The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1904-09-11
them 255 lives.

them 255 lives.
The greater number OF these disasters
occurred In the great November gale OF
perienced again in lifetime or may come
any day. In that gale, on board the
schooner Lester A. Lewis OF Bangor were
lost six old sailors, all OF whom had been
masters OF vessels, and who were making
and the master Of the Lewis wanted to
give his old friends q chance, they having
passed their best days.
They must have realized their fate when
the chains parted and the schooner began
to drive into the terrible surf OF Cape Cod,
and that their parting was that OF calm
and brave men was shown when their
corpses were found-their hands stiffened
by death in the clasp OF friendship,
When winter gale strikes one OF the big
new schooners she doesn't mind 1t 80 much,
being strong and able, and well manned and
found. II necessary, she can put to sea
and run before 1t, coming on again at her
leisure.
She will be dry as chip, and there will
be no lack of food or water. She has steam
engines to pull and haul, steam pumps to
fight a leak, even steam to blow her foghorn,
and the man at the wheel stands, often,
beside a steam radiator in wheehouse
protected by, heavy plate glass windows.
Loaded decks-to with green lumber. or,
worse, with coal, she is overwhelmed by
the northeaster. Her old sails and rigging
are not At to stand such weather, and when
her few tired men, haggard from loss OF
sleep, with empty stomachs and FROST
bitten fingers, must rack their weary frames
at the pumps in a desperate battle with
death.
comes ashore there will be some few details
Of the tragedy. II not, then the people at
home only know that the vessel sailed and
never came back.
This latter fate is the bitterest of all,
and hoping for weeks after every one else
has given up. Such case was that OF the
schooner w. n. Card, which sailed from
Bangor for Wareham, Mass, and was never
heard from.
ing coasters nerve. The same men who
have looked death in the face dozen times
will go again. without a thought, apparently,
OF their past experiences
Capt Joseph Clay oil Winterport lost
four vessels in winter gales, and each time
escaped with his life as by miracle. Then
he got another vessel and went again.
Sometimes q coaster goes of shore and
he is likely to get into trouble unless
he is one of the big, fellows. Capt. Jim
little centreboard schooner OF about 150
tons, and got an offer Of fine freight Of
general merchandise from New York to
Rio Grande do Sui. His brother, Capt.
Charles Lansil, an old deep waterman,
was in hurricane time, but he took the
good freight and it was the last trip he
ever made.
The little schooner named Ada w. Gould
was knocked on her beam ends by hurri-
cane somewhere in the latitude OF Mar
Unique, and for two weeks she lay thus. A
passenger from New York was drowned like
a rat in his stateroom, and Wyatt the mate,
was swept overheard by sea on the second
day.
starved and thirsted for three days and then
they managed to get few cans OF condensed
milk from the cargo. This kept them alive,
although 1t seemed to increase their thirst,
and 1t was not until the ninth day. when a
Finally the ship Golden State, from New
York for Hong Kong, came along and took
them off The sailors kept on in the Golden
State to Hong Kong, but Capt. Lansil was
transferred 10 British vessel that took
him to Liverpool, whence he was sent home
by the American Consul. The terrible ex.
perence in the Ada w. Gould did not break
the old captains spirit, but 1t broke his health
and he never went to sea again.
1t is now coming on time for the fall
gales, and yet the old coasters 60 out of
Bangor loaded as deeply as ever, A feet
Of them lay at City Point wharves this
week, their decks piled high with spruce
lumber Just out Of the water, bound TO
Boston and around Cape, Cod. Some Of
them may never come back, but their
crews seemed to be perfectly confident.
A blue eyed Yankee boy from Deer Isle,
cook OF one of the old tubs, sat on the quarter
rail watching the tug picking up the tow.
Asked II he didn't feel little nervous about
going to sea in such an ancient craft, the
boy looked surprised remarking.:
aWa'al, no: she's a pretty tight vessii-
Jest been calked all over. She amt got much
Of any new gear, nor no sails wuth talking
with a look Of disgust toward the stove
| funnel protruding from the top Of the cabin:
Il wouldn't care a cuss what she had or
| what she hadn't = that darned old stove
| piped stop smokinl'
And that was all that worried the boy
from Deer lsle.