The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1899-01-12
HER NAME ATTHE TOP
"u. S. S. BROOKLYN" WENT ABOVE
~. M. S. SPHINX"

~. S. S. BROOKLYN WENT ABOVE
"H. M. S. SPHINX"
Heroic Feat Mt Muscat by Some
of Uncle SANS Old Time Jack Tars
That Thrilled the Hearts of Whole
ships Crew.
There was once another Brooklyn,
the forerunner of the present armored
cruiser, but the old Brooklyn, which,
during the civil war, gained the name
of the Butcher Shop" had no resem-
blance to the floating fortress that
hurled destruction into the fleet of ADJ
miral Cervera.
The old ship bore a great spread Of
canvas and had but auxiliary steam
power. Her lofty masts and creaking
yards would seem singularly out of
place today, but they served their pur-
pose in their own time. Fer open deck,
with double row of muzzle loading,
smoothbore guns, looked like a scene
from medieval drama, and when she
went to sea the Tapping of the sails
and the snap of the cordage were not an
unwelcome lullaby to those who slept
beneath her cool white decks.
This old Brooklyn sailed one day
from New York. bound upon rowing
cruise and came in time to the Azores
islands, whence she sailed for Lisbon
and Gibraltar and, passing through the
Mediterranean and the Suez canal
steamed slowly down the scorching Red
sea. A stop at Alden for day or two
made her ready for journey to the
Persian gulf, but when the gulf of
Ormaz was reached the skipper thought
to take look at Muscat, and so the
course was shaped for the capital of the
son of Abraham, whose forefathers for
hundreds, nay, thousands, of years, had
been sheiks of the desert.
In all her journey the good ship had
entered not port where the proud
cross Of st. George could not be seen
from the staff of British man -of-war.
but here at Muscat it was thought that
at least our flag would be the only token
OF western civilization in evidence. But
it was not SO, for, as the Brooklyn |
rounded high promontory that shut |
in the little harbor, there, lying at an
Choir, was seen the English gunboat |
Sphinx with her milk white flag float
ing above her.
Muscat had much that was strange |
and weird to interest the Americans. |
but neither the palace of the sultan,
with its double wall, between the two
parts of which are kept the tigers
whose duty it is to guard the palace at
night, nor the imperial barem's grim
exterior, nor the gorgeous apparel of the
sultan himself had half the attraction
for the westerners that the grim, sheer
face Of the promontory that shuts in the
harbor had; for there upon the blealk[
wall Of this towering height were
painted the names of many ships, and
high above them all. in q place thatt
Eeemed inaccessible. were the words,
IA. M. S. Sphinx"
The men of the Brooklyn stared att
that name day after day, until it seemedI
burned into their brains, and the spiritsE
II emulation grew within them.
The night before the Brooklyn was
% sail for Persian waters there were
wilderness Of q secret movement among1
he crew, and after the night had fallen
till and black boat pulled off from
he vessels side, and with mufi1ed oars1
made rapidly for the shore. LIZ carried
many things of various sorts, and among
hem a lantern, whose tiny glimmer
hose ON the ships watched with bated
breath as 1T reached the shore and slow
y began the ascent of the pronontory 1
Now it would disappear and then gilt i
er again like star of hope and COM
ort, and SO it went slowly on, ever upi
md up the face of the outlined precipice. l
The hours dragged slowly by, and it!
vas far into the night when tired.
,oat's crew clambered slowly over the-E
side and dropped exhaustedlE
INTO their hammocks for short sleepi
before the call of ..all hands, in tha-I
morning
The Brooklyn sailed away just as the'E
sun began to show above the easternE
horizon, and as she swung upon her
Donrse and stood for the waters of thu
open gulf cheer burst from the tbroats
Of the whole ship s company. For there,
in great letters of white that caught the
warmth of the rising sun, far above the /
name of h1r majesty's ship Sphinx. far
above the highest name of all, could be
seen the legend ~. S. S. Brooklyn"
And there today. looking down ppon
the tiger guarded palace and the harem
Of the sultan, ever before the Arabs and
the Beloochistanese of the tiny sultan-
ate, still CLEANS the magic name that
Schley and Cook once again made IA
NOUS and that shall endure in history
when Muscat itself shall be forgotten,
Washington Post
How . Frog Hibernates.
According to Simon Henry Sage. the /
frog does not hibernate in leaves or the
trunks of trees. but in dry hole in the