The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1906-04-15

and roughened it under his feet; then,
little by little. with his feeble strength.
he hOisted the centerbOard- A man
can lift a great weight with worm
geared winch Going aft, he proved his
reasoning. She lay plumb in the trough
of the sea.
He chopped the ice from two large
octagon-shaped boxes abaft the
stumps of the fore and main masts and
looked in. They contained heavy haw-
sers, tackles, etc. He noticed the
heavy cross-plank construction of the
covers as he replaced them. A barr -
was dashed to the fife-rail around ths
stump of the foremost. Chopping into
it he found salt, and remarked that
where he spilled some on deck the ice
cracked and melted to water which did
not freeze again. Then he went aft
and puzzled over the action of the
compass, which was beyond his COM
prehension. But he OWNED it's scope
and utility, and out of his environment
of screaming wind and heaving water
evolved a plan of saIvatiOn-apparent-
ly so wild. so baSeleSS that no sane sea-
faring man, hampered by experience,
would have considered it for an in
slant. But this man was not a sailor;
he was mechanic, heaven born.
shes driftin bout as fast as man
kin walk he unused. IF she'd point
with the wind she'd move faster. How
kin make her? More pressure on one
Tard would do
The foremost had broken about ten
feet from the deck. and the boom and
gait. with the fOreSail furled to them,
| lay with the jaws in place on the
stump and the after end frozen fast
to the ice on deck The main and miZ-
zen masts had snapped at the deck,
and everything pertaining to them
was overheard except what he had
| saved of the running rigging. For
ward. from the bowsprit end, descend
en- an immense icicle. the accretiOn of
ice to the jib-stay, broken aloft and
hanging down, while on the bOwspTit
lay the furled jib-an elongated cone
of ice; a solid mass with the spar
He shrank from attempting to chop
loose and set this sail to the stump of
the mast, and considered the alterna-
tive-Iess pressure aft. He could rig
! a drag.
His ideas were crystallizing. He
searched for and found a well-equipped
tool chest: then spent the rest of the
afternoon chOpping from the icy deck
the ropes he had pulled in, and coll
ing them, or rather crushing them, in
the cabin, where he spTinkled them
with salt from the barrel. Then.
building a fire in the stove, he cooked
ands ate his supper, first bringing all
the ropes ends into the galley to dry.
BY the light of the galley lamp he
studied the chart, but could make 1t
tie of it except that he was somewhere
on a line midway between the shores,
which he creased with his thumb nail
from Buffalo to the head of the lake.
If he could get her before the wind and
steer. and the wind should shift, he
might make one Of the ports on either
shore. and in case the wind held as
it was he could not miss Buffalo, for
the compass told him the wind was
blowing him there. He schemed and
planned until sleepy, then turned in
all standing
Morning showed more ice on deck
and a slight change TO the northward
in the wind. which had been due west,
but no Iessening of its velocity or of
the bitter cold. After breakfast he
went to work. His ropes were now pill
able and the ends dry. With an auger
he bored four holes in the rim of one
of the heavy box covers, into which he
inserted the ends of ropes making a
bride such as boys put on kites.
Weighing one side with a heavy piece
of iron, he fastened the end of a haw-
ser from the box to the bride, and
pushed the continuance over the stern,
paying out line as the vessel drifted
away from ii. When about a hundred
! feet were out he made it fast to the
Quarter-bitt "a strong pOSO, and
watched the effect as the line tautened.
1t certainly did bring the stern to the
wind, but not enough to give the craft
/
cover as a drag on the other quarter,
and had the satisfaction of seeing the
boat pay off and so staggering through
the water, and, though yaWing right
and left, keep a general direction east
ward. He hurrahed his delight, and
took the wheel, but found that he
could make no Improvement in the ser
pentine wake the barge left behind her.
Deeply laden and weighted with ice,
she now shipped every sea over the
stern, and to escape them he went be-
low satisfied for the time that she
was going somewhere at a fairly good
rate. Had he been successful at the
wheel, he would have cut away the
drags to increase her speed, but he
feared to- Could he put sail on her,
and increase her speed with the drags
still out? The sound of the drag ropes,
straining on the bits. gave him an idea
of power that he could use-power be-
yond the strength of a hundred men.
Up he came and surveyed the
ground. He needed a mast and a
larger sail. SO he inventoried his ma
terial. The furled foresaiI was there,
with a good bonn and gaff; the boxes
were filled with strong hawSerS, and
on top of the coils were tackles, small
line and deck tools. He had a cabin
full of running gear. and. counting the
pulley-blOcks in reach, found himself
possessed of four large double and
three large single blocks, all shackled
to their places. With salt Ratchet and
TOOLS he disconnected these and car
ried them below
The forward hawser box was in his
way, and he emptied it, coiling the
lines in his cabin. Disdainng to chop
it clear of ice, he merely scored a
rough groove, knOtted heavy rope to
the box and leading lis aft, hitched
il to one of the draglines, and Stacked
away. The surrounding ice cracked,
split and went TO pieces as the heavy
box bounded from its bed and rolled
about the decks. A friendly sea car
ried il overheard, and he cut it adrift
He chopped ice and manipulated
tacl1les-with the drag for power
and by noon had the heavy boom, sail
and gait on deck, and two holes sunk
i'm the solid bed of ice abaft the stump