Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1917-05-08
NUMBER I9.


powered blast furnace with six inches
of scale on the crown sheets.
"And they knew this" groaned Eli
sha. That's why they chucked the
stuff overboard-to bring us to terms
and never thinkin' they'd starve first.
They were dead luny, but were
lunier.'
They stopped the engines and visited
the schooner in the dory. Not scrap
Of food was there, and the fish kettle
was scraped bright They returned and
went on. With plenty Of coal there
was still six days run ahead to New
York. How many with wood fuel,
chopped on empty stomachs and burn
ed in coal furnaces, they could not
guess. But they went to work.
There were three axes, two top mauls
and several handspikes and pinch bars
aboard, and with these they attacked
bulkheads and spare woodwork and
fed the fires with the fragments, for
glance down the matches had shown
them nothing more combustible and
detachable in the cargo than a few
layers of railroad iron, which covered
and blocked the openings to the lower
hold.
With the tools at hand they could
not supply the rapacious fires fast
enough to keep up steam, and the en-
gines slowed to q five knot rate. As
this would not maintain a sufficient
tension on the dragging schooner TO
steer by. they were forced to sacrifice
he best item in their claim for salvage.
They spliced the tiller ropes and steer
I'd from the pilot house.
However. Elisha made no entry In
The log of the splicing, trusting that
chance would come in port to remove
the section Of wire rope with which
they had joined the broken ends.
Fate became still more unkind. The
logbooli disappeared, and. the strictest
search failing to bring 1t to light, the
conclusion was reacheS that 1t had
been fed to the fires among the wreck
age of the shippers room and furni-
ture.
Martin had raked and scraped to-
gether enough Of food to give them
two scant meals; but, these eaten, star
vation began. The details Of their suf.
fering need not be given.
The afternoon Of the third day OF
fog the humping, struggling engines
halted, started. made half revolu-
ton and came to dead stop. Amos
crawled on deck and forward to the
bridge, where, with Elisha's help, he
dragged on the whistle rope and dissi-
pated the remaining steam In wheezy.
gasping howl. 1t was answered by
furious siren blast from directly astern,
and out Of the fog, at twenty knots an
hour, came a mammoth black steamer
Seeming to heave the small tramp out
of the way with her bow wave, she
roared by at six feet distance, and in
ten seconds they were looking at her
vanishing stern. But ten minutes later
the stern appeared in view as the liner
backed toward them. The reversed
English ensign still hung at the gah,
and the starving men, some PROSTATE
on the deck, some clinging to the rails,
unable to shout, had pointed to the
flag of distress and beckoned as the
big ship rushed by.
There's chance" said the captain
.t,. Al NIL hn rnininn6
him on the bridge an hour later, 'of
international complications over this
case. and | may have to lose trip
to testify. That's the Afghan Prince
and :onsort that l was telling you
about. Strange, isn't it, that | should
pick up these fellows after picking up
the legitimate crew going east? don't
know which crew was the hungriest.
The real crew charge this crowd with
piracy. BY George, it's rather funny
"And these men," said the pilot, with
a laugh. would have claimed sal
vage?"
"Yes, and had good claim, too, for
effort expended. But they've offset it
by their violence. Their chance was
good In the English courts II they'd
only allowed the steamer to 90 on.
And then. TOO. they abandoned her in
more dangerous position than where
they found her. You see. they met or
Nantucket with sea room. and nothing
wrong with her but broken tiller ropes.
and they quit her close to Sandy Hook
in a fog, more than likely TO hit the
beach before morning. Then. in that
case. she belongs to the owners or un-
derwriters."
"Why didn't they make Boston,"
Tried to, but overran their distance.
Chronometer must have been way out.
| talked to the one who navigatcd and
found that he'd never thought OF al
lowing for local attraction-diGn't hap
pen to run against the boats deviation
table-and so. with all that railway
iron below matches. lie fetched clear o
Nantucket, and way in here"
That's tough. The salvage OF that
steamer would make them rich.
wouldn't 1t? And think they might
have got II If they could have held
out"
"Yes: think they might. But here's
another funny thing about 1t: The
needn't have starved. They needn't
have chopped her to pieces for fuel.
just remember now. Her skipper tol |
me there was good anthracite coal III
her hold and Chicago canned meats.
Minnesota -four, beef. pork and Nil
sorts Of good grub. He carried some
Of the rails in the tween deck for
steadying ballast. and l suppose II pre-
vented them looking farther. And now
they'll lose their salvage and perhaps
have to pay it on their own schoone"
if anything comes along and picks
them up"
How many years would it take you
to save money to equal your share OF
the salvage If you had yanked that
tramp and the schooner into New
Yorkw asked the pilot.
ut would take more than one life
time," answered the captain a little
sadly. "a skipper on a mail boat Is
the biggest fool that goes to sea. He
can't stop to save vessels, only life"
The liner did not reach quarantine
until after sundown, hence remained
tharo fhrouOh tho night As she was