Dakota farmers' leader. (Canton, S.D.) 1890-19??, 1914-01-30

%lessness, racked by a black, blind.
bootless rage of resentment against
fate, l knew fear, the fea that makes
the hair bristle, the saliva in the
mouth turn salt and bitter, the peTspi-
ration come out in clammy beads on
the forehead, the heart almost stop
beating" Then Mr.. Smith toll this
tale:
On Wednesday. May 8. 1877, the
schooner ~Cod-Seeker, bound from Hal
flax to Darlington, was running be-
fore an easterly gale. Her master
was Philip Brown: her crew mum
bered fourteen hands all told.
A while before nine o'clock the
lookout reported breakers ahead.
Capt. Brown claimed that the white
spaces seen were only the reflections
of the Cape Light upon the waves;
and he kept her going. though some
of the older men criticized him sharp
ly for doing so. l didn't like the look
of things, but I was little more than
a boy then.
The schooner stormed along, grow
ing wilder in her motions, but as moth
ing happened l oon went down in
to the forecastle for a drink.
Before | could raise the dipper to
my lips the schooner gave a wild
lurch and flung over on her beam
ends, and | went sliding to leeward.
The schooner lay on her side, with
her spars fiat on the sea, and the wa
ter roared into her through hatch
ways and companions. Getting to
my feet l hauled myself up toward the
companion, and tried to get out. l
might as well have tried to crawl
through a sluice-gate. The rush Of
the water splayed my fingers apart.
Soon the bows plunged downward,
and the water whelming in with great
er force swept me u of the compan-
ion.
fell down On a heap of wreckage
on the side of the ship, struck my
head against something and was
stunned for a space. When l got
my wits l was standing up with my
feet in the mouth of a berth and
against the ships side, n the water
up to my armpits and a ra f1e of float
ing wreckage about me.
In a few seconds more | was strug-
Cling in a whirlpool of icy waters.
beating my hands against the fiotsam
of the forecastle, unable to see any
thing or to get a footing. AS the ship
moved, the flood in the forecastle,
rising rapidly. surged back and forth,
and once | became e~ntangled in some
half floating blankets n nearly sue
ceeded in drowning myself. Like all
fishing vessels she had a large fore
castle down in the bows of her, in the
utter darkness l could not tell my
whereabouts.
imprisoned in Capsized Schooner.
For a time | was too frantic with
fright to think of getting hold of any
thing. l only thought Of keeping my
head above water.
But presently the ship seemed to
grow quiet for a little, and l thought
of getting a grip on something. Strik-
ing out l ran against a wall with an
under slope, felt around, realized that
it was the deck and, as there was
nothing to hold there, I turned about
and swan to the other side.
padded about for quite a time.
But at last. stretching my hands out
of the water, l managed to catch hold
hold of the edge Of a board-the face
board of n of the weather hunks.
AS l held on, taking breath, the wa
ter rose and lifted my head and Shout
ders into the mouth of the berth.
l hastily scrambled on to the inner
side, then the top side, of the face
board.
While I waited appalled,, for l knew
not what, I became aware Of a moan.
ing sound, and cried out, who's
that"
1t was Sam Atwood, a young fellow
about my own age. He was lying on
his stomach on the inner or top side
of the f~ace-board of what had been
a lower bunk. When the schooner
was hove down he had been asleep
in his bunk, but somehow he had
managed to cling to the ~face-board,
though the mattress and bottom
boards had been rolled out into the
~forecastle. A man can face death
better with a friend near him. | grew
composed and began to take stock of
the situation.
The schooner had settled as the wa
1Si 5oS III Z dlu, haPpIly III U.s., Lie
bows were the highest part of her.
We learned afterward that she had
drowned two men in the after cabin.
The way she lazy, the round of the
s~tar-bCard bow was the highest part
of her, and we were in the after tier
of hunks, built against the bulge of
the bow. But our position was pre-
carious enough, and neither dry nor
comfortable
Sluggishly she rose and fell to the
heave of the swell, and we were afraid
she would sink or turn turtle alto
gether.
After a time she seemed to bring
up against something with a violent
jerk, and her head was dragged down
ward, while the water in the f~orecas-
tie surged afterward.
Nightly alarmed we sat a-straddle
on the face-boards, and pressed our
noses against the skin of the ship in
the angle made by the supporting
knee Of the deck beam. We found a
little air imprisoned there after our
shoulders and the backs Of our heads
were under water. But her bows con-
tinued to swoop downward and soon
the water was over our faces. |
thought it would soon be the end of
US. ! felt as If my head would burst
with the intolerabie pressure.
PRESIDENT CD