Evening star., 1924-04-27

up and slowing il On top OF the yard
| / went into the foretop and, graspinsc
firse ono and then another buntline,
hung my whole weight, 160 pounds or
| so. on the rope while those On deck
| hauled as hard as they could. We
| seemed to make no impression. but
we must have accomplished some
! thing.
MeanwhIle one leach, or end of the
sail, was being torn into ribbons by
! the wind, with noises like the tear
| ing UP simultaneously of Il thousand
linen sheets. Above the Gcatening
roar. of the gale and the loud singing
and droning of the much tried rig
| ging, rope and wire alike, came the
| stunning noises of the ripping sail
| At any moment we expected 10 see
the whole sail torn from the yard and
sent flying down the wind. II that
happened, the probability was that
someone would go flying down with
| It,
! Both watches, laboring for fortp-
| five minutes, took in the sail and
| slowed it fast, torn leach and all.
feet of my having gone aloft and done
what fell my way seemed TO have
| worked revolution in tae general
feeling toward me. L was praised
quite heartily by my mates l didn't
! understand why then ami don't nov.
There had been occasions in going
aloft. on pitch black nights which
seemed to me much more formidable.
and even in standing the lookou- on
the fo'c's'le head in bad weather Fer
some reason they seemed to conclude
that l had in me the stuff for sal
lor-an except Brown. of course He
obviously thought 10 better of me,
but said nothing.
MIGHT was falling. had gone
up on the poop deck to strike
the time The mate, Mr.. Walker
came over from the weather side ia
ask me what I thought of sailor
izing" now? And I answered with
complete sincerity:
This storm will do for me, sfr~s
Yes" he returned bitterly, ~T sup
pose so" ] knew what was in his
mind. He was thinking of his vita
and children in a snug Engnsh cot.
tage He remarked:
IF this lasts another twenty-faur
hours we're done for"
Daybreak found us entirely out OF
sight of land but almost in sight, we
| judged of the coast of Holland, at
any rate we seemed to be- more or
less surrounded by Dutch fishing
| trawlers with brown sails. When we
| shot the sun at noon and made our
| calculations we found that in spite
of everything the storm had pushed
US eighty miles to leeward.
| And as the clearing brought US a
head wind with the sunshine, We
| took almost a week to make up the
week it was, too. Storms are fire.
quent in the North Sea in December.
Our second sight of the light on st.
Abbs Head brought with it no thrill
| of anticipation But our bad luck
| was ended. In another day and u
| half we were close to the entrance of
the Forth. A tug with side paddle
| wheels waddled out and gave US her
towline
While we went sedately UP the
Firth of Forth, lodging dark green
islands and staring at the brown
shores of the kin gdom" of Fife, we
were very busy coiling and recoiling
ropes and settling gear. Late that
night, under binding arc lights, We
made fast TO the stone quay at
| Leith. It was close on midnight
when Mr.. walker, standing on the
| fo'cs-1e head, uttered carelessly the
sacred formula which marks the end
of a passage and the discharge OF
the seaman from his duty. He sang
out:
'-rhat'll do ye, men,"
A ragged but very genuine cheer
| went up. We all tunbled into our
| hunks, for the first time in 40 days
to sleep as long as We wanted to.
] Copyright, 19o4l -