The Fairmont West Virginian. (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1904-1914, 1909-03-16
EII s-N
SCHAPTER K.
IiNNlH.. ga-
SIn While b Hear the Tale Of the First

RI Which Hear the Tale Of the First
III Sss IS Officer.
futile required d while getting
started, pulling aside his dangling
coat-tallst to sit down facing me, and
then twiddlIng his long fingers with
his gaze bent. on the deck. l take II
that his Intellectual operations were
NATURALLY slow, although he was swift
enough IN all matters appertaining to
seamanship Anyhow, he sat there for
. long,gs his whole appearance SO sleek
and oily. that ] lost all patience, shut
fling my feet on the deck. The noise
Beryedsto arouse him.
1t commenced somethin' like over
two years ago Ssir." be began. mouth:
ing each word with care. "a little
earlier In the season than this Is now.
! was master of the whalin' bark
Betsy, sallin' from Province town,
AN we were %homeward bound after
about s months %cruisln' In the South
Pacific, carryin' a fair cargo Of oil an
whale: trimmings. We were roundup
the Horn, being about 10 degrees west
and So degrees south when the real
trouble began. ! know that was rath.
or 10 low latitude, but we had been
buckin' against head winds an a high
sea for more'n a. week; ,an' besides
4 were short.handed, five Of the crew
havin' skipped out at somers island,
where we put In after fresh water.
anyway, It was about there that a
storm hit JUS from out the nor'east. |
guess Il must have been one end Of a
hurricane. | never see nothln' fercer,
SseYen! IN those seas. There was nothin;
to do but turn tall an scud. the ropes
and canva being SO stiff with Ice.
Well Swe battened down. an took
chances, but for a while / thought
~ every wave was goin' to do for the Of
hooker an send US oil to Dayy Jones.
couldn't see Ave feet from the rail,
an ] had to keep diggin' Ice out o.
my eyes TO- see at all. The wind had
The! feel OF q solid wall, sir"
futile was leaning forward now, his
elbows on the table. His lean, solemn
%countenanee had lost It's lIstlessness,
and i also noticed the eager interest
imprinted on the faces Of his two com.
rades.
) yaB Jest roundln' the point"
S+he went on as soon as he took a long
breath the Betsy keelin' over SOS
her deck was half awash. an with no
more than maybe 100 yards o clear
water TO the good. Back o an ugly
lookin, headland the coast seemed to
fall away sudden into a sort o cove,
which was piled high with great Ice
hummocks, behind which the Ice wall
rose up! sheer almost TO the top O the
rocks. There was a sorter shelf along
the edge of II, an. a,settin' up there In
full view was the damndest lookin
vessel ever l saw In so years o. sea
farm. So help me God, sir, saw
Git with my own eyes, as plain as I'm
lookin' at you'll 1t was h'isted up oil
!. q OSfeet? above the lower lce.fleld, an
sort o careened over where 1t was
froze fast so as to show the decks
amidships clear to; the inner rail-. You
remember them ships what Columbus
4 sailed in Z Well this hooker was that
kind, onlySa blame sight bigger,
guessed her at $50 or 900 ton, but she
had the same sort O. buIld-ai big high
stern, with an aftercabin clear acros1
II, the waist sunk down in a curve, an
the I o'castie raised up Ike a house
with blunt bows. an a monster bow
spirit forkIn, straight up into the air
THE whole outfit was SO cased$ Will
ice an glittered so In the sun that Il
seemed like part o the Ice cliff
which had took that queer shape from
thawlns an freezln'. Damme II
didn't think It was somethin' like tha'
fora; miniute-aE blame freak O. nature
but whenaI grabbed the glasses. an
got a good look through them, 1t was
ship all right, the kind you reat
about in the books what navigatet
these waters a hundred or more year
ago. i was still a.starln' at It with al
Il my eyes when We raised the stern
(which stood h'isted up n bit higheI
than the bow, an. where the stead!
dash ot the waves didn't break clcal
over It, an, the sun fell Just right 81
/ read the hooker's name! By God,
did, sir! IL was there plain as day
Donna Isabel, Cadiz.".
The change In the man speaking
held me b~reathless; his cant, his usr
ally oily method Of utterance hat
merged into an earnestness full 0
fascination.
Vol, that was about all, sir" hi
voice sinking back into commonplace
Z In two hours we were out o sight
an feelin, our way through a blIndIn
snow squall. But 1t was such a run
thing d~iscoverin' them islands on
there all uncharted. with that anee
ghost ship perchin' on EN-, that
wrote down the latitude an Longitude
an The hooker's name In my log.bool
w was about three weeks makinr th'
West Falklands. where | shipped I
few more hands, an, then bore ava,
north for home"
Heydrew a plug Of tobacco from oil
his coat.tall pocket. cut off what h,
needed, and slowed 1t away In hi
cheek He ran his fingers through hi
thin hall, and resumed:
\ About IS months later ! was bacl
with the OF Betsy In the South Pa
elae One night, with the moon shin
in, hardly Q ripple anywhere, M
innate run her tnose onto rock. /