Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1900-12-17

| launch6d from edcn SCuOOu6Is anu Cho
final shouts if men whose skiffs are
already riding over the waves are add
ed the many voices of turbulent sea.
The antics of a fisherman's dory
tossing over the pillows are never
ceasing marvel to the landsman. How
that little craft, without ballast,
rough-iointed and homemade, with no
characteristics but crudeness and
roominess, mounts from trough to
crest and plunges from crest to trough,
now hidden under spray only to bob
into view a moment later. without so
much as shipping a cupful of water,
is mystery to the spectator. Every
where to the horizon are bankers
sails, yellow and red and white and
black and all possible shades, swelling
to the breeze or resting at ease; and
everywhere are bronze-faced fisher
folk, in yellow oil-skins and white
corduroy and blue blouses, skimming
the pillows in these frail cockle-sheH
skiffs. But the Grand banks cover an
area of more than 900 miles, and
there is ample space for Americans,
foundIanders. Always the swarthy
men from Brittany and st. Pierre,
with their peasant caps and brass ear
rings and gaudy colored shirts, keep
we'll to themselves, and could be dis
tinguished from the bluff, ruddy men
of Saxon speech, even II the round,
black painted bateaux did not betray
their nationality.
1t is against the elements, rather
than each other, that the bankers fight
the keenest battles With each other,
the struggle is for gain; with the ele-
ments, for life; and that perhaps ex-
plains why the very men who fall to
breaking heads indiscriminately be-
fore they have been in port half an
hour, maintain boisterius, rough-and-
tumble harmony as long as they are
on the Grand banks. In spring, cod
are near the surface in shoals, feed
ing greedily on the small fish that dart
over the top of the water like myriad
silver arrows. Then nets only are
used, and as many as so or so hun.
dredweight of cod come up at one
haul Later in the season lines are
required, and the fishermen stay at
their posts till the cold stiffens the
| cord into rope of ice, their clothes
become incased in frozen spray, and
the boats SO clOgged and weighted
with ice that they can no longer climb
the mounting waters. Then it is that
common danger unites all fishermen
into one brotherhood. The sharp
| proved, light clippers are perhaps the
most daring of all the bankers in re-
naming on the fishing ground late in
| the autumn; but at times neither their
speed nor lightness saves them from
| the icy burden that drags many a
smart craft to the bottom.
One speedy two-masted clipper dar-
ed closing winter by staying out on
the banks after all other vessels had
turned prows homeward, and SO in
tent were the crew weighing and stor-
! ing down their last catch they did
not observe that the hull, masts, spars,
sails and rigging were becoming SO
encrusted with frozen spray that the
boat would presently be ice-logged.
| Then a stiff land breeze sprang up,
rolling great breakers seward, high,
white and transparent, like snow
| drifts, while sheets of freezing foam
flung against the clippers icy sides,
weighing her down; and the skipper
suddenly awakened to the fact that his
ship was gradually, but very surely,
| settling in the water. There was a
wild attempt to unfurl sails and scud
| for shelter, but the sails we're as solid
as rigid board, and while the crew
were getting out fresh canvas the clip
per shipped her first billow She
righted and the sailors were heroical-
ly trying to get their ice-laden craft
to port against a freezing cold wind,
when a long swell dashed furiously
against her bow. The little ship was
too heavily clogged to rise and ride
over her assailant. She plowed
through the breaker for twice her own
length, sinking at every foot of pro
gress, and the mast were now literally
sheets of ice. There was no time to
launch the small boats, for the rising
wind caught the stiff sails like the fans
of a windmill, and before the clipper
could be swamped by another sea,
toppled her neatly and clearly over,
| the ice-weighted masts going under
and the keel bottom turning up. 1t
was bitterly cold plunge for the
crew, and one man could not swim;
but the others chung to the slippery,
iced sides, and hoisted their unfortu-
nate comrade into safety on the keel.
This man, in turn, pulled the other
drenched, freezing fellows up beside
himself; but the rescue was only
respite. The ice began to thicken on
the upturned bottom as heavily as it
had been on the deck, and the mems
clothing became so stiff and rigid it
numbered all motion. How long they
drifted about in this condition is not
known, for when one of the south
shore coasters came to their rescue,
the faint, half-conscious men were