THROUGH THE STORMY PENTLAND.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XIX, Issue 22, 27 February 1891, Page 11

THROUGH THE STORMY PENTLAND.

(J. McE. in the Dundee Telegraph) Eablt one fine morning the s.s. Nemo sailed from Liverpool, bound for Copenhagen, with a general cargo, and a lively trip it turned out to be, especially for certain individuals of her crew who, as it happened, were comparatively new to life at Bea. In due time the Nemo rounded Cape Wrath, and shortly after passing that ominous headland the broken and angry sky presaged a south-east gale, which anon sprang up, and increased in violence until the captain was obliged to run the 6bip into Scrabster Bay. Events proved tbe prudence of this proceeding. This gale was extensive in its range and of cyclone severity, causing much damage and many wrecks on our coast ; but in the Pentlani the violence of the Bea was excessive owing to the swift tide racing through the firth being met by the waves driven before the hurricane of wind, the two opposing forces there raising rollers of mountainous dimensions. Three weary days we lay while the gale raged outside, filling the air with salt spindrift and driving the ragged wh t te clouds in curd-like masses through tha sky, little varying the monotony except the occasiona 1 visit cf a boat from the shore. The Bcenery on this coast is rocky, bleak, and desolate, at least in winter, witb few trees, though the land is cultivated wherever possible. The quaint old town of Thurso was visible a few miles from our anchorage, and near by the great castle of the Duke of Sutherland. Far away through the haze we could also see the " Old Man of Hoy," a high rock on a cape of the island of that name, but it required some imagination to recognise any resemblance to humanity in its rugged outline. Scrabster, off which we lay, is only a small fishcuriner village, and has a harbour, fiom which at that time rose a forests of masts, with thousands of sea-birds whirling and screaming all day long overhead. One evening a fleet of fißbing-yawls came drivmg in, and from the foremost, as she sheared close alongside our quarter, was skilfully thrown a silver shower of herrings on the Nemo's deck, a present from the kindly fishermen, as welcome as it was unexpected. There were seven men in this boat— red-raced, hardy fellows all of them, in yellow oil-skins and heavy boots and gloves. Their yawls are clinker built, and steered with a wheel, and it was interesting to see how smartly they were handled as they came flying in with the big brown lug sail tight as a drum, and the* white tpray frothing over the bow. On reaching tbe harbour down came the sale, the kedge was overboard, and the boat brought up in a twinkling. These fishermen must needs be smart in their wurk, however, as this coast is one of the most dangerous in Britain, and many a boat goes cheerily to sea to return no more. On tbe third day of our detention the wind veered round more to the south, filling even the sheltered bay with wbitecaps, and giving us some idea of what it must be in the open firth, when even a powerful twin-screw ocean tug was driven in to keep us company, It was the intention of the captain, should tbe gale continue much longer, to go North and endeavour to run Eastward through the '• Roost," between the Orkneys and (Shetland, where there is plenty of sea room ; but on the morning of the fourth day the wind fell suddenly, and though the sea was running high, we immediately after, having been 84 hours in the bay. I have heard the Pentland Firth described as a " boiling pot " during a winter gale, but never thought that it would one day be my fortune to find out by rude experience how feeble was that simile compared with the reality. Half an hour after heaving up the anchor we rounded Dunnet Head, steering East, the tide running in the same direction with an eight-knot current, and for a time all went well, though tbe Bhip laboured heavily iin the sea?; The strait is about

fourteen miles in length, and at one part comparatively narrow.— Here it was that tbe teleprraph-bell in the engice-room rang " Stand by, then " slow," and there, about a hundred yards ahead, and square across ihe bow like a wall, rose a seething mass cf enormous waves, white ns snow, and in another moment tbe ship dashed right into it with a shock that brought her up dead, and mude the steel hull quiver from stem to stern. At the same instant a cataract of water poured over tt.e bow and swept aft, dsJuging everything, and obliging all hands to get into the deck house or on top of it, for none could stand on deck for a moment owing to the rapid and incessant rolling which then be, 'an. At every plunge the waves came over tha side in so, id masses.^ and though all the engine room doors and skylights were sbut and la6!ied,the water showered down through the interstices, hissing on tbe eye inder covers and filling the place with vapour. Nothing is so terribly beautiful as the warfare of nature's elements; and, in despite of the discomfort of oar situation, it was a grand and impressive sight to watch the tremendous billows rushing down on the ship, tossing her like a plaything, to elide down into the following abyss amid drenching clouds of spray. One moment the stern would be submerged altogether, the next would see the propeller ten feet in the air, requiring an engineer to stand by the throttle-valve and shut off the steam whan needed to prevent a possible catastrophe to the machinery. Every sea that struck the deck house made the whole structure vibrate and heeled the ship over until her gunnel was under water, while the steady growl of the engines and the clash of the coals and firing tools tumbling about in the boiler room, with tho Bhriek and hiss of the wind and sea, made a deafening noise. A strange appearance the Nemo presented, struggling slowly ahead in the midst of this turmoil, with the smoke pouring from her funnel, the trucks of the masts sweeping from side to side in mighty arcs, the black figures on the bridge in dripping oilskins, and there were anxious faces too, for " Ever the fitful gusts between A sound came from the land ; It was the sound of the trampling surf On the rocks and the hard sea sand." Ship and engine were in perfect order, however, for the severe trial to which tbey were subjected, and in spite of the strain caused by the continuous and excessive rolling and pitching and the impact of tons of water sweeping the deck everything held fast, and it was well, for had the engines failed the chances ate that we should have been drivea on the black cliffs, which at times loomed up uncomfortably near. Two lively hours this " Irish picnic " lasted, while the crockery crashed in the galley, and the ancient mariner who officiated therein expressed himself profanely after the manner of his kind ; but we were through at last, and out in the open sea, safe and sound, if cold, wet, and hungry. Such was our passage of the stormy Pentland, and after this experience I shall always marvel how any of the clumsy old ships of the Spanish Armada ever succeeded in getting through it at all in a winter gale when a strong and powerfulengined modern steamer like the Nemo had such an evil time of it. The wind fell altogether about fifty miles out, and after a fine and fast run across the North Bea we sighted the lighthouse on the Naze of Norway, and on tbe following day arrived in Copenhagen.