The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-01-15

came in his way tl:at he intended to
make this one into a certainty, if the
efforts 2 desperate man could do it.
Alone of all the six men on the
/ derelict, Captain Kettle had knowledge
! of the seaman's craft; but for the pres
| ent theWs and not seamanship were re-
quired The vessel lay in pathetic help
lessness on her side, liable to capsize IN
the first squat which came along, and
their first effort must be 70 set her in
proper trim while the calm continued.
/ They pulled away the hatch covers, and
saw beneath them smooth slopes of yell
low grain.
As though they were an invitation to
work, shovels were made fast along the
cCmbings of the hatch. The six men
took these, and with shouts dropped
down upon the grain. And then began
a period of Homeric toll. The fireman
and the coal trimmer set the pace, and
With a fine contemQt & the unhandt-
ness of amateurs, did not fail to give q
/ display of their utmost. Kettle ana
Dayton-Phillips gamely kept level with
them. The Italian gauger turned out
to have his pride also, and did not lag
and only the freedom British subject
frCm Sierra Leone endeavored to shirk
his due proportion of the toll. But high
minded theories as to the rights Of man
were regarded here as little as threats
the peace, and under the sledge ham,
mer arguments Of shovel blows from
whoever happened to be next to him,
the unfortunate colored gentleman de-
seconded to the grade OF niger again,
and toiled and sWeated equally with his
betters.
The heat under the decks was sitting,
and dust rose from the wheat in ch0k-
ing volumes, but the pace of the circling
shovels was never allowed to slacken.
They worked there stripped to trousers,
and they understood. one and all, tha5
they were working for their lives. A
breeze had sprung up almost as soon as
the M'poso had steamed away, ana
hourly 1t was freshening; the barome-
ter in the cabin was registering
steady fall, the sky was banking up
with ugly clouds.
Kettle had handled sheets and braces
and hove the vessel to so as to steady
her as they worked, but she still Ia
bored heavily in the sea, and beneath
them they could hear the Ieaden swish
of water in the floor of the hold be-
meath. Their labor was having its Eff
feet, and by infinitesimal graduationS
they were counteracting the list and
getting the ship upright, but the wind
was WOrSening, and ii seemed to them
also that the water was getting deeper
under their feet and that the vessel
rode more sluggishly.
So far the well had not been sounded.
1t was no use getting alarming statis-
ties to discourage oneself unnecessa-
rily. But after night had fallen, and it
was impossible to see to work in the
gloomy hold any longer without lamps,
Captain Kettle took the sounding rcd
and found eight feet.
He mentioned this when he took
down the lamps into the hold, but he
did not think it necessary to add that
as the sounding had been taken with
the we'll on the slant, it was therefore
considerably under the truth. Still, he
sent Dayton, Phillips and the trimmer
on deck to take a spell at the pumps,
and himself resumed his shovel work
alongside the others.
Straightaway on through the, night
the six men stuck to their savage toll
the blood from their blistered hands
reddening the shafts of the shovels
Every now and again one or another
Of them choked with the dust and. went
to get a draft of lukewarIn water from
the scuttlebutt But no one stayed
over long on these excursions. The
breeze had blown into a gale. The
night overhead was starless and moon
less, but every minute the black hea-
ven was split by bursts of lightning
which showed the laboring, disheveled
ship set among great mountains OF
breaking seas.
The sight would have been bad from
a well-manned. powerful steamboat:
from the deck of the derelict it APP
preached the terrific. The men with
the shovels worked amongst the fright
ened, squeaking rats in the closed-in
box of the hold.
There We're four on board tho srir,