Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-11-28

and scurry aft, fairly throwing themselves
up the poop ladder.
All hands are aft-all but one. Old Sam
Harland able seaman. fingers to fill his
pipe. as he invariably does in fair weather
or foul. Creeping Sam they call him. At
last he crawls out. shuts the forecastle
door and starts aft
Suddenly all hands shout and gestculate
to him. He sees, but the shouts are lost
In the roar of the gale. Slowly he waddles
aft. unconscious of his danger. Were he To
look behind him he would see coming up
on the weather bow a distant but fast-ap-
preaching wall of greenjsh gray, its white
top apparently licking the low hanging
clouds.
ship gives quick lurch. a heave. attempts
to rise to the oncOming pillows but fails.
High up, level with the foreyard. towers
the white crest. For one breathless mo-
ment to those aft it seems to hesitate. lifts,
leans forward then falls. crashing down
on the whole ford part of the ship. From
rail top to rail top the main deck fills in
an instant, each mast the center of a
whirlpool of yeasty foam Then, as the
ridge of the wave passes under the snip.
she lurches, rolls over to windward into the
hollow beyond, dumping her deckload OF
Seething water over her weather bulwarkS
into the sea.
If you were to put a dry pea into an
empty saucepan and then souse a bucket
of water over it you would understand
what happened to Sam Harland, able sea-
man. His shipmates saw him struggling
in the foam, him slowly sucked to-
ward the bulwarks, then shot across their
top into the ref1ux of the outside.
What they felt is not part of the story;
such accidents occur often. and seamen are
not prone to describe their emotions. Man
overheard. Sam Harland. able seaman,
common in log books. There were few of
Sans shipmates who had not seen this
tragedy enacted before. 1t was what fol-
lowed that was unusual. Suddenly the
To coll ,,6ih a q
roar of the tempest.
There he is, boys, away to windward!
They crowded together to the weather
rail. Sure enough, there he was, black
speck far out in the white froth. his face
turned toward them Then he rose on the
crest OF a wave, and sank out of their sight
into the hollow beyond. only to reappear
again mounting another Oncomng btllow.
Already he had thrown off his sou wester
and oilskin coat. and was swimming. Hope
lessly beyond all human aid he struggled
still. while his shipmates could only stand
helplessly by. breathless. watching him
fight his last fight and then be swallowed.
The ship was drifting, and having so
much surface exposed to the wind. she
naturally sagged to leeward faster than the
man, leaving him to windward. The ship
was being blown away from him. They
tried to heave him a life belt. but the wind
blew 1t back against the rail.
Still Sam fought mapfully. With beating
hearts they saw him rid himself of his
gum boots, and even his oilskin trousers
he ripped them off with his sheath knife.
Impulsively they cheered. He was dying
game.
But the odds We're against him. Further
and further they drifted away from him.
ca tching only occasional glimpse of his
naked shoulders as he mounted the seas
and toppled over their crests. The skipper
had brought up the log line and tried to
heave the metal fan with its coil of thin
cord, but strong of arm he was. it went
not even one-third the distance. He threw
it down on deck and turned away.
Again came one of those booming rollers.
They saw the drowning man mount its
slope until he was struggling in the hollow
curve under the combing top. On 1t came,
he in 1t. With heave the big ship shot up
ward and they saw him in the hollow be
yond. He seemed to have been hurled
nearer and this caused intense excitement.
Swim, Sam, swim!' they yelled. Keen
1t up. Sam! Hang on. Sam!" They howled
and gesticuated. and once more the skipper
tried to heave the log line. They might as
well have spared their efforts, he heard
nothing from them. Still. they saw him
plainly now. saw his white facs-his clench-
ed jaws, his powerful arms beating the
waves. BY this time be had freed himself