CHILDREN'S COLUMN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 10112, 22 April 1896, Page 3

CHILDREN'S COLUMN.

A NIGHT OP TERROR.

When* 15 years old I was one of a crew of three that manned the little 98-ton schooner Ornament, which lay moored in Monhegan harbour— deep narrow strait between the islands of Monhegan and Manana, Maine. The entrance: is from the south, and is unobstructed, while to the north the passage is barred by a rocky islet called "Smutty Nose." This is separated from Manana by a narrow passage on the westerly side celled "Drunken Gut.". The harbour is fairly good shelter, except when the wind is from the south-east.

At daylight on the morning after our arrival at Monhegan there was a stiff breeze with rain from the south-east, and by noon it had risen to a heavy gale. All day coasters, traders, and fishing vessels ran in till about twenty sail were in harbour when night fell. They we- 3 anchored as near together as they could be arid yet swing clear of each other.' This compact gathering would be well enough in , a smooth harbour, but on little Monhegan, exposed to the increasing gale, with night coming on and the probability of a heavy sea running into the strait, the prospect, looked serious. Should a vessel part her cables or drag her anchors collision with those to leeward of her would be inevitable,' and the result of collision might be disastrous. When darkness came the gale's fury increased. The unobstructed sea rolled into the narrow harbour ire huge billows that dashed against Manure or Smutty Nose, or raged us breakers on the reefs about Drunken (Jut. The vessels, hampered by their anchors and unable to rise freely on the surges, strained at their cables, plunging and rolling wildly, while nearly every wave toppled its crest upon their decks, or swept thein from stem to stern. About nine o'clock, when the gale seemed at its height, a little craft that had been anchored all day just on our port bow dragged her anchors. : Her crew, liki some others, had sought safety on shore long before night. Swinging to our broadside, she beg; 11 to pound against us and to break into pieces. Her bowsprit snapped, her bulwarks crushed in foro and aft, her masts went over her taßrail. At last, plunging from the top of a big sea, we crashed down upon her forward deck'. Her windlass-bits gave way, and off she went, broadside to the wind, till she. was lost in the gloom and rain.

Anxiously we crouched by the windlass, the captain's hand almost constantly upon either one cable or the other, that he might detect the first vibratory motion, indicating that the anchors were being dragged over the rocky bottom. But they seemed to hold securely. Our danger was of another sort.

I was crouching in the lee of the foremast to v shelter myself from the wind and spray, when I heard the captain suddenly shout:

" Up, up with you, boys, quick! There's a coaster adrift, coming right for us !" Through the driving rain, sure enough, came a big schooner stern first, wildly swinging to and fro, now toppling on a crest, now wallowing down in the hollow depths. Her gunwales almost rolled under, and her raftir;boom, tree from its lashing, swayed madiy from side to side. ' Just as we were receding from a rolling swell she crashed into us and snapped our bowsprit. Then she hung square across our bow.

"Quick! quick! Give me the axe!" cried the captain. In a moment he severed both cables at the windlass, and we were drifting with the gale. No vessel lay directly astern of us. The captain's hope was th/»t we might not only go ciear of the coaster, but drive upon a small, sandy beach at the end of Smutty Nose. But the heave of the sea and the slant of the wind drove us to one side, and we went upon the rocks instead.

There was a shock, a grinding crash as she struck. Then we seemed f;o stop; and now the sea broke over us in fury. "To the dory, boys ! The schooner will go to pieces!" shouted the captain. Without much difficulty we gob the dory into the water to leeward. Jack, my shipmate, flung his clothes-bag into the stern of the boat, while 1 threw a coil of small rope into her ere I tumbled in myself. There was but one pair of oars. These the captain took, and began to pull toward Man ana.

Away from the lee of the schooner we wore exposed to the full fury of the gale, and the course to which we were compelled kept us in the trough of the sea. livery moment it seemed as though we must be swamped, and in spite of all that we could do we were drifting toward Drunken Gut. Suddenly a thole-pin broke. Before another could be put in the place we wero afoul of the standing rigging of a sunken vessel, the dory almost on her broadside, and wo in imminent danger of being washed overboard. But clinging instinctively to the- uppermost gunwale we succeeded in righting the dory and working her clear of the wreck. Again we were adrift indeed, for we had lost an oar, and now had but one.

Our destruction now was apparently but a question of moments, for if we escaped the reefs and boiling surf upon one side we were almost certain to be dashed against the iron sides, Mananu upon the other. 1 was in the bow, peering ahead, when the hull of a vessel suddenly loomed up almost directly beforo us and apparently at anchor. While the captain endeavoured o keep the dory headed for hor I bent one end of my coil of line to the painter ring. Then grasping a bight in my hand as the dory grazed the schooner's sides I made a spring for the rail and climbed on board. Then 1 caught my lino round a cleet, checked the drift of the dory and brought her alongside. We soon found that the schooner was deserted. Her crew iiad sought safety on shore. We thought ourselves exceedingly fortunate that their vessel had been in our

way. But we had been upon the deck scarcely twenty urinates when the captain startled us with the announcement that the vessel was rapidly filling. It was evident, that she had dragged from the harbour, and first striking upon the reef, had swung to her present position. While the captain searched for a spare oar, 1 grasped tho line by which I had fastened the dory, and was horrified to find it slack. No dory was there—the rope which had held her trailed away astern and was lost in the darkness. Our last hope seemed to have departed. . But no—as I peered through the gloom I caught sight of a boat attached to a long warp that trailed over the taffrail of the schooner. It was a seine boat. . We quickly drew it up and got into it. Our drift in tho dory had carried us considerably to the leeward of Smutty Nose, so that in our present position the force of the sea was much broken. As we crouched beneath the gunwale of our new refuge, momentarily expecting to see the abandoned schooner go down, a light from' Smutty No?e gradually shone out over the waters.

We saw that ft fire bad been kindled upon the island. Down at the water's edge people were moving about among the rocks. In a little while a boat seemed to leave the shore and drift slowly toward üb. S As her erratic movements seemed to indicate that - she had . no one aboard, but was drifting at. the will of the wind, 1 !' attached no special significance to her appearance," though I glanced toward her occasionally. Yob nearer , she came, sometimes directly toward us. ~

At times a heave of the sea would throw her far to one side, then she would seem to linger a moment, to start off anew in our direction. Half-dazed from exhaustion, I watched her with flagging interest until she was close at hand. Then I saw the captain reach out and grasp her by the gun wale, and hold her fast alongside. ,; : . ; J -1 He shouted for us to get into her. .No sooner had we all obeyed than she started swiftly for the shore. Then I perceived that a long ;warp ; led from her to Smutty Nose and that the people there wore pulling us toward them. ' . ' / ' '[ Owing to the direction of the current) the boat could not) be dragged back'to the point from which : she started, and we struck the outer edge of the wide reef of rocks. It was nearly low tide, and though the sea did nob break; up the , reef, every, wave that : rolled through' the narrow passage boiled up over it in a swelling flood, submerging the rocks many feet, to , subside again, leaving i them entirely bwe. 'V: \ : M

To run this - gauntlet was ournflsk ; trial. Waiting until a sea retired we started over the slippery, weed-grown rocks und ran as fast (mi we could until an incoming wave overlook us. Then we filing ourselves flat upon the reef, while the flood boiled up over us, clutching the rock weed with both hands and clinging to resist the terrible undertow backward. *, '

When the reflux left the reef bare again we rose and ran once more. Four times the - flood passed over us. Then . breathless, bruised, and half dead I felt a grasp upon my collar and I was dragged up out of. the grip of the sea— at last.—Boston Youth's Companion.