The Press., 1910-05-25
SMASHED BY TIE SEA
The Story of a Shipwreck In the
 English Channel.
FIERCE FURY OF THE STORM.

Wind and Wave Battered the Ship
 Till Only a Shattered Hulk Re-
 mained-A Battle Against the EIO-
 ments That Ended In Defeat.
 We had weathered the western is- lands and entered attitudes where the prudent mariner shOrtens sail and for the seafarer may talk lightly of mountainous seas off the Horn, but not of winter gale in the mouth of the English channel when the coast is strewn with wreckage from the Lizard to Beachy and his imagination, accus- toned to vast eXpanses of lonely sea, pictures all sorts of craft jostling one another in dangerous proximity.
 A favoring gale from the northwest, not more vicious than the ordinary north Atlantic gale, had kept the ship lively all day and set all hands f1gur- ing on pay day. It was not until the afternoon watch that the weather out look became really threatening. Noun tainous walls of green water swung out of the darkness and buffeted her aside as they passed. Fierce squalls smote her in rapid succession, envelop- ing her in a smother of spray, heeling her until the yardarms dipped in the crests of the waves.
 At eight bells the wind lulled and hauled point to the westward, then hurled itself against the ship with ac- cumulated fury. There was sudden confusion of flying cOrdage, over- whelming seas hammering upon the decks and the cannonade of canvas stripped from the spars and blown like thistledown to leeward.
 Relieved of her top hamper, she stag gered erect, dripping like a half tide rock and shaken with the shock of the seas pounding her sides. Halfway on the upward oscillation she poised, checked by the renewed onslaught of the gale as if by the impact of a mate rial obstacle. Rags of canvas stream ed from her empty yards. Every wire of her rigging twanged and stretched under the strain.
 The deck round the mainmast heav- ed and was starred with white Assures running along it's well oiled blanks. The heavy steel spar dimpled on one side, then buckled and crashed over board in a tangle of wreckage.
 The ends of severed wire whipped the air, and twisted shrouds sawed to and fro along the ruined bulwarks and struck showers of sparks from the tor tured iron work. The hatch covers were stripped from their coverings, boats smashed to f1rewood and all the intricate superstructure of the vessel swept and broken. Shouted orders were blown back, inaudible to the men covering under the break of the poop, and useless if audible.
 What seamanship could contrive was done. Men worked for their lives, find ing foothold on the sea swept deck, hacking the jagged ends of iron wire. But the day of cutting wreckage adrift is gone with wooden spars and hemp en cordage. Although the plates gaped and rivets started, the heavy spar held fast alongside, pounding against the iron hull as she rolled in that trough of the sea.
 A couple of spare spars were dashed together and launched with infinite danger through the gap in the broken bulwarks. But no improvised sea an chor could hold her to windward amid the tumult of such sea. She was no longer ship, but ruined fabric, crushed and sagging to leeward under the weight of the elements.
 Morning brought an abatement of the fury of the gale. Standing on the poop, surveying her shattered hulk, her skipper turned quietly to his mate and asked, 'Is the port lifeboat sea- wOrthyY'
 Carpenter reports that 1t is, sir" re- piled his subordinate.
 The skipper stood for awhile in si- lence, noting the sluggish life of the deck under his feet Suppose we've got to leave her." he said. What dye think?"
 It is the sole occasion where the mas ter mariner will deign to consult and be advised by his inferior officer.
 ''She can't float much longer, sir replied the other sympathetically It might be that in his time he, too, would require to seek similar advice.
 "Ah," said the skipper heavily, "and saw her launched" He crossed over to the teak fife rail and laid his hand on 1t, fondling 1t affectionately. "All right, mister" he said at last. Were right in the track of shipping. Pass the word along to put a bag of biscuit aboard and fill the breakers with wa Mall Gazette.