A HARDY NORSEMAN.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume III, Issue 150, 17 March 1876, Page 14

A HARDY NORSEMAN.

The Sheffield ' Telegraph' of ~Nov. 4, prints the following :— "The Norwegian bark Poussin, Capt, Adder Hansen, left Gofle, bound for England, with a cargo of iron and deals, on the 6th of October. On the 19th a fearful gale, with a tremendously high sea, arose, and next day the breakers made a complete breach over the vessel, carrying away portions of the deck-load, and doing much damage to the ship's side. To save the vessel from sinking, instant pumping was necessary. By midnight the last pump was disabled, but fortunately the weather moderated a little, though the vessel was still 'rolling most fearfully.' On the next afternoon a smack came in sight, and though Capt. Hassen had ' persuaded the crew to take the signals down,' they decided, as the smack neared them, to leave the ship. ' The whole crew,' writes the Captain, ' took their respective baggage and were conveyed in the smack's boat to the vessel, leaving me alone to my fate, as I did not consider it consistent with my duty to leave the vessel, especially as I saw that she could be taken into harbor without much damage. I now shaped my- course to the west, in the hope of getting the vessel into Grinisby, and gained the information from the smack that I was twenty-five miles north-east from the Lemon and Ower Lightship. The wind freshened, and the fishermen hoisted their ilag and tried by this and other means to persuade me to heave to and leave the vessel, but I kept steering towards the west, and by much exertion succeeded in setting the foresail and mainsail, also lighting the binnacle lamp and side lights. During the night I had several squalls, with lightning and rain — in fact it was a most dreadful night. The sea was still very high and breaking on deck, as the vessel was very deep. The cabin was full of water, which, by the rolling of the vessel, kept rushing from side to side and making a fearful noise, and destroying everything in it. I was now almost exhausted with the continued Avorking of the wheel, as the vessel steered very badly, and I fell down several times from sheer exhaustion, but after a while I recovered again, and continued steering north-nortnwest.' At last the brave fellow was rewarded by sighting the Spurn Light, and soon after, the crew of a pilot cutter from Hull assisted him to steer up the Humber to Griinsby. There must be "grit" in a man who, deserted by his sailors and left alone on a wild night in a leaky " tub" at the mercy of a tempestuous ocean, maintains his confidence in his own seamanship, and justifies that confidence by bringing his ship into port. Norway has, 52,632 sailors. And no wonder her commerce should increase, if she numbers among her seamen many men of the type of Captain Hansen."