The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1912-10-03

y."u " oiu anu iOusHt HcA ~'SoA VI
this lee shore comfortably under storm
trysail and staysail. Myrtle simply could
not 90 it under any sail she could spread
and carry. She wasn't long legged
enough to work out to windward. So l
say there is limit to the smallness Of
boats for sea going. / believe 4, foot
ketch with auxiliary power could be 50
puilt and rugged as to go around the world,
put ! wouldn't personally attempt it in a
boat foot shorter. Myrtle couldn't do
1t with surety; she'd get caught sooner
or later, probably, where there was no
par to run in over, and where she
couldn't claw off, and then would come
the end.
l thought it had come to us towards
night of that stormy, gloomy 18th of
April. l had been straining my eyes all
day for sea buoy, of which there are
several out among the breakers off this
coast to mark possible passages over the
shoals. had long ago ceased to con-
slder Charlie as factor in the situation,
having abused him roundly about noon
for the unfortunate condition of our ma
rlne glasses. At two O'Clock we were
forced in among the shoals and felt our
way behind breaking bars of tumbling
water, sounding constantly for deepen
ing water with a codline and ten foot
pole. By sheer reason of our days of
experience on Florida bars, and by noting
constantly the spots where the water was
less rolled; by working the boat into
them, by coaXing and holding her up in
the lulls of the wind, we managed to get
clear of the. alternating feather-white
and turbid water by 800 p. m. By four
O'Clock we were skimping off toward it
again.
1t was an even toss with me whether
to fight Charlie in some way not
clear to myself even, felt he had got
ten me into this scrape-or to keep on
battling with the elements and adverse
conditions. Then-I recall it so well
now-I said to myself It's up to you A.
j.. You've had over twenty years ex-
perience to fit you for this sort of thing!
Now use til" And did. l dove below
into the sitting, stuffy, closed-up cabin,
which together with the pitching sea
made me nearly seasick, and there, by
the light of the little, sinking cabin
lamp read the Coast Pilot, and studied
charts, tide tables, U. S. Notices to
Mariners, ETC., until l had perfect
picture of fifty miles of coast in my
mind, with every contour, sand-bar, spit
and channel buoy as clearly marked on
1t as if | were looking at model of it
under glass case, (such model as |
used to love to make in my collegeGeology
courses fer Prof Davis.) Then l went
on deck, told Charlie to keep her off and
let her skirt the edges of the shoals as
long as she would without striking and
rolling over. For half an hour we sped
on before the increasing gale, clinging
to the mast and straining my eyes until
they ached from such constant tension,
and the salt brine encrusted around
them. | noted the slightest change in
the contours of the low, dark strip of
land seven miles away. I'd eaten moth
ing but couple of bananas all day and
was dead tired, but sort of exhilara-
ton induced by over-fatigue seemed to
quicken my senses, and felt was con-
stantly seeing better and was more sensi-
tive to changes in the land forms on the
dim horizon. At last | found what I
wanted: faint, hardly perceptible blue
streak in the dark sky line, and-yes-
farther on, another wider one: two open
ings which marked to the initiated eye
the two sides of promontory or an is
land. But which was it? That was the
vital question.
To distinguish things at distance on
the water, one must know not only what
to look for, but know beforehand how
things are going to look when you do see
them, and how to interpret small signs.
This did that day as if my whole sea-
faring life had been merely prepara-
ton for this supreme moment l men
proud of it at the time, and it gave me a
new self confidence.
To make long story short, after some
OF the hardest mental work l ever did,
and some of the longest periods of unin-
terrupted, close attention to one subject,
| got that boat so placed that what | was
looking for bobbed up ahead of US just
at dusk, where | wanted it to be. When
l shouted exultantly and pointed it out
to Charlie, it looked like small, black,
tall silk hat bobbing up and down in the
breakers and churning about round and
round in the yellow sand-laden, tide
driven water. Charlie thought / was
mad when | told him to steer in close to
it, and wouldn't do it. | ran and seized
the wheel. | knew was right! My cal
cuIatlons had worked out and my instinct
told me this could be nothing else but the
black can-buoy marking the channel to
North Edisto Inlet, and let her drive, -
over shoals which, if I'd been wrong in
my reckoning would have led to ship
wreck instantly. But l wasn't wrong,
and in an hour we were safely anchored
at Young's Island, and the natives were
crowding round US and asking US where
in Hive had come from anyway where
we had spent the. day and the night
before in the blow, for we certainly
couldn't have lived outside and they
hadn't seen US inside When we told
them they just stood round and looked at
US and slapped each other on the back.
1t was here, at Young's Island. that
we fell in with the Madeline from Bos-
ton, my friend Capt. Gethro, owner and
captain. He and his crew joined the ad-
miring throng of natives on the Standard
Oil Co. s little pier, to which we all tied
up. A few nights later, this same Made
line, powerful passenger boat some so
feet long, was reported as lost outside,
but got in some days later after terri
BILE experience. That was the night we
tried to cross Beaufort Bar, but gave i