BRINGING HER THROUGH.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 27, 1 February 1930, Page 2 (Supplement)

BRINGING HER THROUGH.

I ■ ■ (By Ernest Ramsbottom, East St., Papakura. Age 14.) Tlie Meteor was a small clipper-built brigantine of 400 tons. Her sides were white witli a light pinK below the waterline, her masts' and spars white also, and her skylights and pinrail were of East India teak-wood newly varnished. Poop railings and binnacles of brass gleamed in the setting sun.' She was a brave sight flying before the ten-knot breeze, with every sail set and the green seas roaring over her lee rail: ing and breaking into spray over her leeward as she lieeled to the pressure other high canvas. Captain Thomas, her skipper, was a tall, broad-shouldered, heavy-featured man, and had been in many a gale. To fight the elements with a sturdy ship under him was his ideal; Spying the mate for'rard, lie bawled. "Better take in tlie for'rard t'psails.It's going to blow to-nigiit." "Aye, aye, sir," chanted the mate, and roared out the order. "We're only fifteen miles off the Ganau reef, sir, we won't clear it till midnight. Shall I take the t'pgallants'l in?" "Right you are," said Captain Thomas, and went below. Although it was not yet eight o'clock 1 when Captain Thomas again came on deck, the tropic night had fallen with all its black finality. He hurried for'rard to relieve the mate at the wheel. Tak- 1 ing the spokes lie peered to windward. 1 He could see nothing, but in pauses be- j tween the drumming of the wind and the'crash of the waves he could hear a . low moan-like strain as of seas and sky sobbing in protest against the punish-, incut about to be visited on them. Captain Thomas was a fearless man, • a man of quiet courage and /dogged per- ■ sistence, and, as was said before, he ] loved a gale. He was never so happy < as when fighting the elements from the ; bridge of his ship. Then in a moment the stars and the spars of his ship were blotted out as if a black curtain had been i drawn suddenly over the universe. "All hands on deck!" The mate came running, and the crew stood by to receive orders. 1 "Get her down to lower topsails and forestaysails," he snapped. "Work fast." "Aye, aye, sir." / Grasping the wheel-spokes he again strained his eyes to windward at the black bank of clouds racing down oil them from the north. Suddenly a bolt of lightning leaped out of the black void. For the fraction of a second the scudding clouds were billows of racing fire. Then a crash of thunder rocked tlie small vessel from astern to fore-peak. Captain Thomas braced himself against the wheel-box as the first blast of the hurricane whipped his cheeks The blast blew the great mainsail from the bolt-ropes, and a great wave piled itself up in ffont of the ship. Its crumbling summit struck the Meteor amidships and almost knockcd her on her beamends. Tons of water poured over her bulwarks and bounded down her decks, carrying everything with it. Buried under the smother of foam and fury-whipped water she strove to ri"ht herself, staggering in the trough of the seas under the enormous load. Captain Thomas hung to the wheel and gasped for breath. He had been completely submerged -under that wave; The rain came oil with a rush, a tempestdriven cataract that struck the sloping sides of the vessel with a staccato roar. The rain-soaked rigging whistled and screamed as the wind tore through it. j The mountainous waves overwhelmed / the ship time and time again. They tore at her, cuffed her. and struck vicious blows at her. The rain ceased as abruptly as it had started, and the lightning' stopped also as the gale drove the thunder clouds into the south. There was a lessening in the velocity of the wind. Old sailor that lie was, Thomas knew what it meant. The forces were marshalling themselves for the final assault. His head dropped between the spokes and his grip tightened. He glanced to starboard where the Ganau light stabbed the darkness. The ship was scarcely a mile off the reefs. He knew without a shadow of doubt that the ship could never clear the western point of the reef. Still he never for one instant thought of relinquishing the struggle, and if death came he was ready for it. An enormous ground swell of tidal wave piled up behind the Meteor and rushed upon her. She lay supine for a. moment, then raced up the slope of the wave as though to reach its crest before it broke. Then she rushed down the blinding white slope with the speed of an express train. Captain Thomas closed his eyes. He seemed to be rushing with incredible swiftness intb an abyss of madly revolving walls, sucked down by some irresistible vacuum. He waited breathlessly for the blow that would tear the bottom out of his ship and fling her to a brief rendering death on the fangs of the reef, but instead the vessel began to right herself and her speed slacked up.

He opened his eyes. The wind still streamed past him, but the waters were curiously quiet. The vessel bobbed about in choppy, half-spent seas, like some storm-weary bird looking for a place to alight. At once he knew what had happened. The Meteor had been carried clean over the reef and into the comparative quiet of the sheltered water between it and the mainland. The crew untangled themselves from the rigging and descended to the deck. Silently they ranged themselves in a row, went down on their knees and, amid the fury of the gale, prayed fervently to the Captain up above that had brought them through.