The Republican journal., 1897-11-25

with uncertain, shifty winds, and at sun
set peculiarly light coppery, sckly west
ern sky. The next day the wind came dry
and gusty from the eastward with fall
| ing glass. When those two conditions are
met with in the North Atlantic, it gener-
| ally means one of two things: the easterly
wind is going to be heavy, or it will soon
change to the westward. This time it
meant the former. At eight bells in the
before eight in the evening we were run
ming rather fiercely under close reefed
sails with the wind and fast rising sea but
very little abaft the port beam. Lands
people may not know that running with a
heavy sea on the side is the most danger
Gus of situations. No one will practice it
when it can be avoided, and it generally
can be, but OF course sometimes at the
expense of Roadway. We took some
chances and continued to run for twenty
hours, when one unlucky sea boarded her
fore and aft. 1t broke off stanchious and
stirred up the deck load in great con-
fusion, washed out the coops and nearly
drowned the poor chickens. The lee blinds
of the cabin were open and as the sea
rolled over and around the house the
water drove freely in around the sashes-
malciously soa' ing my bedding and almost
everything else on my side of the cuddy.
This caligraph was not clamped down,
though thought it was safely secured to
its table; the shock carried it away and
when | found the thing it was out dane
ing on the forward cabin floor, soaked in
salt water, kicking up its heels and shout
ing a "All hands 'rouna"' This run
ning' was getting to be a little foolish
the next sea, with social tendencies,
might do some damage; and beside that,
if this was a cyclonic storm-which the
season and all appearances did not deny
we were pushing into its centre Getting
all things ready, we wore around before
dark and hove to on the starboard tack
drifting back toward home. She laid like
a gull and climbed the seas as easily and
prettily as it was ever done since large
seas were first discovered
With some moderation in force the
storm lasted three days longer, veering
slowly at first, and at last more rapidly,
around into a sickly and half-hearted
westerly. When the sea had smoothed
down, and all sail was again set, got out
this one time gay old caligraph, for in
spection. 1t was bent, battered, broken
and rusty - its own mother wouldn't
know it. Most anyone can start type
writer and stop her when the bell strikes;
but to rebuild one at sea, with no hard
ware store at hand, needs some courage to
start with and considerable mechanical
genius to Eelp one through. In few
days mine was better than when new-do-
ing and saying things that it never thought
of before. The old ribbon had been
getting dull, and for some time before
had thought of bending new green one,
but when the machine came on duty again
the old ribbon was better than ever (as
this manuscript may testify the salt -wa-
the reserve of old ink. And thus it ever
is-whatever little damage or unhappy
thing that may occur at sea almost always
turns out not to be so bad as it may first
appear. 1t may also be the same upon
the land, but | have had so little expert
ence there that l cannot attempt to say.
While the easterly wind lasted we had
lost considerable longitude and the fol-
lowing weather gave but little chance to
reach back to the eastward. Variable,
uncertain winds, with squalls and much
rain, prevailed until we struck apparent
trade winds, in latitude 80, and in Ion
gitude considerably farther to the west
ward than we wished. to be. Added to
this cause of uneasiness, the trades set in
at E. S. E., strong, squally and rough.
Somehow, when one falls to leeward,
everything else works against him; but
the only way out is to push as hard as
possible and trust bit in Providence.
} AILer d couple Vi udyS VI UdIely HoluiuS
our meridian, the wind backed a point
and the sea became more level; we were
then able to make S. by E. good, and
with quick Roadway one-point course
leaves considerable gain of longitude in
each days work. We were all right.
Nothing very exciting occurred for some
days excepting that the second mate caugh
a dolphin, by hook, in the night time. 1t