A SOUTHERN STEAMBOAT RACE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVIII, Issue 8472, 24 January 1891, Page 2 (Supplement)

A SOUTHERN STEAMBOAT RACE.

"THAR'sthe Senator, and she's gainin'on us," said the pilot, as we walked forward, pointing to a thin column of smoke rising over the trees just abreast of us. How far astern ?" " A matter of two mile round that point." " Splendid night for a race," muttered Styles. Almost imperceptibly our speed slackens, the thin, dark column creeps nearer round the trees on the point in our wake; at last the steamer bursts Into sight, not a pistol-shot astern. There is a sharp click of our pilot's bell, a gasping throb, as if our boat took a deep, long breath; and just as the Senator makes our wheel, we dash ahead again, with every stroke of the piston threatening to rack our frail febric to shreds. The river here is pretty wide and the channel deep and clear. The Senator follows in gallant style, now gaining our quarter, now a boat's length astern —both engines roaring and snorting like angry hippoptami; both vessels rocking and straining till they seem to paw their way through the churned water. Talk of horse-racing and rouge-et-noir.' But there is no excitement that can approach boat-racing on a southern river. One by one people pop up the ladders and throng the rails. First come the unemployed deck-hands, then a stray gentleman or two, and finally ladies and children, till the rail is full, and every eye is anxiously strained to the opposite boat. She holds her own wondrous well, considering the reputation of ours. At each burst, when she seems to gain on us, the crowd hold their breath ; as she drops off again there is a deep-drawn, gasping sigh of relief. Foot by foot we gain steadily until the gap is widened to three or four boat lengths, though the Senator piles her fires till the shores behind her glow from their reflection ; and her deck—now black with anxious lookerson—send up cheer after cheer as she snorts defiantly after us. Suddenly the bank seems to spring up right under our port bow ! We have cut it too close ! Two sharp, vicious clicks of the bell; our helm goes hard down, and the engines stop with a sullen jar, as I catch a hissing curse through the set teeth of the pilot. A yell of wild triumph rises from the rival's deck. On she comes in gallant style, shutting the gap and passing us like a racehorse before we can swing into the channel, and recover headway. It is a splendid sight as the noble boat passes us, her black bulk standing out in the clear moonlight against the dim, grey banks like a living monster, her great chimneys snorting out volumes of massive black smoke that trail out level behind her from the great speed. Her side toward us is crowded with men, women, and children ; hats, handkerchiefs, and hands swing madly about. Close down to the water's edge, scarce above the line of foam she cuts, her lower deck lies black and undefined in the shadow of the great mass above it. Suddenly it lights up with a lurid flash as the furnace doors swing wide open, and in the hot glare the negro stokers, their stalwart forms jetty black, naked to the ■waist, and streaming with the exertion that makes the muscles strain out in great cords, show like the distorted imps of some pictured inferno. They, tod, have imbibed th excitement. With every gesture of anxious haste, and eyeballs starting from their dusky heads, some plunge the long rake 3 into the red mouths of the furnace, twisting and turning the crackling mass with terrific strength; others hurl in huge logs of resinous pine already heated by contact till they burn like pitch. Then the great doors bang to ; the yo ! ho ! of the negroes dies away, and the whole hull is blacker from the contrast; while the Senator, puffing denser clouds, swings round the point a hundred yards ahead ! There is a dead silence on our boat— jilence so deep that the rough whisper 3f the pilot to a knob around him is heard the whole length of the deck: " Damnation ! but I'll overstep her yit or bust!" "Good, old man !" responds Styles. "Let her out and I'll stand the wine !" Then the Did colonel walks to the wheel, his face purple, his Glengary pushed back on his head, his cigar glowing like the "red eye of battle" as he puffs angry wheezes of smoke through his nostrils. On we speed, till the trees on the bank seem to fly back past us, , and round the point to see the Senator just turning another curve-! On still, faster than ever, with every glass on board jingling in its frame, every joint and timber trembling ! Still the black demons below ply their fires with the fattest logs, and even a few barrels of resin are slily slipped in. The smoke behind us stretched straight and flat from the smoke-stack. Now we enter a straight, narrow reach, with the chase just before us. Faster, faster we go till the boat fairly rocks and swings from side to side, half-lifted with every, throb. Closer and closer we creep, harder and harder thump the cylinders—until at last we close, our bow just lapping her stern ! So we run a few yards. Little by littleso little that we test it by counting her windows—we reach her wheel, pass it, lock her bow, and run nose and nose for a hundred feet! The stillness of death is upon both boats ; not a sound but the creak and shudder as they struggle on. Suddenly is heard the hard voice of our old pilot: " Good-bye, Sen'tor ! I'll send yer a tug !" and he gave his bell a merry click. Our huge Boat gives one shuddering throb that racks her Irom end to end, one plunge, and then she settles into a steady rush, and forges rapidly ahead. Wider and wider grows the gap; and we wind out of sight with the beaten boat five hundred yards behind. The cigar I take from my mouth, to make way for the deep, long sigh, is chewed to perfect pulp. A wild, pent-up yell of halfsavage triumph goes up from the crowded deck. Cheer after cheer follows, as we approach the thin column of smoke curling over the trees between us. I doubt if heartier toast was ever drunk than that the colonel gave the group around the wheelhouse, when Styles " stood" the wine plighted the pilot. The veteran was beaming as he said: " Egad ! I'd miss my dinner for a week for this ! Gentlemen, a toast! Here's to the-old boat J God bless ier—sooiJ'l