The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1897-11-13
NINETEEN persisted.



Every seaman realized the dan
ger in attempting to do that in the
face of "a hurricane, and when Capt
Gillics decided to do it he ordered
the lashing OF the boats cut and told
the men they would tG forced to
take one last chance for their lives.
HELPLESS As A LOG.
AT the word the anchor dropped
from the bow and the chain began
to pay out. but the sea was too
heavy and instead of the anchor
catching with firm grip and bring
ing the ship ; head up TO the storm
with jerk il went too slow and
simply tumblcd into the trough of
the sea, which broke over her in
torrents. In an instant she was u
helpless as loo and she was tossed
here and there and taking every
wave aboard.
From port 90 Starboard the great
mountains Of foaming water poured.
rolling into the hold and adding to
the quantity already weighing her
down. The load was too much. and.
after a moment, when we all felt
that we were lost. the ship kccled
over to the >ta"buard and went down
stern first.
"What became of my mates ! don
know. remember that the boats
had been loO~cnpd and that some of
the men were ready to take to them
if the vessel went unIer.but no boat
could have livrdfor minute in that
terrible sea, and if any Of them did
get in the boats. il was simply
Swamprd as soon as the first
wave struck it. Maybe they did not
leave the ship at all.
Il was near the spar. and when
the stern Of the vessel began to 20
under | went tor the rigging and
went UP as fast as could. Another
man went with mc-thr second mate
and | thank the Lord that he was
with mo. or ! would have gone mad
during all the long hours that | was
up there hanging ON and trying to
keep of the irightiul cold that was
slowly killing Us both.
NIGHT OF AGONY.
''Thnrr va, a rolling to and fro as
the vessel struck the bottom and
slowly rightcd to an even keel aud
then second later She rolled over
To one side. thought she was 20
ing all the way over but She did not
Size settled on the bottom and
though the waves rolled her from
rCrt to starboard the spar remained
out of the water, with my mate and
myself clinging to IT,
"All this time tn" hail and sleet
was coming down in a cutting sheet.
and we were covered with ice in a
few minutes, for though the top OIL
the spar on which we were hanging
was % feet above the,water. the biz
waves struck Us and broke over US
and the hail cat Us Ike shot
II knew it was about , O'Clock !
when we went down and il seemed To
me that daylight would never come. ,
When daylight came we could not |
see "A sail anywhere near US and the !
sea WAS as bad as ever. Hour after
hour We waited there and then we /
saw the Mariposa coming. For a !
long time we did not know whether !
she would sight US.
"Whcn she finally sighted us and |
We siw her head for US. / tried 10 !
tell my mate, but | could not. and !,
he looked at me with n happy look |
on his face, II was Il terrible time
to us before she came up, and then
/ knew we were not safe yet for the |
sea was running mountain high and !
the big steel boat was rolling like Il /
skiff. Every wave sent her up in !
the air until we could see her white |
bottom under her water line. We !
knew at once that her captain would |
not attempt to lower Il boat for it ,
would have been chewcd up.
THE RESCUE.
when the Mariposa got within I
cable length Of Us Il man with IA
strong voice yelled to US to hang on. |
" Don't give up he yelled, and ,
we II get YOU of soon.
Then the boat circlcd around us,
coming as near as she could. but /
when She was within a few rods a
big roller swept her clear out and
she went off to stuboard, rolling I
heavily when she got in the trough
Of the sea. Then she came back
again and again she missed us and I
we could not have taken line had
Dne been thrown TO US. Again she
went around and we watched her
and watched the men on her rail
waiting to give us u lift when they
could ~
"On the third trip around she ran
right alongside our spar and as she
went past dozen men reached for
as. / don't know who got the mate,
put Mr.. Smith, the engineer, got
lold OF me and he dragged me from
he spar and over the rail OF the
Mariposa.
IAN instant later we had passed