A PERILOUS FEAT AT SEA BY BLONDIN.

Globe, Volume IV, Issue 473, 21 December 1875, Page 2

A PERILOUS FEAT AT SEA BY BLONDIN.

A gentleman, who was a passenger on board the P. and O, steamship Poonah, writes : “ The P. and 0. mail steamer Poonah was on her first voyage to Calcutta, after the completion of the alterations and improvements which have been made in her, and at five o’clock in the afternoon of the 19th October, when the ship was between Aden and Qalle, Blondin announced that he would try the feat of walking on the tight rope in a seaway, and undertook to walk from the main to the mizen mast and back- A seven-inch hawser having been made fast to the mizentop and rove through a heavy block in the maintop, and hauled taut by the steam winch on deck, lateral motion was prevented as far as possible by guys made fast to the sides of the ship ; but the motion of the vessel herself could not be avoided, and the main difficulty was the long, slow, confused swell which, at the change of the monsoon, seems in these seas to come from different quarters at once. When Blondin stood in the maintop, pole in hand, he hesitated long enough, with one foot on the rope, to make many think he had repented, for the task was difficult enough to try even his nerves. The mizen is of course lower than the main. The steadying guys had pulled the rope down in the centre, so that ha had to start down a rather sharp incline. Blondin is accustomed to guide and steady himself by fixing bis eyes on the rope about twenty feet ahead ; but what with the rolling of the ship and the vibration of the powerful engines, the rope he had now to walk on was drawn into such contortions that he described it as looking more like a snake than a rope. Before he had gone five yards he was forced to sit down to steady himself, and avoid two or three rollers which came in succession. He rose on one leg, and it was worth much to see the great muscles on Ithe outside of his thighs spring into bold relief. Twice again he sat down, and reached the mizen-mast amidst hearty applause. This part of the journey was made more difficult by the sun shining directly in his eyes. His return was quick and easy till he had passed over three-quarters of the distance, when a swell caught the ship. He had to stay, and sway from side to side, till he seemed to be quite out of the perpendicular, the fact being that the masts and funnel by which the eye was guided were themselves out of the perpendicular. The pole wavered violently, and once or twice appeared to be held almost straight up and down. Much anxiety was felt, not only by the passengers, but by Captain Angrove and the officers of the ship. Blondin never lost his nerve, but coolly waited till the troublesome rollers had passed, walked on and reached the mainmast in safety. He says that his tasks was a most difficult one and that he could not have gone through any of his usual performances on such a rope as that. Captain Angrove, who had eased the engines and varied the course of the ship from time to time, so as to keep her as steadily as possible, congratulated Blondia warmly upon his safe descent."