The Portland daily press., 1899-02-17
SAFE IN PORT.
Arrival Of Vessels with Tales Of
Great Hardship.
HOW The STEAMSHIP CRRvONA
BArTLED WITH STORM KING.

Gales and Had a Very Rough Pas
sage-The Lydia M. Deering and the
Three Marys Also Have stories to
Tell ofthe Great storm.
The schooner Lydia NJ. Deering arrived
here yesterday covered with ioe, after
u very hard passage.
The Lydia NJ. Deering sailed from Nor.
folk January 81 with 1850 tons Of Poca-
hontas local for Randall q McAiiister of
this port Very cold weather was en-
countered from the start and much Ice
formed on the schooner. The Deering was
just off Provincetown harhor when the
gale struck Sunday afternoon. Here she
fell In with two other vessels. the schoon-
ers Three Marys and..Eagle Hill both, like
herself, trying to get into the harbor and
escape the fury Of the gale, which was
rapidly assuming ugly proportions
Capt. Swain OF Bath. who commands the
Deering, knows his vessel thoroughly and
thought he could Just about get her In
to the harbor. Just then, however, q big
Toe foe came drifting on to the schooners
which threatened TO carry them either
out to sea or push them on to the rocky
shore. The crews got out on the ice with
aAes and picks and worked for dear life
to break mp the huge mas which threat.
ened them. They both had very narrow
escapes from being pushed on shore or
carried out to sea.
Fortune favored the Deering and Eagle
Hi, and although for few minutes 1t
looked as though they must both be
carried out to sea, they managed to get
clear and get sail enough to carry them
into the harbor. Here they lay all through
the storm. Even In the harbor the seas
were something terrific and Capt Swain
says they broke over the decks continual
ly. "In fact. they ran over us" he re-
marked, and can truthfully say it has
been many years since 1 remember such q
Storm" For five days and five nights
the captain and crew of the Deering have
been ohopping Ice continually to prevent
her from going down. One Of the crew
said. they had thrown enough ice over
board to fill any ice house on the kenne-
bee. The poor men were greatly exhaust
ed. by the terrible strain and lack OF
sleep and some of them had frozen their
fingers and toes.
1 The crew worked four hours getting
down top sails and the only way IL
could be done was by carrying hose up
aloft, connecting 1t with the steam boiler
and forcing hot water all over the rig
ging. This finally thawed out the ropes
enough SC. the men got the sails down.
The schooner Three Marys, Capt
Sprague, Baltimore to this port. with
coal for the Maine Central. arrived in
morning. The Three Marys did not 60
ashore of Provincetown as reported.
Capt Sprague says this report started
from the proximity to the shore, thick
weather and his signals of distress which
were set.
Capt. Sprague told the following story
of his experience in the gale:
"We left Baltimore on January &C.
bound for the Jersey coast. which we
reached on the 30th with the wind blow
ing strongly from the northeast We
| hove to and tried to keep our head up
against It, Suddenly the wind died com
plstely away and from daylight until 10
| the mercy of the waves. The sea was
running very high and waves broke over
US continually making Ice wherever
they struck and causing the deck to be-
come a veritable skating rink. No one
could keep their feet and all of US got bad
falls. From that time until this morn
| ing have not had my clothes dry, and
during the past five days l have had but
four hours of sleep, SO you can imagine
how / feel. l would go below and get
on dry rig and come up on deck again.
| / would no more reach there before a
wave would br eak over us drenohing me
10 the skin and that's the way 1t was
with all of us.
| February IL we came TO an anchor
off Pollock Rip. We were making ice sc
badly that in short time q solid mass l5
feet high had formed on our decks. incas-
ing blocks, tackles. boats, rigging and
sails The ice on our sails was six in
ches thick and about this time It looked
as though we would never reach port.
| QOlsttu SiRHhls oA 0iSSic65 DuV DtlOTt
anyone saw them or could get us. the
men had pounded on the blocks and
hoops until they got them free and en-
| abled them 10 get up the heavy sails. A
good deal Of t. t,ce came of the sail
IN hoisting t eisfi p. There have been just
three days out of the past 70 that we did
not either shovel snow or break ice away
from our schooner to keep her above
water. The men stood short watches
and worked day and night The entire
crew is completely exhausted and suffer
| ing from severe frost bites.
I'VE had just got SO We could work
our heavy sails, although the light rig
ging was still frozen, when the second
gale struck us. This was last Sunday.
We were then 20 miles northeast BY
east from Cape Cod. 1t commenced to
snow and We began reefng our sails.