Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1900-08-15
TRAPPED BIZ a ASSO.
WILD CHASE AFTER a sPARE PRupEL-
LeR LOOSE ON DECK.

q Cowboy Conquered the Three
Winged Iron Monster That would
Have Wrecked the ship After the
Crew Had Failed 20 subdue n,
During the gales Of last winter more
than 90 tramp steamers were lost. Ten
were never heard from after leaving
port. More thnn $50 broke their shafts.
In over n score of instances they also
lost their propelers and were saved from
being overwhelmed by sea anchors, which
held their heads to the combers, aud
liberal use Of oil, which smoothed down
the crests. Some OF the underballasted
tramps from British ports, which in
pleasant weather make the voyage to-
Sandy Hook in ID days, were 35 days
and 40 days breasting the great winter
gales. Two of them rolled their tunnels
out, and another spent 10 days either at
tempting to make her way through the
crested pillows or wallowing in the
trough. Clifflike waves, breaking in cat
aracts over her weather bow or leaping
aboard amidships, carried away all her
lifeboats. She rolled at an angle of ncai-
~ 10 degrees the rolling period being 9
or Is times minute, for hours and hours
together During these 10 days the
weary skipper found, when he had
chance to make an observation, that the
ship had made 14O knots leeway. In
this tumultuous period very few of the
officers We're able to get any sleep, except
! the merest catnaps. The food was hard
I sly fit to eat through bad cooking, the
cook being unable to work properly. and
the water, mpregnated by the searching
brine from invading seas and spoondrift,
did not do much toward q,lenching thirst
The perils of the underballasted tramp.
lsstealning to the westward with head
| gales lashing the seas into fury, furnish
the marine reporters of nearly every At
lnntic seaboard city every winter with
columns of vivid stories. The tramp
skipper is ,lndaunted by tile appalling
dangers of his inderpaid profession. The
business of following the sea is the only
one he 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 a tramp steamship
/ here aud there. When tramp skipper
loses his joI--he never gives it np-there
arc a dozen or more applications for it
despite its perils md its meagcr 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 pro-
1 peller. There nave been several instances
\ in which tramps with these extra propel-
ters have Just escaped destruction in
| neayy weather. A little British tramp
/ that came into New York from the Med
Il ;terranean several years ago had a spare
\ propeller made fast between decks aft.
K One night, when she was within few
Z days of Sandy Hook. plunging and roll
! ing in n cyclone, the propeller broke from
its lashings and began laundering about
! the deck. The only illumination aboard
/ ship was by means OF pickering kerosene
! lamps The skipper and several of his
crew Went down into the gloomy space
4 between decks and made an effort to
! check the erratic flight of the three wing
y ad8iron monster.
They We're armed with wooden and iron
4 bars and pieces of dunnuge, which they
/ sried to use MS levers. 1t was difficult to
4 Keep the ships head up in the swell. She.
persisted in dropping off, and every time
L she rolled the demon IF n propeller rum
\ sbled across the steel deck to port or star
+ board. threatening to smash through the
{ ships. side. The skipper sent one of his
4 men to the bridge To tell the officer in
Il charge to try to keep the ships head up,
1.-THE @movemcnts5of the propeller being less
Il dangerous while the ship was pitching,
4 but she wouldn't answer her helm. The
/ mass of metal stopped at times just long
enough to allow the skipper and his adj
ventnrnsone men to get within reach of
/ ii. Then it stirred like a senticnt thing
and appeared to spring ut them. They
saved themselves from injury by jumping
aside or leaping ovet.it
At last. as the ship lurcllei heavily to
pert. the propeller whirled down the in
nclincd deck and smashed against the SIDE
One of its blades went through plate
II hung for II moment against a rib of
the ship; then. loosening itself as the
ship rolled aud heclcd to starboard. it
/ bowled athwaTtship again. A fountain
! of sea water spurted through the hole
I made by the propeller blade as3the tramp
I rolled to port again. and the propeller
i slid that way. y few more holes in the
Z ships side would have caiscd her to take
i in 50 much water that she would have
/ been III danger of laundering. aud the
skipper began to wish that the propeller
had gone all the way through and drop
+ ped into the sen.
There was one passenger aboard the
7 tramp. n stout young fellow who had cX-8
5pericncc as n cowboy on the Texas plains
] He had heard the booming Of the spare
propeller. and he went to the skipper and
volunteered 10 scheck it in its mad course.
At first it revealed itself only dimly to
him. Il hinge, batlike shadow, under the
faint and unsteady glow of the Kerosene
\ lamps. After the cowboy had become
{ somewhat accustomed to the gloom and
i had spent a few moments lodging the
propeller he took n lasso. which he made
of d hawscr, and with the unerring aim
of an expert bull puncher he rung one Of
s the blades with the moose. He made
turn with the other end around a winch,
about ainidships. and the propeller WAS
ssuhdued. Then the skipper and his men
fell upon it MS if it were 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 it loose again Samuel A.
Wood in Ainslee's Magazine.
The First Nun.
1t is 400 Years now since the first
known mutf was worn. Venice was the
place. November was the month. name
of lady who introduced the fashion UNI
known. Venice is not in a cold climate;
therefore it is odd that the fashion should
have originated there. The Venetian
danes did not use the huff originally to
to protect their pretty hands. They used
: it as u cuddlins place for the small dogs
which We're fashionable then. The first
muffs were made of cloths mostly satin