CROSSING THE ATLANTIC.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 219, 20 October 1916, Page 2 (Supplement)

CROSSING THE ATLANTIC.

DARING SMALL BOAT VOYAGES

When it became known that the German submarine Deutschland had crossed the Atlantic and arrived m America in safety, admiration was expressed on all sides at the daring of the crew. We in Britain were sorry tho submarine had escaped our fleet, but we wero sportsmen enough to praise the deed o£ the Deutschland, and to hope that on the return voyage, if .t ever takes place, our Navy will be lucky enough to catch the submarine. But, dairng though this undertaking (vrtainly was, there have been other trips across the Atlantic of a much more risky nature, requiring greater nervo and skill. These were the voyages taken by the daring, if foolhardv, 'loners." as they w<ejre crflbd —men who crossed the Atlantic in open cockle-shell boats.

CAPSIZED IN MID-OCEAN. One of these was Alfred Johnston, « fisherman, who crossed the Atlantic in a 17-1 cot boat. It took him sixtrlivo days to do the feat, and forty if these days were burned 'into his very soul. When a thousand miles out at vea he encountered a terrific gale, which capsized his boat. He managed to keep himself afloat with a life-pre-server of his own invention, and then attempted the herculean task (J righting his boat. For hours he struggled in the cold sea. buffetted lrther and thither by the green watars. Now he was washed towards his up-turned skiff, now he was torn away from it. At last he was able to cling to it. Then, fighting desperately for life, he seemed to become posssesed o£ a giant's strength. He accomplished the seemingly impossible. In some way or other Johnston righted the boat and crawled into her. On the same voyage he was knocked overboard by the sudden swing of the boom into waters filled with sharks Armed only with a clasp knife he warded off two of these sea-leopards, while he again clambered over the stern. When lie reached port he was suffering from scurvy, starved, and in danger of being a gibbering maniac

A FEARFI L HONEYMOON'. One of the most daring to undertake this voyage in an open boat was Captain Win. A. Andrews, of Boston. A dozen times lie endured sufferings which would have sent an ordinary man mad. He faced dangers where he had only one chance in a thousand but through them all he bore a charmed life. In the end, however, he went toa far, and lie and his bride were claimed by the sea. He advertised for a woman w'iling to marry him and take a honeymoon trip across the Atlantic m a 12-foot skiff. He received many offers, and finally accepted a girl scarcely out of her teens, and married her. Tlio craft was scarcely larger than a row-boat. The cockpit was just large enough for two to sit in it. There could be no stretching of weary limbs on this excursion. He and his bride v.er warned that this fyme lie was going too far, that even with the best of luck such a voyage was an impossibility. But the two were full of confidenes. "I have done it once,'' declared Andrews. "'I can do it again." The two sailed in October ~CJro\vds remained on the harbour straining tlnvr eyes to catch a last glimpse of the newly-mar-ried couple off on their remarkable honeymoon. At last the little boat was lost from sight. It was never again seen, and a year later Captain Andrews and his wife were declared legally dead. How the end came nobody ever knew. Captain Andrews has left behind him records of his eariy voyages, and some idea of what these lonely journeys mean will be obtained from the following extracts: —

THIS HORRORS OF THE DEEP

'• Tho Dark Secret" —that was tho name oi' his boat—"is tugging away at her hawser as restless as a young mustang at his tether. It is stormy. My calun is dark, the only light coming irom tho binnacle. There is no sail in sight-. The waves are in high carnival as they toss us about and dash tho spray over the boat, .when she, like a porpoise, plunges through them. For the last two months this cockleshell lias been my homo and stronghold among sharks, swordfish, whales ; n fact, all the perils of the deep. "During that time my feet have not left my bark, neither have I tasted a warm morsel. My outfit is worn and nearly useless. My water gave out long ago. Throe Vines was driven off my course, off the Georges Bank, to the vicinity of Cape Cod. and once, by adverse circumstances, to Nantucket Shoals. Four times I faced these reverses, and now I find myself in tho middle of the ocean. "I have spoken twenty-three ships of different descriptions. Many of them furnished me with water and lanterns. I found them all generous. But many days have passed without sight of sail, and then it has been like being in the Slough of Despond. Even now there is nothing about ine in this boundless deep but misty sky and breaking waves splashing over boat and me. I get up i.t daylight, and am often under wa> before sunrise. Then it is sail, steer, and watch the compass till dark." THE SUSPENSE OF DEATH Captain Howard Blackburn, of Gloucester. was another w!so undertook this trip. He was known as the "finless fisherman," bee:;use of the fact talit all but the stumps of his hands were broken off. One would have thought tliitt this accident would hnv<. prevented liini sailing aga>n. Not so, however, for soon after he built a smaM boat called the Great Western, and 111 it he sailed irom ills native port to America. He took sixty-four days to do this, and he suffered terribly. Two years later Tie crossed from Boston to Lisbon in tlurtynine days. When over a thousand miles out at sea, 'if wrote; —

•' While lying on the dock, with ir.v elbows on the rail, J was startled by tiie noise of a shark, .which came within a loot or so of 111 >' face. It crime

out from under the starboard quarter, turned on its side, and' opened us i! outh to swallow the shadow of ni.v head and shoulders .in the water, but as it got nothing it swam the entire length of the boat, its belly rubbing against the side, crossed her stern, an ! disappea red. "Saw a swordlish j-nst astern coming straight for the boat. Thinking he might drive h : s sword through her, 1 threw a coil of rope oil top of him, which made him disappear. In a lew minutes he returned with a dozen other swordlish following in the wake of the boat. It is getting .so dark now 1 can't see whether any are following or not. How cisily one of them could send mo to the bottom, as th\<y have only three-quarters of ail inch of plank to drive their powerful swords through ' "Eleven p.m.-Very dark, l'oat just struck something. It made a great splash, sank, and I saw it 110 more.

"You have got to F>e there, alone with a thousand miles of waves about you, to realise just how a man feels at such an incident. It may be a whale, and then comes the breathless suspense of a minute when you wonder whether his tail is going to knock yon into splinters, and leave you floating helpless out there in the dark. Or it may be a swordfish. and you peer into the cabin for the first ripple of water coming through the hole he may hare made. Or it may be the side of a find —only then you would not have tim; oven to wonder. It's all over in a minute, but that nnnute seems like an hour." DROWNED WITHIN SIGHT OF LAND.

Two Americans named Marshall nr. 1 French crossed in a skiff called tli? John Ford. They sailed from Baltimore to the Irish coast. Through perils of the deop they canio in safety only to bo capsized within sight of land, whore Marshall was drowned, and Frencn was rescued by a passing steamer. When Captain Crapo, of New Bedford, announced that lie and his wif > wero to sail from his home port to Penzance, a great crowd collected to seo them off. To the clash of the loci! band they unfurled their sails and disappeared below the horizon. They woi'; fortunate, and reached Penzance in forty-nine days. Tho captain gave the following account of the voyage:— "Once out of the sight of hind we had enough to think about. Our chier diet <was of canned stuff, and we gor. pretty tired of it before the trip was ('one. We took enough, as we thought, to last us, but the voyage was a stormy one, and we surely would hav? starved to death had wo not sighted a passing ship. We were also in great danger from whafes which surrounded the small craft, sometimes diving beneath her. We didn't dare attempt to drive them away for fear th°v would upset us with their strong tail-. 1 was once seventy hours at the wheel, and my wife did not get a good night's sleep during the entire trip.'