Missouri Valley times. [volume] (Missouri Valley, Iowa) 1874-1931, 1908-10-15
FREAK Gle RoBS
FISHING SCHOONER
Steals $50 Worth of Fish Oil
and 5000 Pounds of
Fish.

A freak gale, as sudden and VIOLENT
as q typhoon, which robbed the fisher
men of S33 worth of fish llNcrs, swept
overheard 5000 pounds of fish. demol-
ishel :. bullShead compartment forward
of the cabin, like cigar box, and
picked elory out or it's NEST" perch
ing IL on the fore boom, swooped down
on the Provincetown fishing schooner
Arbitrator last "Wednesday afternoon.
Tho Arbitrator was cruising 80 miles
from SankatY Head in 80 iathoms OF
water Captain Anton c. silva. or
Proy!ncetown, was telling inc story OF
the freak gale To a party of fish dealers
ON II wharf this morning when the
Arbitrator reached port.
"I've been To sea in Il good many
places and a good many w@athefs. sald
captain silva. but that WAS the quick
est ard wckedest gale | ever rode out.
she came down before you could SAY
boot She rolled the schooner over I'LL
her Ice rail was under fore and att and
1ye didn't have IL stitch of sail hoisted
except the jumbo.
..rhe dorie; had been out hauling and
were taking their turn about getting
back to the schooner. Sixteen We're
back by O'Clock. ! saw it was GO
ing to blow, but / couldn't tell how
hard. At half past three she'd in
creased and tell you an evil sea was
running. 1t took 16 men to hoist the
Jumbo. and the decks We're full OF wa
Ter all the time. Then the rain came.
1t shut down, heavy. dark. rainy, thick.
And didn't 1 have two dorles with four
OF the crew out in that blow away
from the schooner? I stood by, hoping
I'd fall in with them. But / couldn't
have heard them IL they'd been along
side.
",rhe first thing the sea did was to
| take our barrels of livers overheard.
| They'd have brought S33 in Gloucester
| today I was sorry to see them go. NO,
| S33 isn't such lot, but 1t seems more
\ when you have to work for it as hard
\ as fishermen do. She came down on
| us so quick that there wasn't time
to get ready. Next a big comber came
! romping down the deck and over went
/ 5000 pounds of fish at a swipc. That
4 didn't make us feel any more cheerful
/ Then a sea got in behind the bullihead
4 in front of the cabin, and the box went
1 Into matchwuod in a snap of your fins
4 er. She was ~ wicked wind. Seemed
! like she wanted to play jokes. See how
! we pile our dories up on deck. like
| saucers? We'll, sir, she picked the tot
dory out of the most on the StarDGaI
side and was going to carry it right
over the boom when the stays caught il
/ and there 1T lay unit. we could get il
down into ashings again.
''Everything behaved like 1t was be
4 witched-cvcn the storm. BY O'CLOCK
she was hecling the schooner undel
water to leeward up to the cabin Win
dows with nothing on our poles bu
the jumbo. by { O'clock we were go
ing along under fun sail 1t began t.
tighten about 6. In half an hour i
was pretty clear and / picked mp cour
age to look around for my two dories
Joe Simmons and Joe Milo We're out il
one, and Jack Stodd and Mel Rodericl
In che other Pretty soon we saw boil
boats with all four men In them Then
sir, I was a tickled man. To tell Nol
the truth 1 never eNpecte to see thos
four men again