Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1901-08-23
THE WRECK OF THE JOHN ANDREWS
BY HRTHUR WILLIS COTTON.

| defy water, crash, whirl, roar Shriek
The John Andrews heaved and spun
around. l lost consciousness, never
thinking to see the sun again.
| l don't know what time passed, but
1t could not have been long before
| rolled from under the bench and sat
up, moaning to myself and holding my
head, not from any bodily pain, for l
was not hurt, but it was as if my mind
were wrenched, beaten and sore.
The mist was thick and white and
cold; the John Andrews rocked to and
fro, creaking and groaning; why she
was still barge and not riding out the
storm in pieces, l could not explain.
| The cyclone was gone, anyway, and
| had left us In the mist.
Left us! l stared around blankly.
The mist seemed to make solid wall
| twenty feet away. To live through
that turmoil of lunatic elements would
barely happen to more than one. There
was nothing but bubbling and beating
water to hear and white mist to see.
This won't do" 1 thought, and told
| myself to get up and look about but l
sat still, nevertheless, and shook all
over and was afraid.
Now heard another sound, q crack
ling, and saw luminous place in the
mist, and crept toward it as a baby
creeps to any shining light. 1t was the
doorway to the galley stairs. The
smoke poured up through it, and it
glowed from the brightness below.
When ship goes around like a top q
stove doesn't stay unmoved. This one
had set fire to the barge.
To be burned to death! Fsf choice
would vather have gone balIooning ON
a cyclone with the crew. There was
no daze about me now. l jumped to
my feet had passing glimpse out of
my memory of Harry diving down
those stairs, and knew that if there
was any further chance of human COM
panionship for NE 1 must reach Harry.
put my arms up uselessly against
the smoke AID went down the stairs.
The smoke was white like the mist
above, but pleasant in so far as it was
dry and hot, but it felt only warm be-
cause of the chill in my flesh. The far
end of the interior was in blaze.
l stepped on something that slipped
l stopped and gripped Harry by the
collar where he lay in heap, having
fallen so, and l plunged up the stairs
dragging him after me somehow. SO
| came out again into the mist drag
ging the limp weight, and quite blank
in my brain as to what l should do,
but it was instinct to get as far from
the fire as l could.
So went, with Harry on my shoul-
der, down into the ships waist where
| the water was breast-high or near it,
and smashing the chairs and tables
about. l judged they were well bro
ken up, but did not care to see; and
from there l carried Harry up to the
forward deck, which was a fat sur
face forty feet across with only the
mast and hatch or trap-door break
ing the planking. The mast had be-
come splintered stump, the planking
was gone.
l spread Harry out on that deck.
| There was cut on his head, but he
was alive, and l thought there might
| be water enough in the air to bring
| him to. Anyway, if the John An
drews We're to burn it seemed common
sense to make raft. There was COM
monty an axe under the bench by the
wheel, so l went down again into the
black water, with. its scum Of broken
| furniture thrashing about.
How the fire was gaining | could tell
by the great glow in the mist. l lodged
| the heat by the galley door, and went
along by the rail; the smoke was COM
| ing up through the planlls.
The axe was in it's place. The find
ing of it consoled me greatly. and 1
waded back, gripping it and thinking,
Here's some one who won't drown or
burn II he knows himself" feeling
grim also in my mood, so that though
l found Harry sitting up, said moth
ing to him, but fell to knocking up
planks. He seemed dazed a little, and
was wiping the blood from his face.
"Chopping her up:'
| "Yes."
| Nny!
"On fire"
"Ohw
That was all we said. l got up four
planks with the nails sticking in them,
and nailed them together in a square.
If you keep on mailing planks to-
gether, in the end you will get a raft
not comfortable in choppy sea, but
shipwrecked people have no right to
be comfortable.
1 thought myself smart to see things
so clearly and find so simple way of
dealing with shipwrecks and thought
poorly of Harry to be doing nothing
but stare down into the waist of
the ship and at the glow beyond in the
mist; no sort of sailor, seeing the'
barge might go down any minute.