The Topeka state journal., 1902-01-18
Miracles of the Sea.
IFrom the Boston Transcript ]

IF'rom the Boston Transcript
Big Jack Murphy, Is years a surman
among the rough rocks and shifting
sands that bound Massachusetts Bay,
who knows the beach and the cliff and
every mood of the sea that beats there
on, told me these stories, whereby L
know them true. It was of mOOnht
winter midnight that we stood under
the lee of the abandoned light tower at
Scituate Harbor. The night before
roaring northeast gale had sent the
white surf leaping along the break
water, frothing to the base OF the tow
er, and giving US a struggle to reach
the key post that marks the end of the
pOtrOlman's beat. Now a mild air
famed us from the northwest, stilling
the troubled sea, and bringing a clarity
of atmosphere that made the country
round about light as day under the ra-
dance of the full moon.
wen wait here a Bit" said Jack 4
like to strike the watch just on time
and we're a good half hour ahead by
reason of the moonlight that lets US see
where the good walking is. Ye'd never
think to look at this what a place it
was last night, would ye? It's like
miracle always when the wind comes
round northwest after a stiff north
easter has been blowing for a day or
two
/ had made the seven mile trip with
him in the gale the night before, dodg-
ing the great seas that roared across
his beat and helping him play tag with
death, and agreed with him.
The world is full of miracles. L
said, somewhat tentatively, as a test or
Jacks theology, IF you'll only look
round and see them
''Ye're right there. 1t is replied
Jack. mo man will live on the sea or
alongside of it long and not believe
that. There'll not be a point on this
coast where ships come and go but Will
have had its miracle. Ye might say 1t
to a man, but when it is one chance
out of ten thousand that saves him,
what will We be calling that, sir?"
"A miracle for sure" said l. But
nothing like that can have happened
right here
Jack seemed to change the subject
THE government put the breakwater
in the wrong place. he said. Those
fellows down there in Washington, what
do they know about a little harbor like
thiS2 It's as much as a mans n1e IS
worth to make safety here now IN an
easterly blow. If you miss the break
water this side you'll be up again
the beach on the other side. 1t was
bad enough before, but ship that was
handled right might squeak in; now it's
next to impossible.
"One night, it'll be years ago when
was boy, there was big blow thar
we had. She almost made it all right,
but miScalculated on that southern
point, opposite where the breakwater
is now, and went on all standing right
before the gale. When she struck 1t
ripped the maStS right out of her and
that lightened her so that she turned
turtle with the next wave that struck
her. 1t was the top of the tide and the
waves washed over her keel as she iay
there and there was never sign OF HE
aboard. Only, by-and-by, the bodies be-
gan to come ashore. Sixteen of them
we picked up and laid out on the shore
above the reach of the surf, and a sorry
job it was. Along in the forenoon 1t
was low tide and you could walk out
to the hulk as she laid there. All the
people from the country round heard
ah he down
it, till the beach was lined with folks
AS the tide got lower they crowded
down to the wreck and as it settled a
big gap opened in its side and out OF II
walked a mani He walked out and
looked around and he seemed a good
deal more aStonished than the people
that saw him, and that was saying
good deal. How had he lived in a ship
that was turned turtle. when everyone
of his sixteen companions was drowned!
That's what I can't tell you, sir; except
what he said him self. He was down be-
low in the forecaStle when the ship
struck, and the first thing he knew he
was up to his neck in the water swim
ming round, with the fOrepeak over his
head instead of under his feet, and air
enough to breathe, but, as you might
say, not enough to holler with. There
was a rope hung down near him and he
made fast to that and hung on. 1t was
many an hour he hung on there, and
we'll believe him when he said he
thought he had been there a week. All
from him and he dropped on what had
been the under part of the deck for
ward. He thought he heard voices, and
seeing an open place in the side he
walked out of it. Sixteen men had been
drowned off that ship and here he walk
ed out through the bottom of her, alive
and. as you might say, dry shod- Now,
you might not call that miracle said
Jack as if in conclusion, but it was
mighty quare thing to happ'n. They
had the man, a common sailor he was,
H. f<@-
while and crowds of people was go
ing to see him"
"If they had him in the dime mu-
scum" said 1 with somewhat unseemly
Ievity, 81 should call him a freak,
rather than miracle" But Jack made
no reply to that.
Come here" said he to me, and drew
me around the gray side of the old stone
light to the northward of US. One, four,
three, counted it's number as it was
flashed to sea and shore, and noted the
dull, red glow of the lantern between
whiles. WAS you ever out in a small
boat just inside of Minot's?" he said.
YES? Well, then you'll know what
nest of lodges there is awash there,
outer and inner Mfnots, the east and
west Willies, Shag rocks, Chest ledge,
and don't know what all. What would
you think of a mans running ship
in among those lodges of a thick night
and blowing a bit and coming to
anchor without starting a splinter"
Il should think" I replied, that it
was piece of extraordinary good luck" "
1T IL be about five years ago that
the government changed Minots from
a steady light to flash that shows the
number as it does this minute, and a
mighty good thing it is, too, now that
the shippers all know it. Well, it hap
pened the very night it was changed
that a fisherman bringing frozen her
ring from Newfoundland made the bay
at night with a pretty fresh breeze
that threatened to be worse and he
wanted to make shelter in the harbor
before he got blown off. Well, along
about midnight he was up pretty near
a flash light he had made out and
that he knew must be Boston light,