishermen's Marvel
GUS Adventure-How a Cowboy
| Won a Bride-A Thrilling Ride
T HAVE recently met in Gloucester
one Howard Blackburn, who was
for years Gloucester fisherman,
says a writer in the Washington
Star. About ten years ago this man
had one of the most marvellous adven-
lures ct sea on record. He, with a
dory mate named Welch, were caught
out in frightful snowstorm hauling
their travis on Burgess Bank of New
foundland. The wind shifted and
blew with almost hurricane force.
They were compelled to abandon the
lines and pull for their lives. The
seas ran higher and higher, and every
effort to pull in the direction CT the
small schooner anchored we'll to wind.
ward was in vain, and, knocking the
head out of one of the kegs used for
buoys, drag was made, and they lay
to that. Tossed up and down on the
foaming billows, their tiny boat
shipped barrels of water, and the ice
formed in large Jumps and dashed
against the boats sides and against
its occupants with great force, and
the little dory was in constant danger
OF swamping.
During the long and weary watches
of that night the occupants Of the
dory, hungry, cold and bleeding,
could see the glare Of the flashlights
their shipmates on board the schooner
; kept burning in the vain hope that the
poor sailors might reach the ship IN
safety.
As the night wore ON, the dory.
half-filled with ice and water, drifted
to leeward, and before daybreak was
out of sight of the flashlights. In the
! meantime Welch was gradually dying
from hunger and cold. Blackburn
lost his mittens, and. standing amidst
the ice and water in the boat, his
hands and feet had begun to freeze.
His dory mate, discouraged and faint,
lay in the stern of the boat, and his
stony stare and pitiful appeals told
Blackburn as plainly as words that he
was dying.
Realizing his own pitiful position,
and the utter hopelessness of his
mates condition, he tucked him up
gently and lovingly in the stern
of the boat, that he might be as com.
Portable as possible, while he yet
lived. And then, with the most wonder
full presence of mind, Incompetent
sible nerve and grit, he sat down on
the thwsrt, and, facing his dying COM
rade, pitiful to see in his hopeless and
freezing condition, grasped the oars
firmly, that his hands might freeze in
a curved position and not straight,
rendering him entirely helpless. A
few hours more and his dory mate was
dead. As he had lain there in the
bottom. of the boat he knew he wac
freezing to death, and his last words
we're: 81 am going, Howard. Good.
bye and God bless You. Howard, I
can trust you, and now make me q
promise If you ever reach ehore,
Howard, take me with you. Goodbye.
God bless you"
Words cannot describe the suffer-
ing, the physical pain and mental an
guish through which this poor fisher.
man passed. Nor can the pen do
credit to the fortitude, the manhood.
the heroism and noble nature OF the
man.
For four days without food or
water, he struggled on, bearing with
him the dead body of his comrade.
His feet were stiff and freezing, and
the flesh was gradually slipping off Of
his hands from contact with the oars.
On the fifth day he reached shore. In
his wretched condition, after all his
! suffering IN his touching devotion he
spent hours in filing the dying request
of his lost comrade. After finally
getting the corpse safely on shore, he
started in quest OF food Some good
simple people took him in and cared
for him and bathed his frozen hands
and feet and some days after he
reached Gloucester.
He lost both hands and his feet
I, became warped ont of shape, render
ing him forever unable to do any
manual labor. But the good people
of Gloucester recognized in Blackburn
hero and he was established in o
small business by them. He Is as
! modest as he is brave, and, while
! rough and brusque, he is as gentle as
! child. In his daily life he IS as he
was in those dark hours when adrift
upon the tempestuous ocean, generous
and noble. He Is the friend of the
widow and orphan, the sick and the
needy, and no one in need ever
appeals in vain to the Gloucester fish
| erman.
As stood in lis small store talking
to him one rainy afternoon, burly
fisherman entered. '.Halloa, How
| ard !" "Hallon, Bill" was the greet
ing to each other when Bill hurried to
inquire of him if he knew of the sad
condition of Mrs. s. - down in
Duncan street. He told of her illness,
OF sick child. of her poverty-stricken
condition. Her rent was overdue.
Notice had been given her to vacate,
unless her rent was paid within q very