The Madison journal. (Tallulah, Madison Parish, La.) 1888-current, 1914-01-31
THE WRECK OF
THE COD-SEEKER
By COLIN M'KAY

Dul UelOIc eitueT VI US loot SOh-
seriousness something snapped
thought it was something giving way
in my brain. The schooner's head
rose swiftly, the water receded and
we found ourselves able to breathe
again. Oh, but the air was good!
Trembling, dizzy. exhausted. we
stretched ourselves along the face
boards and rested.
What had happened was this:
When the schooner was hove on her
side the anchor chain, slowed in box
on deck, went overheard, and present
ly, as she swept along with the tide,
the end fouled the bottom and drag
ged her head under water. Then a
miracle occurred; the big link in the
shackle Of the other end near the wild
lass broke and allowed her head to
come up again.
The schooner wallowed on her side.
She rose and fell to the heave Of the
swell, in a heavy. sickening way, but
she did not roll much. Often we
were ducked under; and the noises
were frightful; roaring. snarling
sounds of surf; blood-thirsty gurg-
lings, the dull, booming sound of
things beating against the skin of the
hold.
was numb with cold, and awfully
weary and before long. in spite of the
noises, the fear of slipping off my
no Of a oil I drnnnnd
off into a doze. And as l dozed |
dreamed the schooner was hove down
while was on deck; dreamed that
saw my chum VIII Kenney washed
overheard and dived after him.
Thirst, Cold and Horror
Then l woke up to find myself
struggling under water. 1t was was
still pitchdark and for a moment or
SO l had no idea where l was. AS
my head came above the water l
struck something hard, and down
went again before l could get my
lungs full of air. Half stunned / strug-
gled up again, and rammed my head
through a small opening, so small
that i could not get my shoulders
through. My mouth was just above
water. When l tried to struggle
through the opening, the thing resting
upon my shoulders would lift lit
tie and then press me down till
could not breathe. / struggled fran
tically, and the harder l strove to
keep my mouth above water the more
l seemed to be forced down.
could not imagine what kind Of a
trap had got into, and my magma
ton was mighty active; Just as they
say Of a drowning man. A moving
picture of my whole life seemed to
fash before me. Every deed of a sim
full nature / had ever done seemed to
rise up against me, crowding out all
hope, of salvation.
AT the same time my mind was
wildly searching for an explanation
of my plight, and at last, when l was
nearly done for, II struck me that the
thing that was drowning me was the
step-ladder of the forecastle-gangway.
That was, it; the ladder was floating,
and l had got my head between the
steps. l knew what to do then, but
1T: was not easy to draw my head
down and out, for the bevei' of the
steps held my head as in trap. 49,
But at last / managed it. and hook
ed my arms over the floating ladder
till got. my wind. -
Iyelied for Sam, but got no answer.
OF course could not tell what part Of
the forecastle ] was m, but j padded
around and finally. as sea lifted me,
/ got hold of the bunk side.board and
hauled myself UP inside the bunk. At
wood Was still sleeping. r touched
him. but he did not wake. l got hold
Of some pieces of boards floating just
below me. and propped them across
the mouth of the berth so l would
not fall through, and soon guess l
went to sleep again.
The Yankee Captain Volunteers.
When the schooner was flung on
her -beam-ends, one dory took the wa
ter right side UP and somehow Capt.
Brown, Nat Knowles the cook and
John Smith. managed to get into It,
Whether they tried to row back, and
pick OF any of the other men left
clinging to the weather rail l don't
know; probably it would have been
madness to have tried it in the sea
then runningsH, Anyway, they drove
Before the gale for several: hours, and
then, after passing through a quarter
ora niileFof surf. landed Oh the south.
ern side Of Cape island. How they
managed to live through the surf has
always been a. mystery; but they did
and were soon at the house of Pelick
Nickerson telling their tale.
Nickerson soon carried the news to
Clark's Harbor, and the hardy fisher
men Of that place were reused from
their SAUNDERS to consider means of
rescue. The American fishing schoon-
er Matchless, Capt. Job Crowell, was
lying in the fiarbor, where she had
come for shelter from the gale, and
when told of the disaster her skipper
was quite as ready to go to the res
cue as the men of the port. >.'c;i,'" -.
His crew was scattered, but there
were plenty of men ready to volun
teer So, by the first streak of dawn.
the Matchless with a picked crew
aboard was standing. out to sea under
double reefs, bound on a mission of
mercy. Into the teeth of the gale.