Carroll County democrat. (Huntingdon, Tenn.) 188?-1971, 1913-05-09

into submission, to raise it in the ali
and carry it completely over the mar
row neck of barren sand which sep
arates Pamlico sound from the AT
lantic ocean, and ample enough e
sweep the barkentine Priscilla, out o.
Baltimore for Rio, with genera
cargo, far out Of the gulf stream, into
the saw teeth" of Hatteras and to
ward the inhospitable shore.
A Helpless Bit Of Wood.
On the 10th Of August, 1899, the
gale, not yet at its height, became SO
violent that Captain Springsteen furl-
ed his spanker and upper topsail. But
this was of little avail. The foresail
was hauled up and furled. two reefs
put with infinite difficulty in the main
sail and the lower topsail clewed up,
only to be torn bodily from its spars.
Next the mainsail ripped away, a
flying blotch of dirty white In dead
Iy smother of grayish spume; few
minutes later and the mainstaysail
followed suit,
Then the Priscilla hove to under
bare poles, helpless and strengthless,
unable to put forth the smallest rag
which might lend steerage-way sum
cient to clear Cape Hatteras, jutting
out there to the west and south, un-
seen Int terribly well known and
feared.
Thursday, the 18th, came. 1t could
not be said to dawn, for the increase
In the light was small. Sky there was
none, clouds there we're none, sea
there was none to the eye. A dread
full dirty gray encompassed all. Where
air left off and water began was not
to be told by looking, and so full was
the air of spray and spume and froth
and water that breathing itself was
difficult
But now and then hole, torn in
the flying spindrift by an eddy in the
blast, showed water-water discol-
ored, a sickly green with yellow
splotches of stirred up sand, instead
Of the deep emerald black of the
ocean, telling the master, the eleven
men OF his crew, and even his wife
and little son, that they we're out OF
the gulf stream and over the shoals
which make the graveyard Of the
Atlantic" the spot where more ships
have gone to their last resting-place
than on any other three.
The lead was cast at one hour In
tervals. Thirty fathoms at FIVE in the
morning, twenty-five fathoms at six,
twenty fathoms at eight-so It went
all day until at eight bells twenty
fathoms showed.
Then" said the master Il did not
sound any more, knew we were go
ing forward for all hands to prepare
to 70 each man for himself"
It was but little later that the
Priscilla struck, bounded off, tossed a
little while on seas mountain high,
climbing, dead weight, one minute
to coast down a terrible slide the
next-then struck again with a ter
rife impact, breaking all glass ports
and flooding the cabin. The port rig
cling was cut away to let the masts
90. They fell instantly with crash,
heard even above the roar of the
hundred-mile gale. Instantly the seas
began to sweep the doomed vessel,
breaking twenty, thirty feet above the
,tumps of her masts
Mrs. Springsteen was swept over
board first, her cry cut short by a
breaking wave. The little boy went
next-literally torn from his fathers
arms. BY one of those freaks Of the !
lea which are beyond explaining he
was swept far overheard and back |
again the next minute. and into the
,abin, from whence his lifeless body
alter came ashore. The ships boy
vas the next and last to CO. The
men, with their greater strength, were
.ble to hold on or tie themselves
lown, and the writing sea had to re-
Iort to other means to get the rest OF
Is victims
Nor mad the despairing sailors long
q wait. No structure Of wood. be It
yer SO stanch. could long resist the
,eavy bombardment Of tons Of water
nd being picked up and dashed down
n the sandy shoals beneath. Less
han half an hour later the hull broke
i two, the bow to disintegrate and
disappear almost instantly, the after
alf, on which the ten survivors were
ongregated to dash on toward the
nseen shore For more than five
ours this situation continued, the
aptain, griefstricken at his loss, and
be crew, resigned to their fate. cling
ng to the wreck.
AT last the wreck struck for the
list time. the grinding and the smash
lg stopped. and those on board knew
hat somewhere ahead Of them. could
hey but see 1t, was the shore.
But they never hoped to reach It.