The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1900-03-25
PROPELLER LOOSE.
Runaway Cannon of Hugo's NINETY
threen Duplicated Today.

Samuel A. Wood in Ainslee's Magazine
The perils of the underballasted tramp,
steaming to the westward with head gales
flashing the seas into fury, furnish the
marine reporters Of nearly every Atlantic
SeabOard city, every winter, with columns
OF vivid stores. The tramp. skipper is un-
daunted by the appalling dangers Of his
unQerpaid profession. The business of
following the sea is the only one ne knows
anything about, and he must either risk
starvation on shore or boldly face the
manifold dangers of a rover of the oceans
of the world, which little notes the loss
of tramp steamship here and there.
When a tramp skipper loses his job-he
never gives ii up-there are a dozen or
more applications for il, despite its perils
and its meagre pay.
All the smaller trampS that visit ports
without facilities for providing or repair
ing machinery, carry, usually on the main
deck aft or between decks, a spare propel-
Ter. There have been several instances
IN which tramps with these extra prOpei-
lerS have just escaped destruction in
heavy weather. A little British tramp that
came into New York from the Mediterra
mean several years ago had a spare pro-
'Peiler made fast between decks aft One
night when she was sssfhin few days of
sandy Hook, plunging and rolling in a
cyclone, the propeller broke from its lash
lngS and began numbering about the
deck The only illumination aboard Ship
was by means of tifckering kerosene
ldIIyS. he ShiDprE ana Ses eral OF MS
crew went down into the gloomy space
between decks and made an effort TO
check the erratic fight of the three
winged iron monster.
They were armed with wooden and
iron bars and pieces of dunnage, which
they tried TO use as levers. 1t was diff
cult to keep the ships head up in the
swell. She persisted IN dropping off, and
every time she rolled the demon Of a pro-
pelier rumbied across the steel deck, 10
port or starboard, threatening to smash
through the ships side. The skipper sent
one OF his men 10 the bridge 10 tell the
officer in charge to try to keep the ships
mead up, the movements of the propeller
being less dangerous while the ship was
pitching, but she wouldn't answer her
helm. The mass of metal stopped at times
Just long enough 10 allow the skipper and
MS adVenturesome men to get within
reach OF 1t. Then IL stirred like a SEN
uent thlng, and appeared to spring at
lhem: They saved themselves from in
Jury by jumping aside, or leaping over it.
AT last, as the ship lurched heavily 10
port, the propeller Whirled down the in
clined deck and smashed against the side
one OF its blades went through a plate;
II hung Tor moment against the rib OF
the snip; then, loOSening itself as the shin
roIled and heeled 10 starbOard, it bOwled
atnWarIship again. a fountain of sea
water spurted through the hole made by
the propeller blade as the tramp rolled to
port again, and the propeller slid that
way. a few more holes in the Fhip's side
would have caused her TO take in so much
water that she would have been in danger
OF tounderIng. and the skipper 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 ex-
perlence as cowboy on the Texas plains:
He had heard the booming of the spare
propeller, and he went TO the skipper and
volunteered to check 1t in its mad course.
At hrst it revealed itself only dimly TO
him, a huge. batlike shadow, under the
faint and unsteady glow of the kerosene
lamps. After the cowboy had become
somewhat accustomed TO the gloom and
mad spent a few moments lodging the
propeller, he took a lasSo, which he made
or hawser, and with the unerring aim OF
an expert bull puncher, he rung one Of
the blades with the moose. He made a
turn with the other end around a winch.
about amidships. and the propeller was
subdUed. Then the skipper and his men
fell upon il as if ii were a living thing,
and with beams and bars, and chains
and ropes they made it so fast that All
the storms Of the North Atlantic could NOT
have broken 1t loose again"