East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1916-09-22

mess and laboratory tables eeonomized
space, while in out-of-the-way yet
handy corners we're the shelves,
fire-extinguisher emergency salt-wa-
ter condenser, three chronometers,
and our dunnage.
In the cabin We three and the mate
had our hunks. A door led to the
forecastle containing the galley and
sailors quarters; aft the cabin let in
to an unpartitioned section in which
were the cooks bunk, auxiliary en-
gine, and main supply-lockers. From
each compartment the deck was
reached by hatch-ladders. There was
no cockpit only a foot-high bulwark
protected the deck, along the main
run of which wire cable was stan
chioned to help prevent our being
swept overheard.
Take IN fisherman's topsl" came
the order the second night out. The
wind had freshened from the south
bringing fast-scudding, murky-look-
ing clouds.
With the crowded deck cargo it was
hard to keep the running rigging
clear. So the topsail ballooned. As
the only weight on the end of her
crew-halyard was my one hundred
and forty pounds, was soon yanked
up the mast futilely trying to achieve
a knee -to-toe clutch upon the sail
rings. Slap, yank went the canvas.
It was let go or be roven through the
hlock-a sort of camel-through-the-
needles-eye stunt-had not lynx eyed
John sprung TO my assistance.
Night wore on, the wind turned In
to a gale. and we soon snugged down
under forestaysail, reefed foresail, and
storm trysail At dawn we looked out
over a vast heaving, foam -streaked
sea. Through the spume and the
spray and the driving rain a huge,
gray painted liner passed like phan-
tom ship.
The glass went down, the heavy seas
went up: then we had TO "heave to-
With deck constantly awash. it was
marvellous how the little cockle-shell
escaped foundering. The heavy deck
cargo of barrels and dories made us a
bit top-heavy. dashed as they were
through the scuppers, there was pos
sibility of a heavy sea ripping off
barrels and rail together. A herd of
crazy iron barrels running wild about
deck would be as dangerous as a stam-
pede of Texas longhorns Though
battened down, things below-deck
were wet, and the cabin floor occasi-
onally awash, requiring pumping every
few hours, and for some reason the
after-auarters were filled with nause-
ating gasolene fumes, There was not
a motion in kinematics the little craft
did not describe, or an object from
cooks crockery TO store aft, unless
nailed down, that did not go crash
ing athwartships.
WAR is hell" filtered through the
forecastle. "but this is worse!" More
poetic, though was the low humming
from the picturesque Down-Easter at
the wheel. The salt brine, blown in
wild fury over his glistening oilskins
reflected innumerable cold hlgh-lights
from the rushing cloudrifts overhead
and from the leaden surges below. 1t
was an old chantey:
For now we're in the Gulf Stream,
An the wind begins ter blow.
Lay aloft. take in yer tops'ls!
Or it's overheard yer go!'
Then after each verse came softly
the refrain
For it's blow We winds aloft!
An it's blow ye winds below!
An Its clear away yer running-gear
For it's blow blow, blow"
So the schooner labored, rolled,
and pounded heavily through another
night. Astern was no place for an ''ao-
sent-minded beggar," and sometimes
a bit unhealthy for man in full pos
session Of his faculties. There was
danger of being swept over the low,
twelve-ineh rail by heavy seas, but in