Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1904-01-15

Ruddy Cove, who. in his
A-A- time, had been fisherman,
L9l 5 trapper. sealer, whaler.
cook, hand and master, and
at the last, with white hairs and a
Jolly corpulency, had achieved a posi-.
ton OF prosperity and widespread re-
spect. We were sailing alongshore at
the end of a gray, lowering day, with
the long heave of the sea to remind us
of a gale that had spent itself while we
lay at anchor in the snug harbor of
Hard Luck Arm.
In the offing, far out to sea, where
the dusk was creeping up with the
mist, there was a long, frothy line of
white; a shoal, upon which the seas
were breaking. l vas glad that it lay
to windWard.
"They calls it the Shoal O. Wrecked
Ships" said the skipper.
Then many a craft must have"
1 began.
AYE, many q fine craft he broke
in, "has been lost there. Twas a fear
full spot in the old days, when we used
t. go t. the seal hunt in s~chooners.
Twas in the deep water off that shoal
that the old Can't Help 1t left her
bones. To be sure. 1 knows that well
enough, for I was aboard when she
was wrecked-aboard o. that old top
sail fatfish, lad, the last hand shipped
from Twillingate, in the spring O. forty
years ago, when the ice and wind sank
many a craft o. the sealing fleet.
"'DOes you want a berth?' says the
skipper.
whats your schooner say /.
1.-The Can't Help It. says he.
"'Can't help what?' says l.
Loading with fat every voyage
says he. Come, now, will you ship?'
81 will if l can't help it, says l."
The skipper laughed again at the
simple joke Of that day, stuck a thumb
in my ribs to make sure that L caught
the point, gave a turn to the wheel,
howled an order to ease the jib-sheet,
and proceeded:
"Well. 1 couldn't help it. Twas the
last berth in the last schooner, so /
shipped. But she got no seals that
year-nary a We lost the poor
skipper off the jib-boom two weeks out,
in a gale off the Gray Islands. Then
we was in trouble. We couldn't agree
on a skipper. Some of us wanted the
first hand. Hut! says the rest. He
isn't fit t skipper a paddle-punt.'
$50 we knocked about the ice for n
week or more without sighting a seal.
Twas windy weather, with gales %
snow and high seas. and the crew got
wonderfully sulky. There wasn't a pelt
aboard t. pay the men for the hard
work they were doing, and there was
a row in the forecastle every night.
Twas not long afore there was nothing
but scowls on deck and growls below.
Believe me, sir, twas a most uncom-
Portable time. The willing hands
worked the ship and the GROWERS
stayed below.
"'Look here, men, says l, n night,
we've got t. have a skipper for this
here schooner. l never heared tell of a
schooner without n Let's have the
first hand. IT'S his right
"tNot aboard a sailing ship says
one. We'll choose our skipper
"'We'H not sail under Bowls says
another.
"'You can sail under me or not. as
you like says Bowls. but It's no place
for 4 skipperless schooner. The best
thing you can do is shape a course for
home, an get there quick
"They agreed; so we hove her to,
meaning t. make sail for Twillingate in
the morning if the wind was fair. 1t
began t. blow hard afore midnight
blow a great gale, with the wind full o.
snow. Afore dawn the ice closed in
and nipped her. She was fast, with
miles O. pack ice grinding and grooming
all round her.
"Her rudder was crushed and her
bowsprit broken, but whether or not
her timbers had been started. What
ever, twas a wonderful bad lookout.
The pack vas running like mad out t
sea. If the old schooner leaked, she
would fill and sink when the pans fell
apart. If she was tight she would be
swamped or broken up by the big seas.
for without a rudder she was unman-
ageable.
"I'm thinking say | t Bowls, that
neither she nor we will want another
skipper
"sStill,' says he, we might get clear.
"By night the wind veered t. the
nor'east and drove the pack inshore-
Then / began t. hope that we might es-
cape over the pack t. the rocks, but
when I looked about at dawn | made
ready t. die. The pack was drifting
over the Shoal o. Wrecked Ships. and
the breakers were pounding it t slush
as it passed. Twas but a matter o
two hours afore the turn o. the ship
would come. She was fair in the path.
II sung out for all hands, and up
they tumbled. I'm not telling you
what they said when / pointed t. the
breakers. Twas a sight t. break the
nerve o. the brayest, an I'll name no
names. To the last man aboard we
gave ourselves up for lost. Some of us
prayed. and some didn't, and some of
us cried, and some laughed. But twas
not long afore we was all alike-a
group O. dazed sailormen. shivering in
the bitter wind, waiting for the end of
life.
1.-THE winds hauling round t the
east says Jim Bowls at last.
IF the wind hauled far enough. if it
hauled soon enough, we might drift
clear o. the shoal. We watched the
wind.
".'Tis veering fast. says Bowls
again. Maybe wen go clearr
IAN hour later we scraped past the