The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1901-04-18

their oilskins bullying out with the
flannels and sweaters inside. They
wear, also, big rubber boots, large
wooden mitts and sou westers. They
watch warily for the big seas. To Or
binary combers they simply turn
shoulder. But when they spy particu-
larly able-looking gentleman-One with
white collar, starched and ironed fiat,
wide and thick also in breast-these
two men on watch hook elbows, hug up
to Johnnie Leco'st, grip the rigging and
hang on till the gentleman has passed.
There they stand their watch out, try
ing to be Sociable with each other and
lodging the seas that come aboard.
At night the watch looks out more
anxiously. Black nights on Georges
are common. The Parker, drifting to
the edge of the bank, put herself di-
rectly in the path of big liners. An or
binary side light is a dim thing of a
thick night. Let three-stack, twin
screw brute of ten or twelve thousand
tons hit little fisherman fairly and
! while there won't be jar enough on the
steamer to rouse her sleeping passen-
gers, the fishermanS crew will be awak-
ened! That is one of the things that
fishermen fear. 1t is so unequal.
Out in the blackness are other fisher
men jogging around like ourselves. On
the second thick night the watch came
aft in great hurry. Twas easy to hear
him coming. He made great racket as
he came scrambling along the house and
companion-way. He grabbed up the
torch from the corner of the cabin,
thrust it into the flare of the stove, and
rushed on deck with it blazing. Off to
| windward weak red light was bearing
down on us. Our green one must have
seemed even paler to them. The watch
held his flaming torch aloft. He was
indignant. IF they've an eye at all.
they'll see that, | guess" And if
they're blind altogether, they'll smell
it, added his mate. 1t smoked. Be
meath it stood the watch Liberty ill
oilskins. The fellow must have seen it,
for he Sheered off in time.
At aybreak on the sixth morning out
it was deemed fine enough for fishing.
When the dories were SWayed over the
side, the sea was what any landsman
| would have treated with respect. Get
ting into the dories after they dropped
| looked like bad business altogether.
| They were tossed a dozen feet away from
the vessels side when the painters were
| Stacked and to the height of mans
| head above the rail. When they settled
into hollows they fell to somewhere
near her keelson. No shoregolng man,
| bundled up as these men were, would
have made that dive over the rail for all
| the owners share of the trip. Were
one of these men to fall overheard he
would 90 down like lump of iron bal
| last. And then to see those dories tow
ed by short painter jump about in the
| boiling wake of the schooner. she tear
ing along by the wind under four lower
sails, was something that an ocean
liners deck might view with interest.
! The setting and hauling of travis,
! the hard pull back to the vessel in the
heavy sea, the pitching of fish aboard
from the plunging dories the dressing
of the catch by torch at night, and the
subsequent storing of it in the hold, is
story apart. The point to be empha-
sized here is that these courageous, self
reliant men regularly risk their lives fol
the chance of an independent career.
There is more fish to be caught on
Georges than in any other place here
abOutS, and so are the chances greater to
| W III Il NV lily lOl viz
These are the best heavy weather
small craft atloat. They can sail like
cup defenders and walk into the wind
like steamers And they are superbly
manned But for all that they go I'M
der Only six weeks ago the same YES
sci and the schooner Commonwealth
left Georges together for the run home
The Parker took a northerly course of
the shoals, the Commonwealth a west
erly. The wind was then from the east
and it promised fine passage. But
that night it jumped to the northwest
and it came on a gale-a bowling Feb.
ruary gale, desperate thing when il
comes with cold blast, as this one did
The wind was fierce enough to force
them to bare poles. The sea swept
away everything that was not bolted to
the deck, and where the spray struck il
froze.
The Parker was four days and fou1
nights trying to get home. 1t was tack
tack, tack, for every cable length OF
Roadway, and the crew pounding ice tC
keep her from sinking Eventually the
Parker got in. She looked like {
schooner-rigged iceberg, and her crew
was worn out. The Commonwealth
has not got in yet. She will never
will get in. The norwester caught
her with the shoals of Georges undel
her lee. She tackled, tackled tackled
too, like the Parker, and her crew
pounded ice to keep her afoat. But
she was doomed. 1t needed no strong
imagination nor intimate acquain
lance with the ways of the sea to pic
ture her end. Where the surf breaks
on the hummocks to the westerly edge
of Georges is where the Commonwealth
went down. Be sure they made fight
before she went under A record Of
their last hour would be worth the
worlds reading They died mems
deaths.
AT the annual memorial service il
Gloucester their names will be reaC
out. One after the other the twenty
names will be called out, and after eacf
the history Lost with the schooner
Commonwealth on Georges" A per
functory sermon will be preached, an6
that will end the record. The eight OF
ten widows and the children left hehinC
will go on with the problem of existence
We had four days of fishing and ther
the Horace B. was swung off for the
Boston market. Off to le'ward was