St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1900-04-28
PROPELLER LOOSE Oh DECK


The peuils Of the underbailasted
tramp, xteaming to the vestward with
head gales lashjAg the sees into furys
furnish the marine reporters OF nearly
every Atlantic seaboard city, every
winter, with columns Of vivid stories.
NE tramp skipper is undeunted BY the
appalling dangers of his undGpald
,prufession. Ihe buxi1ess Of following
t1he sea is the only one he knows any
thing about, and he must either riSk
starvation on shore or boldly lace the
manifold dangers Of rover OF the
oceans of the world, which little notes
the loss of tramp steamship here and
there. When = tramp skipper loses his
iob-he never gives it up-there are
dozen or more applications for itSde-
spite 1ts. pe1ils and its meagsr pay.
+. All t. smaller tramps 1hAt Wis.
Il ports without facilities for pro-
siaing~ or repairing machinery. ear
|ry usually on the main deck aft
or between decks spare propeller.
There have been several jnsteuces In
which tramps with these extra pro-
pellers have just escaped destructaon
in heavy weather. A little. British
tramp that came into New York from
the Mediterranean ss5eral yaars ago
hsd . spare propeller INSIDE fast be-
tween decks aft. One night. when she
was within a. few daysof Sandy Hook,
plunging and rolling ~ cyclone, the
propeller brol<6 from 1ashings, and
began thun1ering about the deck. The
only il1nmination aboard ship was by
meanS Of Pickering I bosene lamps.
The skipper and several Of his crew
went down . the gloomy spase& ~
tween decks Md made. an e6oet q
check the lerratic flight Of the three
winged ilpn monster.
They were armed with wooden and
iron bars and pieces Of dunnage. which
they tried to use a. levers Itwas DIM
cult to keep the ships ha1h up> The
swell. She persisted in dropping on,
I'D svew time she rolled the demonof
= propeller rumbled across the steel
deck. to port or starboard, threat1ning
to smash through the ships side. The
|-d1pper sent one Of his men to the
Jfidce to tel The officer in charge to
try to keep the ships head up ~
movements Of the propeller being less
dangerous while the ship W. Pitela ),
but she wouldn't answer her helm.
The mass Of metal stopped q times
Just long enough to allow the 1kipper
and his adventuresome men. - get
within reach Of it. Then it stirred like
sentient thing, and apeparod to spring
at them. They saved themselves from
injury by jumping aside, or leaping
over It. At last, a. the ship lurehed
heavily to port the propeller whiried
down the inclined deck and smashed
against the side. One Of its blades
went through q plate; It hung for q
moment against rib Of the ship; then,
loosening itself MS the ship rolled and
heeled to starboard, it bowled athwart-
ship again. A fountain Of sea water
spurted through the hole made by the
propeller blade rs the tramp rolled tc
port again, and the propeller slid that
way. A few more holes in the ships
side would have caused her to take in
80 much water that she would have been
in danger Of laundering, and the skip
per began to wish that the propeller
had gone all the way through and
dropped into the sea.
There was one passenger aboard the
tramp, . stout young fellow who had
experience rs cowboy ON the Texas
plains. He had heard the booming Qf
the spare propeller, and he went to the
skipper and volunteered to check it in
its mad course. At first it revealed
itself only dimly to him, huge, batlike
shadow, under the faint and unsteady
glow Of the kerosene lamps. After the
cowboy had become somewhat accus-
toned to the gloom and had spent .
few moments dodging the propeller. he
took q lasso, which he made Of hawser,
and with the unerring aim Of an expert
bull punchcr, he rung one Of the blades
with the moose. He made turn with
the other end around winch, about
amidships, and the propeller was sub.
dued. Then the skipper and his men
fell upon it as If it were living thing
and with beams and lbars, and chains
and ropes they made it 80 fast that all
the storms of the North Atlantic could
not have broken it loose again.-Sam,
uel A. Wood, in Ainslee's Magazine.