The free press. (Poplarville, Miss.) 1890-19??, 1900-10-04


the ocean like the staggering
gait Of a drunken man, then
z swept with Il roar just under
our stern and carried away the spin
maker boom with it,
That was the way Captain Rice de-
scribed the encounter his vessel, the
schooner Metha Nelson, had with a
waterspout about thirty miles north
west of Point Reyes, while she was
making for San Francisco. The
schooner was bound from Maxwell,
Hawaiian Islands, with a cargo of SUI
gar. She had fair weather during all
the voyage until the capes which
mark the entrance to the harbor We're
almost in sight, when the wind be-
gan to freshen and come in fitful
guests.
The schooner was holding well up
to the northeast to get good slant
of wind for the port after taking
bearings from the Farallonc Light.
The wind which had been pretty
brisk at the break of day, kept in
creasing and a few hours after the
sun broke through the banks of fog
clouds in the eastward it was almost
blowing a hurricane from the north
west.
When nearly abreast of Point Reyes
the vessels course was changed and
she was bowling in toward the harbor,
with the wind almost astern.
Suddenly and almost directly ahead
Of the vessel there arose a great, tall
column of water
For a moment it stood almost di-
rectly in the track of the schooner
and only few yards in advance Of
its jibboom. Just as the vessel seemed
about to pierce it, it moved slowly
from the schooner, then swung off
to starboard. Captain Rice ordered
the hard helm over, to pass port of
the column, and at the same time
jumped down from the poop deck to
give the men a hand in hauling up
the sheets.
The work was hardly half done and
the jibs and mainsails were tapping
in the wind when the great column
of water changed its course and came
swirling back toward the schooner
as if to strike it almost amidships.
This time it came racing over the
ocean with a roar and with the speed
of an express train. The sailors
dropped the ropes on which they were
hauling and sought the protection of
the heavy beams of the forecastle head
from the spars of the rigging, that
they expected the next moment would
be torn from the vessel and come tum-
bling down, mass of wreckage, on
the deck.
Almost before the men could reach
the shelter the vessel was caught in
the vortex of air which accompanied
the mighty twisting column of water,
and she spun around like top. lurch-
ing her port side under the water as
she went, The vessels stern swung
into the twirling base of the water
spout and it was lifted high in the
air while the bow sunk down into the
waves and the water rushed in on
the sailors over the bulwarks forward
1t was only for an instant, but in
that instant there was a cracking of
timbers, and the little heavily laden
vessel groaned as though the life were
being choked out of her. There was
a loud report of smashing timbers in
the midst of it all. Then the vessels
bow rose, and with a quick roll to
starboard that put her almost on her
beam end, the vessel sprung around,
the Waterspout travelling almost par
allel to her inclined decks The point
of the jibboOm all but poked into the
twisting column as the schooner
tWirled around.
Slowly the schooner righted, and
when she came to an even keel the
waterspout was just off to starboard
of the vessel and travelling rapidly
away. All danger to the vessel was
past, and the greatest surprise to the
crew was the little damage that had
been done.