A LAME DUCK.

New Zealand Illustrated Magazine, 1 February 1905, Page 358

A LAME DUCK.

By W. BROOKE,

HERE had been a lire at Pier U), East River, anil Captain Trent, the Port Warden, was down making enquiries on behalf of the Insurance Companies. He was a short, sq.uare, energetic-looking man of about forty-five. After he had jotted down his notes and bustled oft", 1 remark-

Ed to Frost, tlie Harbour Master, that Captain Trent seemed a shrewd, wide-awake sort of man. " Yes/ replied Frost, " he's just as smart as a steel trap. I saw him work a cute move about ten years ago, when lie was master, and I was chief mate, of the ship ' Oregon.' He took a big risk, too, but he saved himself and the other owners of the ' Oregon ' about nine th< iiisand dollars . ' ' '" How did it happen, Captain l ; rost ?" 1 asked. " It was over a towage job when the ship was dismasted and crippled in the North Atlantic. We were bound from Santos to Boston in ballast, and, as half the crew had died of fever at Santos, we left port short-handed. The ' Oregon ' was a bii/. full-rigged ship of over 2000 tons register, and it was heavy work handling the sails with so few men. However, all went well until we were within two hundred miles of Cape Cod, when one night the ship caught aback in a heavy squall with all sail set. The squall laid her over on her beam ends, then the ballast shifted, and being so shorthanded, we couldn't haul the yards round and get the sail furled. I thought she was going to capsize ;

and she would have done so right enough if we hadn't cut away the main and mizenmasts, which caused her to fall off before the wind and straighten up a bit. " Then we had a big job cutting clear of the wreckage, but we managed it at last because, although it was blowing hard, the squall had come suddenly and the sea was not very rough. Soon after getting clear of the masts and top hamper, the weather moderated, and all hands were sent below to shovel the ballast back into place ; and after a few hours work the ship was on an even keel again. " The carpenter sounded the pump wells and bilges, and we found that she w<as not leaking at all ; yet with bulwarks smashed, sides battered by the heavy masts, and spars thumping alongside before we cut them adrift, and only the foremast standing, the ship was just as helpless as a lame duck. Fortunately, the wind being nearly due east, we were able to sail slowly before it towards the coast. Captain Trent tried to edge her to the northward all he could, but of course with nothing but the sails on the foremast the ship would only steer with the wind nearly dead aft. The weather was foo'o-y for the first few days after bein[>- dismasted, and we got no observations, but when the weather cleared enough for us to find our position by the sun the ship was about fifty miles from the coast of Massachusetts, half way between Cape Cod and Nantucket. After he'd located her on the chart.

* The sea term for a crippled sailing 1 ship,

Captain Trent came up on deck and called out for me. ' She won't clear Cape Cod with this breeze, Mr. Frost/ he said, ' we shall have to take in all sail and let her drift/ ' Why not try and run for New York, captain, if you can't make Boston ?' I asked. ' What ! and get in among- Nantucket shoals with an unmanageable ship. No ; not me ! We'll just let her drift, and wait till

a steamer comes along and picks her up, and if she drifts into soundings, we'll have to anchor and trust to luck and fine weather I' k( Well, we furled all the sail there was left and waited, then, sure enough, before long- we sighted a steamer, aad as soon as they saw us the steamer's course was altered a little, and she made straight towards us. The weather was fine,

and the steamboat captain brought his craft close alongside and stopped. She was a good-sized cargoboat, called the ' Crescent City/ and bound from Galveston to Boston. Her skipper was looking quite jubilant to think that he, had Bound a lame duck drifting around ; and leaning over his bridge rail,, he shouted out : 'Do you want any assistance ?' All the steamer's

crew who were not on duty below crowded to tlie bulwarks to listen to the bargaining, and speculate on the amount of salvage money that would fall to their share. ' What will you tow me to Boston for V asked Trent. ' Make it a low figure, 'because we've no cargo — nothing 'but sand ballast in the hold/ ' Oh, I'll tow you in for ten thousand dollars., ' captain ; that's a fair

price/ answered the man on the bridge. ' Fair price !' shouted Trent, who was part-owner of the * Oregon/ ' Come now, d'ye want to ruin me ? Why, if we were onlyi fifty miles further north, 1 could sail her in without assistance V " The steamboat captain laughed, and guessed we couldn't do much sailing with a light ship, and only one mast, besides, he said, he wasn't going to wait all day. Ten thousand dollars was his price, and if Captain Trent didn't agree to that figure, well then, the ' Oregon '

would probably drift ashore before morning, because there was every appearance of an easterly gale coming' on. In the end, Trent had to agree to the other skipper's terms, but he bargained for the use ot the steamer's wire hawser, as our own tow-rope was stranded and unreliable. As soon as the bargain was made, no time was lost, and everyone worked with a will in order to g~et the work of securing the towrope finished while the fine weather lasted. The steamer's people lowered a boat and passed the end of a

long coil of three-inch rope to us. This we took to our small steam winch, and hove the end of the steamer's six-inch steel wire aboard, then shackling- on the end of our starboard anchor chain to the eye in the wire hawser, we payed out lifteen fathoms of chain to act as a spring-, and ease the strain on the wire tow-rope. The steamer captain arranged with our skipper that if the wind and sea increased, he would blow two long blasts on his steam whistle as a signal for us to pay out more chain, and ease the

jerk on his hawser. Then he started ahead with us. " The ' Crescent City ' was only a nine knot boat, but as the ' Oregon ' was in ballast trim and light in the water, the gteamer walked away with her at the rate of six knots an hour, the heavy length of chain causing the tow-rope to just trail in the water. Soon after dark the wind began to freshen, and by midnight it was 'blowing a hard gale from the eastward, with a heavy sea rolling in on our starboard beam, which made the two

vessels plunge and jerk at the towrope until 1 thought the windlass would carry away, but we were now nearly abreast of Cape Cod, and once we rounded the corner and got off before the wind, the ship would tow more easily. At midnight, when the watches were being changed, the captain of the ' Crescent City ' tooted on his whistle for us to pay out more chain, as he was evidently afraid of the tow-line parting, and .1 was going forward when Captain Trent called me from the companion stairway. Leaving the second mate to look after things, 1 went into the cabin. "' Then the skipper shut the cabin door, and said : ' Look here, Mr. Frost. That steamboat man cauyht us in a tight place, and he's piled on the price, but he'll find I'm a pretty slippery citizen before long, 'because 1 don't intend to pay ten thousand dollars for a hundred and forty miles tow — not this tide, anyhow ! Now, you're a. smart young fellow, and I'm going to recommend you for a ship when we get to Boston. So just send all liands aft for a tot of rum, and while they're away, you heave in the chain till the wire comes on the windlass ; that'll snap the towing wire quick and lively. Let me know as soon as the wire snaps, and I'll square right away before the wind for Boston Harbour. Mind, I don't want to slip the hawser ; it's got to carry away in order to save the steamboat's salvage claim !' ' All right, Captain,' 1 said, ' I'll manage my part of the business.' Then 1 went forward and turned the steam from our little deck-engine on to the windlass. When all was ready I sent all hands, look-out man and all, aft for their grog, and when everyone was out of the way I started the windlass.

'*' Away ahead of us, T could see the steamer's stern-light rising and falling as she plunged through the Sale, and T could hear the thud of her propeller when she raced. Her skipper was still working her to the

northward, although he could havekept away before the wind, but I suppose he wanted to give Cape Cod a good wide berth. The ' Oregon ' had a powerful steam windlass like most big American sailingships, but every time our 'bows lifted to a sea the tow-rope would tighten and stop the windlass, then I had to rush in the slack every time she plunged down the slope of a sea and forged ahead. The heavy cable had been acting as a good spring for the wire, but when the end of the hawser was hove into the hawse pipe, it tightened like a harpstring with an alarming jerk at every plunge the vessels made, and 1 stood well clear so that my brains wouldn't he knocked out by the flying end when the rope parted — aspart it soon must. Just as the steamer's whistle was screaming again for more slack chain, a high sea with a broken crest came rolling down on us, and as the ' Crescent City's •' stern was swooping down into the hollow, the 'Oregon's ' bows were leaping nearly out of water. No single wire without a spring to ease it could be expected to stand a jerk like that, and snap went the hawser a few fathom from our bow, the broken end flying back like the crack of a whip. I sang out sharp to Trent on the poop : ' Tow-line's parted, sir, all adrift forward !' and ran aft.

"' The crew had finished their grog- and were going forward again, when the skipper shouted to them to loose all sail on the foremast, and jump lively if they wanted to save their skins. Trent had put the helm up and sot the ship off before the wind as soon as the tow-rope broke, then -when the canvas was loosed we took the halyards and sheets to the steam winches, everyone world nq their hardest. Half-an-hour afterwards, with all sail on the foremast set, we were scooting dead before the sale on a straight course for Boston Harbour. The steamer captain had eased down to haul in the end of his

broken hawser, and then he headed for us again, but 'being only a niner knot boat, we left her wallowing away astern, for the ' Oregon ' in ballast, sailing dead before the wind, was a flyer ; and we were going" a good twelve, because with the wind dead aft, one mast is just as good as three. " We ran before the gale all night, and soon after daylight, land was

sighted, with the entrance to Boston Harbour right ahead. Surely, I thought, the skipper won't try to sail the ship through the Heads in a howling gale with only one mast standing ! I knew he was a smart seaman, and well-acquainted with Boston harbour, but I didn't think he would risk it. Captain Trent had never left the poop since the tow-rope broke, and when I went

aft to speak to him, he was standing 1 by the compass watching" the steering, with his feet planted apart on the rolling, heaving' deck, and his face set and determined-looking. ' Are you going" to take in sail, and signal for a tug and pilot V J asked him. ' No, Mr. Frost : I guess I know the way into Boston harbour, so we can do without pilots or tugs. I don't intend to pay any

salvage claims if 1 can help it, besides a tvg 1 or pilot- boat could never get alongside with a bi<r sea running like this. Now, go forward, and let all hands stand by to work the sails and anchors. I'm going- to take her in through the Black Rock Channel/ " I went forward and got the men to the braces and halyards, but they didn't need much telling", for they

were all on deck awaiting orders, quite aware of their danger. It was blowing a hard gale with a big following sea, and I saw a tug and pilot-boat trying to come oft to us, but they couldn't face it, but had to turn back. it was summer time, and crowds of people were grouped on Nantasket beach, watching the ship as she approached the harbour. "It must have been a grand as well as an unusual sight, to see a big two thousand ton ship, with smashed and battered sides and bulwarks, and with only her foremast left standing, flying dead before the gale in towards the harbour mouth at the speed of thirteen miles an hour ! On she flew, two men with sweat-streaming faces, heaving the wheel over to keep her straight, as the mountainous following seas lifted her stern high in air, and then raced forward along her sides to break in a thunder of foam amidships as they passed under! Captain Trent, watching every swoop and swing of her dripping bows, stood by the wheel directing the steering. He knew Boston harbour well, but without the help of sails on the main and mizenmasts it was impossible to sail her through the main channel, so lie headed the ship for the Black Hock Passage, which is seldom used exceot by small vessels in fine weather. It was narrow and exceedingly dangerous, and to take a big, crippled ship throuo-h in a heavy gale required o'reat nerve and skill." "With clanging trusses and straining canvas the ship came sweeping round Hull Point, and into the comparatively smooth water of Black Rock passage. Here Trent grasped the wheel himself, and sent one of the helmsmen forward to assist me

with the sails, as we were very short-handed. Then, with rocks and broken water close alongside, on she flew through the passage, where, had she struck, she would have torn her bottom out, and sank or capsized in the swift current, but Trent rushed her clear through into the open bay, and then shortening sail he ran her in behind Deer Island and dropped anchor. " After the ship was safely anchored., the steam pilot-boat came alongside and hailed us. ' You came in through the \vron»- channel, Captain !' shouted the pilot. "Well, .1 guess I'm not u'oing out airain to come in through the riuiit one !' retorted Captain Trent, who was not without some humour. '' When the gale moderated, several hours later, the ' Crescent City ' came steaming slowly in through the main channel, and as she passed the ' Oregon.' the steamer's crew clustered at the rail, staring in amazement at the lame duck that had flown away from them in the niuht, and threaded her way through a narrow, dangerous channel that even the local pilots dreaded to navigate in line weather. Of course the ten thousand dollar bargain didn't hold good, because the tow-rope had broken, and only Captain Trent and myself knew why it broke. '' The Salvaue Court certainly awarded the ' Crescent City ' nine hundred dollars for towing the ' Oregon ' to windward of Cape Cod, at the same time Captain Trent saved himself and the other owners of the ' Oregon ' over nine thousand dollars by his smartness and skill, and considering the risk he took, T guess he deserved all he saved."