Leicester Chronicle from Leicester, Leicestershire, England • 10

Five Days In A Floating Tomb TT was in the month of March, a good many years ago now, that the schooner Cod-Seeker, having landed a catch of bah at Halifax, Nova Scotia, was making for her hums por, Barrington, in Western Noss Scotia. She was Shari bowed. deep -built vessel, and now, being she ran before the easier.y gale like witch. Her master was Philip Brown; her crew numbered fourteen men and boys, of was one. A little before nine o'clock on a liVednesday morning, when she uv.triug home, dm look-out reported "Breakers ahead!" Captain Brown, however, declared that the expanse co white the man asserted he had seen was only the reflection of the Cape Sable Island light utsua tite waves, and he kept the schooner on her course, though of the older men, with the freedom of fl hermen, criticised him fur doing All.

Tile (oh Seeker went storming along, thrashing wal4ly through the seas, and we didn't run into the ihreatened breakers I suddenly recalled that I was thirsty. As I descionleil the the sch.viner lurched sharply to leeward. and I as. a ditty-box, containing I piidore of my girl and some other treasures, shoot out of my berth to the for, and hastened to salvage my property. This done.

I went to the cook's waterbucket. self la desperate efforts to get clear. 'Meanwhile, the Ood-Beeker, lying helplessly on her beam-ends, "AND and fell heavily to the send of the seas, white the heavy backward and foeward surge of the flood in the fo'c'sle told be that the par. between our quarters and the hold must have given way. "I expect the main-hatches have been blown of." I Lid myself.

She'll 0.103 fill now." I had all I could do to keep my head above water and free of the raffle of floating wreckage. The fo'c'sle, like that of Other NOVA Scotia fishing vessels, was largeall the space below deck from the 'tem to about 40 feet in the utter darkness I could not ascertain my exact whereabouts. For a time I war too terrified to think of anything but keeping my head free, but presently I became calmer, and then I thought: "She's light, and therefore won't sink in a hurry, for the air imprisoned in the wing (aide) of her hold will probably keep her up Before I could take a drink, however, the veasel seemed to stumble, like a man tripping over a stone: then she turned right over on her side! The fo'c'sle light went out. and I wee sent sprawling acmes the heeling deck WI I brought up with a crash against a locivr. The cook's pots and pans fetched away with a great racket, and I heard all sorts of weird noises as barrels and boxes shifted in the hold.

The Cod-Seeker was unable to right herself: she lay complete4y on her heamends, with her spars and sails flat on the sea- As I picked myself up in the I heard the roar of water pouring In through the booby-hatch of the companion -way. Scrambling to the companion, I tried to get out, but failed completely; it was like ing to breast the torrent from sluice-gate. Very soon. P. the schooner's bows dipped.

waves rushed in. Swept clean away from the companion. struck my head against something and was knocked aensele.s. When I recovered my wits I found mvseli on to the neck in water, unable to see anything or at a fothold. Now thoroughly frightened.

I flailed about with my anns in the black darkness. endeavouring to keep the flotsam of the fo'c'sle from striking my face. In my struggles I became entangled in some half-floating blankets, and nearly drowned myship and a deckbeatn. Thankfully I Baled my lungs. But the bows continued to sink, and presently the water covered my face again.

I felt sure I was done for, but I held my breath until trip-hammers seemed to be boating in my brain. Suddenly I felt something map. I thought at first the noise was in my head. But I knew I was still alive, and I doggedly continued to hold my breath until I became aware that I was rising. The nose of the derelict was lifting! I felt the water sucking away from me, and moment later my head emerged into the air once again.

Ohl but that air was good! The water was comparatively shallow where the schooner lay, and as the Cod-Seeker, carried along by the send of the sea, tugged at the cable, her bows were dragged deep down. Luckily for us there proved to be a weak link in the chain at a point near the deck, and after while it broke, allowing the vessel's head to come up ono, more. Freed from the drag of the weighty cable, the schooner rose but be never answered me. Afterwards he told me he had tried to talk to we, but weld get so response. boom woes on, the glimmer of light in the water near the companion faded, and we knew that night had come again.

The gale wierned to be than ever. The schooner wallowed heavily, and every time her bows fed into the trough the water swept over us. That night was one long agony of spirit and flesh. but I never relaxed my grip on the sideboard uf the bunk. Ono.

again a glimmer of Light through the submerged companion-way showed the dawn of another day. The radiance grew stronger; I knew the sun must be shining outside. T.he companion was only about eight feet under water, and I thought it might be possible, by diving, to swim out. I spoke to barn about it. Now that tiling' were he heard me, but he didu seem sanguine as to our chances.

When I started to sit up the movement sent racking through me. It took some Me to work the cramp out of my limbs, and I realised that I was in no shape fur swimming. Slowly the hours dragged on. Thirst took fiercer grip op us, but we ceased to feel the pain of hunger. Darkness descended again, and with night the sea got up.

The derelict started wallowing once more, and before long, when her bows sank in the trough, the water drove over us as before Light crune again at long Saturday morning. Although nearly dead with suffering, we roused ourselves to a show of life. The derelict was canister now, and from the strength of the light refracted through the companionway we knew the sun must he shining once more. DURING the afternoon the sea went down. The derelict scarcely moved, and, as we were no longer being dipped in the water, the fever in our blood dried out our sodden clothes.

With the derelict lying quiet we were afraid that no more fresh air would get into the bold. Yet a gain darkness nsysr-ending night of mental misery and bodily anguish. But, although we little knew it, deliverasve was close at hand. On Sunday afternoon (as we learnt later) the Aahing-schooner "Ohio" of Gloucester, Captain Edward O'Dor, waa standing in for the Cape shore when she sighted something black floating upon the sea. Some of her crew said it was a whale; others declared it to be a wreck.

A heated argument ensued, and to settle it the Captain changed his course. Seeing that the mysterious was a vessel lying on her beam-ends, he launched a dory to find out her name. Preeently, therefore, I was roused from my lethargy by unusual sounds. A man had climbed on to the side of the derelict in order to cut away a trawl-buoy )bearing the schoonex's name. It was lashed to the lanyards of the fore-rigging, and as Ire chopped his axe clanged on the iron strap of a dead-eye.

There's somebody outside!" I cried, shaking Sam to attract his "You're dreaming," he answered, dully. "It's only something washing about in the hold." Let's shout, anyway," I said, and with that I yened as hard as I could: 'Help! Help! Help!" Overhead there was an answering fright. Then heard footsteps pounding on the hull and terrified voice crying: "She's haunted! Get into the boat. for Heaven's sake!" The fellow so 'cared the others that they piled into the boat and started to pull away for their lives. But presently they grew ashamed of their fears and hurried back.

I had got hold of a stick and was bulging against the side of the derelict right over my head. Boon, to my joy, I heard answering raps on the outside. I gave three knocks, and three more responded. Then voice called out "In the name of God, are von ghosts, living men, or the devil?" We shouted that we were living men, whereupon the in incredulous tones, asked us further questions. "All right! Hold an; we'll get you out," it cried at last.

Owing to the loss of air the schooner settled about three feet, lurching ea if she was about to turn turtle altogether. But our rescuers stook gallantly to their job, and soon had a hole big enough to drag us through. Sam, being slim, was pulled out easily enough, but when I got my head and one shoulder through, I stuck. Four men then tzed hold of me; I thought they would pull me apart! But I came through at last, minus my coat and vest and several strips of skin. As I stood up, looking dazedly around me after our Ave days' entombment, I thought of a passage of Scripture which reads: And I saw a new heaven and a new earth." The sun was near the horixon, glowing partly amid a glory of raw and gold.

Never have I beheld snob beauty! I couldn't see the land, but the sea was bright under the sunlight, smiling and looking strangely friendly. looking. R.B.D.'s Puzzle Pie (1) The number of meta in the new Parliament at Westminster will be increased, under a recent Act, from 615 to (2) Do Bath bricks coma from Beth (Somerset)l (3) This initials Q.A.1.M.5.5." stand for? (4) A Lancashire League player who has taken more wickets in Test Cricket than any other cricketer In 27 appearances took 189 wickets I marshes," "place of and "Land of atzangers (5) Mrs. Hathaway, one of the heroines of the Channel Islands, is better know as the I (three words). (1) Can you pair these four ocarntries and the four deacriptive references topether correctly: Palestine.

Chili, Finland, Texas; land of snow." land of the (7) World centre of pipe trade is a French "it French-Swiss border. I St. C- (six A famous French suth-r visualised a pipe line r. the Atlantic in a story written tlat a century (I) Capital of United F.ng:.iti I King Cannte's day and ini tal with Londrra in Wi.ll.ln, Conquerpr'l reign. The of (II) She played Searlett (rII In the film "Oeme Wit -Wind," Lady Hamilton.

pairs in Bernard Sabina," and is the lon Ruasian filmgoers? (Answers on Pass It.) TOM takes a tip -7-- SUBURB OF A 0 C.fry 1 i 09 1 i Hc dy 1401 1EY 1 I 7 7 i. 63 1 i 7 rri.L, 041.0 A wow 4 1 'ID A i uPPLY ptiz 114 IS Of QiTAIN I Pserwe ovi- 4 0 4 "Mr OPE, Oge -DE TO4 AT lOW 'Port j. A. 0. e.c rwi TRucK.

LOA 0 iCt 7 I Tel 4 I 5 7.: TlTrva 5) i I f. 1 4 mob a A Pl 4 RA SE. TEA U3EO ....4 10 EXPRESS 41 4 OUR DOUOTS Told by James E. Smith and set down by C. McKay for some time." I suddenly beard a man moaning, as in mortal dietress.

Whu'a that? I cried, in utter amazement. A voice anewered: We ma-- Earn Atwood. I that you, Smithalive!" At Wood was a young fellow about my own age, and I prellentlY discovered that he was lying facedownwards on the side-board of what had been the lower bunkthe one next to mine. When the schooner went over he was asleep, and had held on to the side-board, though his bedding and the bottom boards pitched out. Reaching out.

I touched him, and immediately felt somewhat relieved; one can face death better with a friend close at hand. I grew more composed, and we quietly took stock of our appalling situation. A HIER time the schooner Zl. gave a violent shudder, as if she bad struck somethinig; then, little by little, her bows began to settle. The water whelmed over me; I held my breath, as before, and clung despairingly to the twelve-inch-wide board on whioh I lay.

As her head continued to go down I thought: "She's bound for Davy Jones's locker; this is the end! Very soon I was nearly stranirling for breath. I sat up, legs astraddle the board, and raised my face toward the aide of the ship. Here I found a pocket of air in the angle made by a stout wooden knee" bolted to the skin of the the walls ai with -a eeitialS and fell more easily to the heave of the waves, and once more I came to the comforting conclusion that we were not going to be drowned just yet. Every time her bows fell away, however, we were ducked under the surging flood, and our imprisoned in that flooded lo c'slewas terrifying and uncomfortable enough. 'The water off the Nova Scotian ooast in early March Is too cold to make continuous immersion pleasant.

And now let us turn for a moment to the happenings on deck, about which I learnt long afterwards. Tb. a a Caner had been duns cc her side by a oombination of wind and wave, going over so suddenly and unexpectedly that the men on deck were taken completely unawares. The great sea that threw het on her beam-ends swept away the duties (boats) nested in her weille; it also washed overboard Captain Brown, Nat Knowles, the cook, and fisherman named John Smith. One dory floated right-side-up, and the three men who had been hurled into the water somehow managed to scramble into it.

In the dory they found lashed oars, and soon got them out. They could hear the cries of their comrades, clinging to the rail of the cansized schooner, and tried to I pull hack to their assistance, but I the gale was too strong, the ma too heavy. They were speedily driven far to leeward, whereupon the captain, abandoning a hopelees enterprise, let the little run before the wind. For some hours it drove before the gale; then, after passing through a quarter of a mile of raging surf, it was flung ashore on the beach on the south-eastern side of Cape Sable Island. hurling Its three occupants to safety.

CAPTAIN BROWN, the cook, and John Smith were soon at the home of one Pelick Nickerson, where they obtained dry clothes and refreshment, and, after a rest, were driven to Clark's Harbour. The fishing schooner, Matchless, of Boston, was in peck having run in for shelter from the gals. Her master, Captain Job Crowell, when told that men were still clinging to the side of the wreck, decided to put to sea and endeavour to rescue them. His crew had scattered to their homes, and it took SMUG hours to muster them, but before dawn the Matchless was off Cspe Sable, staggering along under double-reefed sails, thrusting her bows under up to the foremast at every plunge as her plucky skipper drove her relentlessly to windward. When the luckless Cod-Seeker turned over five men lashed themselves to her top side by means of lifelines rove between her fore and main chain-plates.

The heavier seas swept right over the hulk, at times half-drowning than, but they kept their hearta up and endured the buffeting. of the waves throughout the long of darkness. When daylight dawned they could see nothing but whitecrested seas, and realised that the tide hid carried the schooner well away from the coast "Look! Look! A It was the schooner Matchless. Those on board her had sighted the only just in time, for a few minutes later a heavy, driving rain set in, making it Impossible to glimpse anything more than a quarter of a mile away. Making short tacks Matchless thrashed up to windward.

She was towing big seine -boat, and when she got near enough this was manned and skilfully worked down under the lee of the wreck. The four men clinging to the wavewashed Kenny, Jesse Smith, Will Goodwin, and Jerry then picked up one by one by being hauled through the sea with lines about their waists. Thursday dragged along miserably. I began to experience the nangs of hunger and thirat: my flesh, too, felt numb as a result Of being constantly plunged the cold water. Oiten i apoke to Sam Atwood, siiivam iNICIMISSB it provides additional (reflected) light; and better visibility reduces the risk of accident and sickness.

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