FOR THE CHILDREN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13399, 30 January 1907, Page 9

FOR THE CHILDREN.

■ - .o- ■ I BUIUF.I) AI.IVI-: I'XDKi: 'J' UK KKKL. ! I. ! 1 11A Vl: known lie II have narrow r'i'ilp.'v ; ill my line of business, lint the <•]<>.> A, slihtp j 1 . ever knew lwjiptMii il to myself, anil ,i 1 nightmare experience it was (relates a. | caulker). 1 suppose yon ' l"iV i lull ;i I'iiullifr is? j lie is I lir in "i \vi o ; ! tin.' oakum in'i- | the s/\inib of ship*. i' \»\s ,'i :_'ood many ! bales of oakum to ciuii; m ship, Knur I threads of ouki'in mi [Hit in. one njinii anI oilier, .-inrl an- ill-., m solid. After that conn- four threads more, making eight in all, and even thai milliner doesn't represent. I ho entire thickness of the hemp, for each thread is folded ,is ii is driven in. As a result of cm> much pot'iiding the oakum in (i sea in is little less si.'id than (lie. wood itself, as von know, if you've seen any pulled out of an old vessel. The ■work has its drawbacks. When the caulker has to crawl down under some '■worn-out coaster and lie on his side on Hie mud caulking a seam with the hilgp-water leaking down into his face, there isn't inndi fun in the work. One day I got an urgent «all from the owner of a lime schooner. She was leaking | pretty badly, but had to be loaded with lime lh.it afternoon, 1 discovered the leak i just under her Centre, in the larboard seam.

The schooner was hauled well up the dock, and the tide being down she was almost entirely out of water. I could not get down under her bottom until two men had dug a, broad, shallow trough in the mud up to the keel. After seeing that the ropes which held I lie schooner to the wharf were secure, 1 took my bask' ' of oakum, caul king-iron; ami mallet, and crawled down into the trough in the mmL.until 1 was close to the keel. The two men who had cleared the space out for me went to dinner. I have never worked in a harder place than that. There was not more than 2fl between the mud and the schooner's bottom. In that narrow space, of course. 1 could not use a box to sit upon, and hough my mallet was a small one. I had little chance to swing it. Most of the time . 1 pounded away, lying on my back and side, the bilge water from (lie seam spouting into my face. My oil clothes and rubber boots afforded me little protection, and before long I was soaking wot. Finally the seam was tight as a, drum. With a feeling of relief I turned to creep out, pushing my oakum basket ahead of me. Just then the faint cracking of wood leached my ears. Before I could realise what it meant, there was a slight motion in the bulk above me, and quicker than I can tell it the bilge-planks .settled deep into the muddy channel side, shutting out. .tlvj daylight, and "penning me in a narrow, slimy prison between the schooner's floor and the surface of the, flats!

I knew at once what had happened. Involuntarily I had rolled in towards the keel, and that was the only thing that saved my life. Had J moved the other way 1 should have been crushed down into the mud to death

For a few seconds I lay there, par.'-iywd with horror at my narrow escapi.-. , ~ in practically in darkness. On one s'ide v. .is the keel ; on the other the cavity in vhich J Mas, tapered off to nothing between the planks of the shin and the mud. Forward and aft were tiny openings through which penetrated a dim twilight from the outer day. Suddenly a terrible thought came to torture me in mv narrow prison.

"The flood tide! It will come and fill the space in which T am lying!"' I groaned in an agony of terror. My minutes of life were limited.

"As T cannot escape sideways. 1 mast fry my way out fore or aft,'' I said to myself. "And I must be ouick about it!'' The distances were Ownit equal. But if I went toward the stem, I should meet the rising tide and have a shorter time to work. That decided me to begin burrowing in the direction of the bow. I dug frantically with my iron, pushing the, mud to one side and behind me. Inch by inch I fought and panted "id wriggled myself along. I had gone about iOfL when my iron • linked against something hard. It wad a buried ledge just below the surface. J rm my fingers along it in one direction until they encountered (lie keel. ! pu-hed then Ihe other way until my arm was stretched straight out beneath the side of the vessel. For a moment all my strength left me. as the information gathered by the sense of touch was imprinted on my brain. There was nowhere more than Bin or' space between the ledge and the ship's planks over life ! The forward way was closed. I miifit now get aft. Could I (.urn in the narrow trough? I made .-. terrible effort, every muscle tense with desperation. f succeeded in the effort, but as I crawled back towards the stern f splashed through water. "Tie' Hood tide is coming in!" T gasped. I sent shout after shout from my prison, but the vessel over me seemed to bold mv i cries in. Abandoning calling, I began to dig frantically in the mud Sit the stern, while the water began to close'over my body as I lay face downwards, supporting myself on an elbow. Suddenly I heard a shout, and through the space I saw a pair of bouts standing in the water, while their owner was working with a shovel no less frantically than myself. But had he come too late? . '-■' The tide had reached my lips. I turned over on my back, and began to "dig wit'-. jmy arms outstretched behind my" head. I This made my progress much slower, lv.it !it enabled me to breathe freely. Higher I and higher rose the water. It flowed into I mv ears and lapped my cheeks and mouth. j My face was close up against the slime i and. barnacles of the nlankimi. ! Just as I was on the point of giving up j in despair something hard and wooden was I pushed violently against my finurer ends. | It was a shovel handle, just long enough |to reach me. I clung to it with' the grip !of a drowning man. Then it was pulled back, and slowly and, painfully. I was dragged out head foremost through the mud and -water. It came near suffocating me, but I hung on, for 1 knew it was my onlv chance. Just as every bone and muscle seemed about to snap, I came out into the air and sunlight with a rush. Four men lifted m* into the lime shed. I was covered with mud and could hardly see or breathe. It had been a near thing. The lime schooner was in a condition to take in her load that afternoon, but it wa*. the last time I ever went under the hot-. ' torn of a vessel on the mud-flat*.