The Celina Democrat. (Celina, O. [Ohio]) 1895-1921, 1911-09-15
CHAPTER K.
In Which Hear the Tale Of the First
officer.

/ w "HlNU ENGaE AHG dle Ol kUG FVN
officer.
Tuttle required a while getting
started, pulling aside his dangling
coat-tails 10 SIT down facing me, and
then twlddling his long fingers with
his gaze bent on the deck / take II
that his intellectual operations we're
naturally slow, although he was swift
/ enough in all matters appertaining to
seamanship. Anyhow, he sat there for
so long, his whole appearance so sleek
and oily, that l lost all patience, shuf-
fling my feet on the deck. The noise
| served to arouse him.
1T commenced somethin' like over
two years ago sir" he began, mouth
ing each word with care, "a little
earlier in the season than this is now.
was master of the whalin' bark
Betsy, sailin' from Province town,
an we were homeward bound after
about Is months cruisin' in the South
Pacific, carryin' fair cargo of oil an
whale trimmings. We were roundup
the Horn, being about 70 degrees west
and Sc degrees south when the real
trouble began. / know that was rath-
or a low latitude, but we had been
buckin' against head winds an high
sea for more'n a week, an besides
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 us from out the nor'east. l
guess 1t must have been one end of a
hurricane. l never see nothin' fiercer,
even in those seas. There was nothin'
to do but turn tail an scud, the ropes
and canvas being so stiff with ice.
Well, we battened down, an took
chances, but for a while l thought
every wave was goin' to do for the OF
hooker an send us all to Davy Jones'.
I couldn't see five feet from the rail,
an l had to keep diggin' ice out O.
my eyes to see at all. The wind had
the feel Of a solid wall, sir"
futile was leaning forward now, his
elbows on the table. His lean, solemn
countenance had lost its listIessness.
and l also noticed the eager interest
imprinted on the faces of his two COM
rades.
we was jest roundin the point"
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
loolSin' headland the coast seemed to
fall away sudden into 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 it, an a-settin' up there in
full view was the damndest lookin'
vessel ever | saw in so years o. sea-
farm. So help me God, sir, saw
it with my own eyes, as plain as I'm
lookin' at you! 1t was h'isted up all
o 20 feet above the lower ice-field; an
sort O. careened over where it was
froze fast so as to show the decks
amidships clear to the inner rail. You
remember them ships what Columbus
sailed in? Well, this hooker was that
kind, only a blame sight bigger. /
guessed her at $50 or 900 ton, but she
had the same sort O. build--a big high
stern, with an after-cabin clear acrost
it, the waist sunk down in curve, an
the focastle raised up like house,
with blunt bows, an monster bow
spirit forkin straight up into the air.
The whole outfit was so cased with
Ice an glittered so in the sun that It
seemed like a part O. the ice cliff,
which had took that queer shape from
thawin' an freezin'. Damme If /
didn't think 1t was somethin' like that
for minute-a blame freak O. nature
but when l grabbed the glasses, an
got a good look through them, it was a
ship all right, the kind you read
about in the books what navigated
these waters a hundred or more years
ago. was still a-starin' at it with all
my eyes when we raised the stern,
which stood h'isted up a bit higher
than the bow, an where the steady
dash of the waves didn't break clean
over it, an the sun fell just right so
read the hookers name. By God, l
did, sir! 1t was there plain as day:
Donna Isabel, Cadlz"
CTO BE CONTINURD.l