Waterbury evening Democrat., 1904-06-29

| SeymourY
 "An English ship, of course-a frig- ate; we have no ships like that in these the pity"
 "Whew! This looks bad for us.''
 "Well, we're not caught yet by long sight, Talbot. A good many leagues will have to be sailed before we are overhauled, and there's many a slip twist the cup and the lip, you know; that old stale maxim is truer on the sea than any place else and truer in chase too. A thousand things may help us or hinder her. See, we are going better now that the reefs are out and the topgallant sails set, but it's fear full strain on our spars. They look new; pray God they be good ones," he continued, gazing over the side at the masses of green water tossed aside from the bows and sweeping aft under the counter in great swirls.
 ! The spars and rigging of the Mellish were indeed fearfully tested, the masts buckling and bending like a strained bow. The wind was freshening every moment, and there was the promise of a gale in the lowering sky of the gray afternoon. The ship felt the increased pressure from the additional sail which had been made, and her speed had ma terially increased, though she rolled and pitched frightfully, wallowing through the water and smashing into the waves with her broad, fat bows and making rather heavy weather of T,, ,II AI-s chase gained slowly upon them until she was now visible to the naked eye from the decks of the Mellish. Sey- mour, full of anxiety, tried every ex- pedient that his thorough seamanship and long experience could dictate to accelerate the speed of his ship-rath- CT a sluggish vessel at best and now, heavily laden, slowers than ever. The stream anchors were cut away and then one of the bowers also; all the boats save one, the smallest, were scut- tied and cast adrift; purchases were got on all the sheets and halyards and the sails hauled fiat as boards and kept well wetted down. Some of the water tanks were pumped out to alter the trim and tighten her, the bulwarks and rails were partly cut away, and as a final resort the maintop mast studding sail was set; but the boom broke at the iron, and the whole thing went adrift in few moments Talbot, anxious to do something, suggested the novel ex- pedient of breaking out f1eldpiece from the fore hold and mounting it on the quarter deck to use as a stern chaser. This had been done, but the frigate was yet too far away for it to be of any service
 In spite of all these efforts they were being overhauled slowly, but Seymour still held on and did not despair. There was one chance of escape Right before them, not a half league away, lay long shoal known as Georges shoal extending several leagues across the path of the two ships. Through the middle of this dangerous shoal there existed channel, narrow and tortuous, but still practicable for ships of a certain size. He was familiar with its windings, as was Bentley, as they both had examined it carefully in the previous summer with a view to just such contingency as now oc- cured. The Mellish was large and clumsy ship, heavily laden and draw ing much water; but he felt confident that he could take her through the pass. At any rate. the attempt was worth making, and if he did fail it would be better to wreck her, he thought, than allow her to be recap tured The English captain either knew or did not know of the shoal and the channel. If he knew it, he would have to make long detour, for in no case would the depth of wtter in the pass permit a heavy ship, as was the pursuing vessel, to follow them, and, aided by the darkness rapidly closing down, the Mellish would be enabled to escape.
 If the English captain were a new man on the station and unacquainted with the existence of the shoal, as was most ikely-well, then he was apt to lose his ship and all on board of her if he chased too far and too hard The problem resolved itself into this: If the Mellish could maintain her distance from the pursuer until it was necessary to come by the wind for short tack and still have sufficient space and time  left to enable her to run up to the mouth of the channel without being sunk or forced to strike by the bat teries of the frigate, they might escape; if not-God help them all! thought sey- mour desperately; for in that event he resolved to run the vessel on the rocky edge of the shoal at the pass mouth and sink her.
 They were rapidly drawing down upon the shoal at the point from which they must come by the wind, on the starboard tack. Some faraway lights on Cape Cod had just been lighted, which enabled Seymour to get his bearing exactly. He had talked the situation over quietly with Bentley, and they had not yet lost hope of es- caping. The men had worked hard and faithfully, carrying out the vari- ous orders and Tightening ship, and now, having done all, some few were lying about the deck resting, while the