The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-02-20
THE PER|LS OF COASTERS
The Great Storm That Ragged on
the Atlantic Coast.
TARS JUMPED o SAFETY
How the Wit and Nerve of Sailor on
the Schooner Brewer Saved the
Crew-Many Cases OF Heroism
Among Jack Tars.

.The most miserable thing l know of
I'm this world" sailor once said TO me.
lis sittin' straddle o. the fore gan IN o
northeast snowstorm on the Banks al
II o'clock o. night, tryin' to keep the
lantern clear O. snow, with broom, so
t one o. them liners might see IL an
not run over u.s."
, IL it were not for his mates, asleep
in their hunks below, one might say
that the sailor man was a fool to take
the trouble that his life, being made
up almost exclusively of mis- rabie
things" was not worth the pains.
Sailors are imaginative creatures, and
it might well occur to one so situated
TO compare the vital spark within MIN
to the useles lantern in the rigging,
utterly unnoticed and a plaything for
the storm. But sailors die hard, they
fight to the last for themselves ana Tor
one another, and come to port safely
out of incredible dangers.
There was a great storm on the
Atlantic coast in the first week of
February. 1t cost good many millions
of dollars on land; at sea some thou
sands, and scores of lives. The little
coasting vessels along the shores OF
Massachusetts had hard time, and
many are but driftwood now, seeking
l1arbor in sheltered coves, plank here
and a spar there, to be dragged ashore
at last and burned as fuel by sailors
wives.
Most of the wrecks in this winters
great storm were of vessels that had
found an anchorage but could not hold
it, In the harbor of Rockport, on the
end of Cape Ann, six vessels were
driven ashore in the same spot, and
were ground together by the waves TIL
the wreckage OF one was indistingulsh-
able from that of the others. The
schooner Marcellus that had cruised
those waters for 90 years, was anchored
in Gloucester harbor when the storm
began. The snow-shroud closed around
her; and when at last it fioated away
seward, the Marcellus was gone. No
one knows where she is; but the bodies
of her captain and crew are with
the oceans innumerable dead. The
Bertha d. Nickerson was blown out OF
Gloucester harbor, but found her way
between Normans Woe and the Dog
Bar steering by the sound of the surf
upon them, and after the storm cleared,
was seen at anchor under the shelter
of an island.
It is hard for landsman to realize
how strong is the sea. The shock OF q
Waye is like the blow of giants ham
mer vessel is thrown upon rock
and clings there trembling; then the
waves split her in pieces as If they
were axes. Their. best sport is to strike
a sailor dead in an instant when he has
struggled to the shore, and feels with
fndescribable joy the land beneath his
deaths occur, when a wrecked vessel Is
so near the shore that the wind might
blow a sailors hat into field, and vel
he cannot come to safety through the
waves that beat upon the rocks under
the vessels bow.
Just before the great storm Of Feb
ruary, the three-masted schooner George
w. Brewer, 267 tons, bound from Boston
TO Boothbay, made a harbor at Glouces-
te-. At ] O'Clock in the morning when
the gale was at its height, the yesse
went adrft and was thrown upon a
rocky point called Delivers Neck. She
struck a ledge about 80 feet from the
shore, and was thrown upon it sterr
first, her after part almost out o1
water, her bows buried instantly in
1naelstrorn of breakers.
The Brewer was a strong vessel, nut
there was not the smallest chance o
her surviving the storm in such
position. The waves breaking upor
her bows We're perfectly certain Il
hammer her decks in and split the hui
like a pea-pod. The captain and crew
clinging to the mizZen shrouds, hal
frozen and locked up in garments stiff
as iron with ice, heard the inarticulat'
voice of Death calling to them out o
the gale. Not one of them could say
when the hull would open under then
and the masts go over the side int
the breakers but they knew that j
would come before the light of morn
ing.
There is not much chance to talk il
such a situation. The noise of a gal
in a vessels rigging is demoniacal
There is a treble of shrieks, but tn
worst sound is the droning bass fror
the big ropes, stiff with strain and witt
the cold 1t is indescribably confound
ing to the mind. Yet a sailor keeps hi
head to the last, as a rule, and if it