Brownsville herald. [volume] (Brownsville, Tex.) 1910-current, 1924-12-24
CHRISTMAS JUST
ANOTHER DAYTO
LICHTSHIP CREW.
M e n Who Maintain
/. Light at Head Bank
Get No Pleasures Dur
ing Holidays
By IT.. WORTH JONES

AWAY out in the vast, lonely spaces
of the big gulf, more cnan thirty miles
from shelter of land-lockei Galveston
harbor there is swinging at a rusty
cid anchor a wcather-scarred ship. win
tbn roll of each swell and wave. a lonely
hen tolls sadly from the vessels tower.
Then the ship settles down to await
the coming Of the next swell-the toll
of the next bell.
she's d lonely craft, 50 old that her
rustic sides seem to groan with agony
and pains as she Is rocked laZlly about
IL the gulf stream. For nineteen years
-hc vessel. which is none other thar the
famous old Heald Bank lightshlp, mas
cuarded the shipping lanes 10 and from
Galveston. Y.
Out in the vast spaces of the gun,
Were ships tread in dangerous ter
, i,rv when they approach too near the
an nix. the bell tolls mournfuliy, a
l;cbt gimme sadly. and the warning
for safe navigation has been made.
In IN her towers, and down IN hef
cobins is the lonesomest crew of men
in the Big Brown. Twelve brawny vet
Grams of the sea, every mothers son
of them. vet if a land-lubber could read
down deep into any pair OF eles ABOARD
the lonely craft, ne could see a sort Oh
hlsnk snace, d space made by utter lone
illness. :.
rho nassinc Of the Yuletide Will be
o,l,, tho passing Of i cold, winter day
ror +bo lone mariners of the deep. whose
ln+y i u 10 guard the shipping lanes
Of the gulf where big boats pass with
GALVESTON cargo.
Giant Bell Tells
Lonely figures may be seen slouchlng
.boat the Iightship's deck by crews ana
messengers Of passing steamers. Up IN
The tower, where the giant bell tolls
wocfully its warning OF shallow water
another figure. that Of the man on
watch. can be seen clouched over a rail-,
lis ewes scanning the waters for a mis-
guided vessel.
Down in the cabins a group of men,
a lone tribe Of the sea, may be sitting
about a greasy deck of cards, grumbling
noisily or mumbling to themselves. The
sudden lurching CT the ship as she
Jerks at her anchors fails to break the
monotony, and the dealer pulls away
at a battered pipe and passes the cards.
Not a man of them has forgotten
that the Yuletide spirit is prevalent on
shore. But only one or two casual re
marks about Christmas would be made
during the entire holiday season. The
ships master. Capt. d. H. McCIuskey.
probably is the only man Of them who
has given 4 serious thought to the
coming of the new year.
Nine Lon" Months
For nine long months the members
of the lightship's crew must stay aboard
their vessel, guarding the shallow water
in which their ship is anchored. Christ
mas is just another winter day to these
lone mariners. They must wait and be
lonesome. 4
Occasionally a big fellow saunters
over to an old photograph and places a
is never-ending on a lightship thirty
miles from shore. The tapping of the
waves against the side of the ship
is one continuous, doleful melody of
the sea.
The men who live on the old hulk
the loneliness so much until a passing
ship leaves q big bundle Of out-of-date
newspapers and magazines, giving de-
scriptions Of activities in the busy
world onl. thirty miles to the north and
west. Then it is a mighty longing for
the shore visits and preys upon the
minds of the seamer. But they stick