The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1898-03-05
A STORM AT SEA.
j. H. Ford'S Vivid Description of q
Hurricane.
On BOARD S. $. "NooRDLANp."
February 1, 1898.

| that the North Atlantic IN midwlnter is
no terrestrial paradise.
Last Saturday night the sun went down
in an ominous bank Of clouds; fresh
breeze was blowing from the northward,
sea and sky was mass of crimson flame.
Here and there gull soaring and circling
in all the exuberant abandon Of freedom
now gently lighting and floating over the
pillows, now rising, scattering shower OF
spray from its snowy, jet tipped wings,
gave the suggestion of life that the picture
needed and essened the desolation OF the
waste of waters. A light mist yelled the
horizon, around us occasional whtecaps
cleaned for moment and were Iost, their
sites briefly marked by few whirling
bubbles or cloud of drifting spray. Be-
meath our feet we felt the gentle swaying
of the vessel and the pulsing of its heart.
Nightfall comes; the moon is cutting its
way through the lowering clouds. How
like pectres they look as they fit past on
invisible wings and are lost in the shalowy
sky. How like shadows of our life whose
ultimate causes and results we cannot sus
pect! How like our hopes!
The wind is stronger. The stormy pet
rel walks by on the restle pillows, pre-
saying a rising storm The captain is on
the bridge, two men are on the lookout, a
relay is near the wheel, another officer is
called and hurries to consult his chief, the
barometer is watched, its readings noted,
and varying indications compared, charts
are examined and the position OF the ship
estimated. Matches are hattened down
more securely, oil cans are inspected and
the tackle and provisions of life boats are
scrutinized again.
The sea rises with the rising wind, but
through the night when the bell tells the
passage OF the anxious moments the look
outs cry comes ringing down, "all's well,
all's we'll" The darkness is safely past
and morning breaks through cloudy sky.
The barometer still falls, three officers are
on the bridge; now the tempest is reign
ing, indeed. A sea comes aboard on the
windward side. The chief steward and
myself, busted with our respective duties,
were among the last to leave the deck all
doors are closed and none too soon.
The wind is roaring through the rigging
at eighty miles an hour, great waves are
hurrying by, and far and near their crests
are breaking in cataracts Of spray. AS the
storm increases their tops are whipped off
before they fall and are driven on in a
binding mist We cannot see the length
of the vessel Now the whistle sounds
and sounds again. Every minute it sends
its note of warning out into the invisible
unknown. From far away we hear an
answering note in the same cadence. 1t is
some unseen stranger whose presence we
have not suspected with whom, possibly,
but for mutual warning we might have
colided. A collision in such storm!
None would have told the tale.
The great steamer 10000 tons rocks
like toy. Now the lower guuwales are
under water and the deck is santng at an
angle of forty degrees. We have changed
our course and are running full speed be-
fore the sea. The smoke is streaming from
the funnel. thin black ribbon, and is lost
in the mist at a short distance. The wind
lulls moment, the spray falls, and we
view the terrible grandeur of raging sea.
If it were calm we would be thirty feet
above the water, but just astern is foam
hecked breaker, it's snowy crest above Cur
heads. 1t will overwhelm us! In an in
slant the ship is in the hands of a Titan.
Up, up, we cannot keep our foothold, but
the great vessel rides the wave like
the buoyant albatross. An instant more
it lies under the bow. The propeller is
beating the empty air, and as the vibration
Of its strokes continues the groanng ship
shudders as if it recognized its impotency
and the weakness of iron and steel With
sickening lurch we lean far over 10 lee =
ward. The lower deck is under water
until the wave is past aud we lie in the
hollow of the sea slowly the boat rights
Occasionally great wave breaks over the
stern and tons OF water 90 rushing for.
ward, and this iur hours. The whjrijug
cataract, Of foam are all about US. The
flakes OF spoondrItt are a Thousand yard,
across AZ we ride on the shoulder OF some
mighty giant We cast glimpse as!ern-
hills, peaks, and valleys of water, ioOkiu-
like nothing ST much as snow-coverec
mountain ranges seen nOm alar through
the clearcst air: ever changing, a Thousand
forms, sublime, wonderful, they +t,ctcs
$ away to the dim horizon.
Now the sun brea):s forth and "aken'
= the scenes about us into more vivid HE
Far over the waters the mists are rising
here ard there, where some cataract ia fall
ing. 7 hey catch the golden sunbeams anc
transmute them with subtlest alchemy. \
hundred rainbows are dying oven the sea
Each patch of spoondritt is dazzling white,
or mass of changing prisms, and the
volume of old ocean is a deep translucent
blue.
Gradually the hurricane abates, though