The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-11-04
FISHERMEN'S LUCK.
The Not %InfreGuent Result ONES in q
10 Their tnusuaI Way.

Two big and hearty Germans BENT on
fishing hired a skif at Coney Island Creek
near the trolley bridges. Into the stid
they put their fishing tackle, bait, paper
box Of sandwiches and other eatables,
and a case Of bottled beer.
They drifted down on the outgoing tide
until they we're near the Harway avenue
lift bridge. There they met a launch COM
ing UP from Gravesend Bay and hailed it
with:
How is der fishing outsider"
The rerly was that the bay was so rough
that no small boat could live there, and
that no fishermen were thinking of going
out.
Maybe we don't better try it. said one
Of the Germans to the other. Il z ess
we tie up here by der bridge, and maybe
we catch some snappers or Something's"
BY this time the boat had drifted on until
it was beneath the span Of the lift bridge,
and, while one of them made fast the painter
to a brace between the bridge girders, the
other fisherman got out some of the beer.
They sampled the beer while rigging their
hand lines and batting.
After dropping their lines overheard they
filed tn cir pipes, half hitched the lines
around the tholepins and had some more
beer. Thus the two fishermen fished and
smoked and talked apd drank their beer
until the restfuness of the situation made
them drowsy, and they fell into a peaceful
slumber
A steam tug that had come I'D on the first
of the tide after a Coney Island garbage
scow whistled for the bridge to be opened.
The bridge tender, unaware of the presence
Of the doing fishermen In the skin beneath
the lift sran, answered the call and the
span began to rise slowly and noiselessly.
Thu DOW of the fsheTmen's boat went IN
with it, and when the nose of TIE boat was
about three feet out Of the water one of the
fishermen awoke. Seeing the painter taut
and the boat at an angle, he yelled:
Got in Hinmel, how dot tide is fa IIinOi
Wake up. Yawkob, der tide is going oweti"
But before Jacob could wake up the boat
hung nearly perpendicular from the rising
span, and Jacob, followed by the lunch.
the beer and all the other contents of the
skir, including his fellow fisherman, sid
over the stern seat into the creek.
Fortunately both OF the men could swim.
and they caught the bobstay of a brick
schooner lying just below the bridge.
From this point Of vantage they raw their
skif' dangling about twenty feet above the
water.
Maybe we don't better wait here, Yaw-
kob, until she comes down, amt it2" said
Jacobs friend, req lizing the situation.
The tug had steamed through and the
lift of the bridge was descending. When
the stern Of the skif settled into the water
the boat filled, and wh6n the sran came
TO rest the skin noatod with her gunwales
Awash.
The men swan 10 the boat, united tho
painter and worked her up on "A shelving
beach at the north end Of the bridge. There
they got the water out Of her, ard, with a
piece OF board for a paddle, they Kicked
up the oars and such Of their belongings
an were still floating, ard then began pulling
up the creek against the tide.
As the two damp fishermen disappeared
around the bend OF the bulkhead near the
garbage station they were discussing the
remainder Of the case Of beer II they had
dredged for II.