The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1897-11-23

which had hitherto prevailed over the
ship had entirely disappeared and when
my hunger had been satisfied | readily
made myself believe that the fever had
gone for good.
Although only lad and my expert
ence as sailor limited to months, l
yet had wit enough to look at the cap
tainss charts and find our position as he
had pricked it off l could tell nothing
of distances, but l knew the bark was
on the great highway between the
South American ports and the cape of
| Good Hope. knew how to make a sig
nal of distress of the English flag, and
although there was no wind, l ran the
bunting aloft as soon as thought of
During the afternoon l was busy about
the decks picking up and coiling down
and seeing that everything was secure
and at noon prepared another meal.
1t was O'Clock in the afternoon be-
fore the first catspaws began playing
over the CLASSY surface of the sea, but
in the course of half an hour a steady
breeze set in from the north, and the
bark went drifting away before it. |
marked her drift by compass as east by
south. | had heard sailors talk much of
wreck and disaster, and before night
came on | got out some pieces of sheet
iron to lay on the deck and prepared
materials for beacon fire. remained
on deck till half past 10 O'Clock, ready
to light my beacon in case saw the
light of a craft, and then went to my
berth and slept soundly till an hour aft
er sunrise. When l gained the deck,
saw a sail to the south about eight
miles away, which must have passed
close to me early in the morning. |
have aways felt certain that this craft
had daylight i'll which to see my signal,
and the fact of the bark having all sails
furled and being adrift was clearly no
ticed, but she kept her way without
ing the long day went aloft with the
glass and swept the sea. but no other
sail greeted my vision. When night
came, / remained awake until midnight
and then lay down on deck, but nothing
happened except that the wind changed
about to the west and grew somewhat
stronger.
Morning came and brought clear
horizon, nor was anything sighted for
the next five days and nights. During
this interval the breeze blew from every
point of the compass except the east,
but did not rise to gale or create a
heavy sea- l had little to do except to
cook my meals and go aloft to look for
sails, but | made as much work for my
self as | could and did not permit my
mind to dwell on the present or future
On the seventh or eighth day of my lone
illness, at l O'Clock in the afternoon,
and while the bark was drifting to the
east under light breeze, | went aloft
and made out a sail to the north, a Sec
ond to the south and third to the west.
The two first were too far away to hope
for assistance The third was coming
up and must pass me close. She was but
a speck on the horizon when | made her
out, but two hours later had her in
plain view, and at o'clock she was up
with me. She proved to be the ship
Amazon of Liverpool, bound for the
Cape with soldiers and emigrants, and
crew was put aboard of the derelict and
she was headed for that port in COM
pany. Ship and cargo were worth big
sum of money, but l was not entitled to
dollar of salvage. There were those
who even said | ought to be thankful
for my escape from the epidemic, let
alone the question of reward. had to
tell the story over and over again, make
afidavits, go into court and sign papers,
and l may tell you that before got
through playing the hero was disgust
ed with the whole business and hoping
nothing of the sort would ever occur
again. G. B. LEWIS.