Cut Bank pioneer press. [volume] (Cut Bank, Mont.) 1909-current, 1914-07-03

T WAS on the bark on which l
served my apprenticeship, and we
were homeward bound, says a
writer in Cassell's Saturday Jour
nal. We had swept up past the
foam girt Azores and we we're saying
that five more days would raise the
Lizard light.
As we plunged farther north the
breeze freshened and grew until 1t
seemed az though the very powers OF
the air were conspiring together to
watt us onward at our best pace.
Still the gale increased and when at
length w breasted the waters of the
Bay of Biscay we found it arrayed In
all its grim majesty to greet US. AS
far al our salt filed eyes could see
there was nothing ave a heaving
waste of darkling, ~greenish-gray wa
ter, whipped across by flying sheets of
solid spindrift, that aver and anon
was lifted in the arms of the storm
and flung aboard US in chilling
vreaths. Before we could spit out
the salt from u mouths the great,
green combers rolled sullenly up, the
Low side of the vessel heeled to meet
them and then, rising as a heavy
squall struck down upon her, hove
aboard a few hundred toms of the At
lantic ocean in one solid mass that
filled the deck waist high.
So the night fell, and men looked
one another in the face, and perhaps
for the first time fear dawned in the
eyes of some. The captain hung grimly
to the weather shrouds of the miZzen
and peered with staring ayes through
the vibrating gloom at the over
wrought main topgallant sail on
which u very safety depended. 1t
was an old sail, for we had not had
time to bend the heavy weather an
vas properly before these vigorous
gales had commenced, and this sail
wa only the fine weather sheet we
carried through the tropics. If that
sail split, they said, nothing could save
the ship. There would be one hunted
heap as a sea caught her up astern, a
wild swirling Of down dragging wa
ter and then-the inevitable end.
Ship on Her Beam Ends.
Though the night was black with
the blackness of the grave, there was
q sort of ghostly sheen given off from
the spray that showed us occasionally
how the ship was behaving. Through
out that voyage we had bestowed
every anathema in our vocabulary on
IA craft for her unkindliness, for she
was loaded deep with inter, Inc was
az buoyant as an iron bridge. Now
hove her streaming bows high in
the air, while her sQuattering stern
sunk down as though it would never
rise again. Again, with a swoosh and
q sullen roar, she buried her sharp
bowsprit to the knightheads and far
beyond, while the solid sea climbed
up the slope of her decks 10 the very
main hatch. The stern waggled drunk.
snly against the black gray sky, and
we who lay there. with blinded eyes
and grasping hands, hung madly to
any rope that drifted our way, fol-
dear life.
1t seemed impossible that the sky
could hold more potent powers than
those that were now thunderinR
about US. and yet, az long minute
dragged itself away after long minute
, III wind gained a velocity that was
tremendous. 1t was more than a hur
r1cane; 1t was a typhoon. a pampero
! . black norther. all welded into ont
I awful whole.
; On the stroke of midnight a suuall
Jared upon US with such q whistlins
: velocity that. though we were lyins
at length on the poopdeck. we were
blown like feathers hard against this
a lee rail The breath was knocked com
pletely out Of our bodies and we SAID
the end was come. The ship wa
tarown fat on her beam ends. Shs
lurched wildly and a long groan from
every straining plate rose above thai
e hendiah din Of the storm. A sharr
t cracking aloft told Of somethinl
amiss. and when the next lightnins
+ fash sixzled overhead we sent ou]
. eyes to the main topgallant sail witt
n accord. But 1t still held. A dull
rambling crash forward told US WHARF
q the damage was done; there was IN.
q thunder of falling spars and the for,
top&allant mast went by the board.
And then, when the sQuall was n
g its height, the wind shifted like
fash. It had blown hard from III,
r southwest; 1t now blew harder from
the northwest We thought no win,
could blow 90 ferociously, but tn
4 fosos Of the preceding breeze was q
4 Q maidsn's sigh compared with VIVA
followed. By the light of ths htnnacl
~ could see the helmsman and tn
Il saptain. together with both mates
nhosing hard TO get the hahn up an
the ship away before the shifted winG
THAR faces cleaned CHASTITY and v