The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1900-03-29
The Schooner That
Turned SQuatter.

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Captain RoweIl, Being Wrecked, =
q Concluded to Make the Best o
o Of thu Situation. o
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Leaping seas lifted the schooner Ra-
ven high on the beach one night when
a spring gale churned Lake Michigan.
The Raven was owned. navigated and
now, in the flower Of her sailing days,
beached by Captain Ebenezer Rowell.
Cape Cod was the place Of the cap
tain's nativity, and he had sailed all
sorts and conditions Of waters, from
the Erie canal to the Arctic ocean.
He asserted, however, with flow OF
explosive language that was certainly
no part of his Puritan Inheritance, that
he never ran into quite so much dirt
anywhere else as when there was
norther screaming down this long lake,
breaking the water into foam from
Skilligalee to Crosse point. Now the
indignant lake repaid his tarry epithets
by finging him farther up on the land
than any boat ever went before.
Captain Rowell had characteristics
that marked him as man apart. His
long mustache dropped and mingled
with short beard well shot with gray,
and when he wore his dingy SOU wester
he looked very like middle aged wal
rus. The captain had wooden leg,
bound at the bottom with triple bands
of brass. One Of Farraguts surgeons
took charge of the leg Of flesh for which
this wooden substitute did duty after
the battle Of Mobile Bay.
The skipper of the Raven also had
pipe that was not without celebrity. 1t
was burned to ebony blackness, and,
upon the word of reliable mariners,
was declared to emit such penetrating
fumes that the Raven could not clear
from q Wisconsin port without the
fact Immediately becoming known In
Michigan, IL the wind were right.
But now the Raven, her commander,
wooden leg. pipe and all. were cast up
on the beach. Captain Rowell had been
trying to make port and had missed
the harbor entrance-a narrow passage
between two piers, as easy to sail into
in storm as the neck of bottle. As
his boat went flying In through the
breakers the captain ragged and beat
tattoo on the deck with his wooden leg.
having no gratitude In his heart for
the wind and waves that were landing
him on soft sand instead Of banging
the Raven against the rocks that were
equally handy. The schooner settled
easily on the beach, with the skipper
clinging to the taffrail and the two
Scandinavians who constituted the
crew gripping at the shrouds.
Morning showed the seriousness Of
the case. The Raven lay at the inner
most point Of coy blight, with
couple Of hundred yards Of sand be-
tween her and the bluffs that trimmed
the bay. A little way to the north a
long breakwater was thrust into the
lake, the visible evidence Of harbor
work In which government engineers
were engaged. One effect Of the build
ing Of this breakwater had been to ar
rest certain lake currents and make
them deposit great quantities Of sand
along that part Of the shore on which
the Raven stranded. In consequence,
new land was forming rapidly at that
point. and the people of the town were
beginning to speculate as to the use to
which it should be put.
1t was singularly effectual rush of
the water that carried the schooner to
this resting place, and Captain Rowell
knew very well that to get her back
into the water would be expensive and
difficult He was the more Disguised
with fate because he had been cast
away on the shore Of his home port,
where neighbors would want to know
the why and wherefore of this extraor-
binary navigation.
One of those who came next day to
look at the schooner, so far removed
from her ordinary element, was law
yer acquaintance Of the captain. In
speaking about the changes that were
going on in that part of the coast, he
referred TO the rapidity with which the
land was encroaching on the lake
there and gave it as his opinion that
there was doubt about the right Of
owners of property on the bIuffs-be-
tween which and the lake railroad
right of way intervened-to claim the
accretion.
I'm fact" said Lawyer Flanders, 81
believe that this is government land,
and anybody VINO squats on 1T will
have fighting chance, at least, to es-
tabIish title to the whole strip" Where
upon Captain Ebenezer RoweH pricked
up his Yankee ears and adroitly cross
questioned the lawyer until he had
fair notion Of the legal conditions at
fecting this stretch Of weed tufted
sand. not lovely to look upon, but
destined to be very valuable. He an
nounced that night that he intended to