The San Francisco call., 1898-04-10


 haoco nouch and forgot to return
 4 if "rerninds me of an experience orca had in the North Paclhc. we 1vere near goin' the way Of the Alihy .o,,,a +oo only a. mailboat come along and picked us '-o a,5
 .sI+ was the last voyage Of the olo horT Iris a good ship in her day' too' Rut she was built way back Ill tie efties in Maine, and, in the natuiaI course of events, she had grown tireu of sailing around the seas, anu hei butts were apt to open now ana asain at inconvenient times we lodueu p our lumber at Portland and set sali TUT Sydney. in Australia. But we never got there, leastwise the bark dloh !"
 we had only been out couple oI days when we fetched right into sun northerly blow, and the old bark hicheu LID her heels tremendous. Flrsl we tried running her under the lower main topsail and the forestaySalI, put 1t wasn't any good. She had hea'J decl<load of timber and was very slus- gish. so that time and again snee pooped. the cabin was flooded, ana lne wheel smashed into little bits. ooh know where the man at the WHICH went. but we never saw nm dsdlH'
 "Then we got relieving tackles ohto the tiller, and hove her to with a .ai paulin in the miZzen shrouos. put il wasn't much better so, the sea was that heavy. Every plunge She niaaoe seemed as if it would shake her rotten old frame into little bits.
 We pumped, it seemed 10 me- TOT an eternity, but we couldn't make any impression on the water in the hold It ~ained on us all the time, for all the seams were working loose bY th1s tlIle' and if you looked over the rail between the seas vou could see the oakum com ing out. After a couple Of days nara work, we found it was no use. and we gave up pumping. Part of the deck Iond had already washed away, and the rest we soon chucked overheard, so as to tighten the ship bit
 "The only good thing about a timber laden craft is that she can't sink, ev- erything else is bad. Her cargo Keeps her afloat till she goes to pieces, and all we could do was to sit down and wait until some one came along to take us off. All our boats was long since knocked to bits, but if they had been there I don't know that we should have cared much about taking to them in such a sea. We were better off on board the bark. bad as she was.
 '''The mizzen mast, being an old stick, soon went by the board; our rudder knocked into little pieces; we couldn't steer or do anything, and we just hud- dled together on the poop Luckily there was cask of water on deck which hadn't been carried away, and being tightly bunged the water was still sweet. We made shift to get this up on the poop, and we lived there for about a week, drenched all the time with salt water and eating nothing but the cold stuff we could get from the cabin lockers. The galley was long since gutted, and even if it had been there, no cook living could have kept a fire going. The main deck was awash all the time, the bulwarks were carried away pretty we'll fore and aft. and it was as much as mans life was worth to try and get from the poop to the forecastle.
 Wonder I lived through 1t, you say7 It was wonder, but man will do a lot when struggling for lis life. But clothes give me chronic rheumatiz, which nothing but a drop O whisky now and agin will keep under.''
 The old sailor touched his cap. as if to emphasize the gentle hint, and in the snug shelter of a neighboring sa- loon completed the tale of his rescue
 ''The old bark was commencing to go to pieces pretty fast, we could see Bits of her sheathing would come float ing up alongside, and the matches burst up, so that the cargo was float ing out from below. The sea was still y another blow came along it would fin ish her and us. Then, one morning, the skipper sings out: There's smoke astern, boys Sure enough. we could just make out a cloud behind us and by and by it grew bigger, so that we made sure it was a steamer coming our way. There weren't any flags left, so we tied a shirt to the stump of the mizzenmast by way of a signal of distress. It didn't want any signal. though, to show the state we were in, and as soon as the steamer sighted us she altered her course a point or so and bore down.
 "She was a welcome sight to us, as she came sweeping along, her black sides gleaming with the wet sea, and her long line of brass-lined ports shin ing with fresh polish. We could see the passengers crowding to the side and knew they were watching us through their glasses. Then she stopped, just to windward of us, and we saw the life boat drop from her davits like a flash. It was the prettiest sight I have ever seen. I can assure you. Having the wind and the sea with them, they were alongside in no time, and I can tell you we didn't mind jumping into the sea to be rescued bit We were wet any way as it was and the sea was too heavy for the boat to lay alongside.
 ''They rolled us up in warm blan- kets and gave us hot grog, and l never felt so comfortable in my life, for I slept twenty-four hours straight off the reel. As for the old bark, we left her there, and I suppose she soon went to pieces, for we never heard of her again." J. +. ROSE-SOLEY.