UNDER BARE POLES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 59, 25 May 1907, Page 4

UNDER BARE POLES.

Captain Darker, the master of the Newfoundland barquentine Fox. met the i master of th? llolifax schooner Ada in rfont of the Standard Ice House. Captain Barker feigned surprise. "By Cieorge," he cried. "I warn't exjieetting to see you aagii) so soon/'

The skipper of Uie Ada IS. grinned incCvtainly. "You wasn't, wasn't you?" lie replied. "Well, lor all that, I've been lajin' in the liay yonder goin' oil live ilays. What was the matter with your eyesight when you sailed in this liiornin":" Barker laughed. "I 'ongratulate you. captain." lie said.

"You cleared from )\ ; vnaiubueo just, made Barbadoes five days ahead o' lier—nine days ahead of the Fox. an' you well, that's rattlin' good sailin' for a Halifax schooner."

Tally slapped a big list into the palm of a big hand. "liy the jumpin'—jumps—up 1" he cried. "I'll sail you a lace on any wind fair, head or beam—an' I'll lick you dead."

"We'll have a drink lirst," said captain Barker. So thev linked arms and entered the Standard lee House. Seating themselves in rocking chairs, they called for a beverage characteristic of those seas—a mixture of cocoa nut water. nutmeg, lime, and something else. They lighted slim cigars from Jamaica. Suddenly old Captain Barker turned sideways in his chair. "That's considerable of a breeze." he exclaimed, squinting at the window. "Ave, an' it's swung 'round to the north," replied Tally. They emptied their glasses hastily and left the place. Uneasiness was in the hearts of both. The sudden rising and shifting of the wind, the season of the suggested the probability of a still' blow, suggested the proboliility of a stiff blow. Upon reaching the water-front they were confirmed in their fears. A schooner was

making sail with all speed. 11.M.5. Drake was steaming seaward, with ''■ Jack's" wash still flapping domestically above her forward deck. A steamwinch aboard a rusty-red ' tramp" was snarling at a cable. The skippers sprang into the nearest

boat at the foot of the water stairs and bawled at the dusky crew to bestir themselves. Barker pointed out their vessels. The fellows bent to their oars with a will. ' 'Hie long boat shot away from its rocking companions out of the careenage and into the choppy waters of the bay. Tally looked at the elder mariner with a twinkle in his dark eyes. "I guess here's our chance to have a race." he said. '"Where to?" asked Barker. "Oh. nnvwliere's—to wherever we're bound 011 this here gale that's brewin'." Barker chuckled in his grey beard. "A race il is." he said. "All' may the best craft win!"'

As tlu* boat ran alongside the Ada B. Captain Tally sprang to the ladder and swarmed up the black and swaying side, bawling commands to his mate. Barker waved his hand and shifted over to the middle of the seat. "Yank her along, boys. Show me what "tile yams an' llyin' fish has been doin' for vou." he said.

The boatmen grinned, and put their backs into the oars. But they rolled their eyes skyward at every stroke. Captain Barker's beard flared to leeward, spread and tugged by the wind. The forgotten cigar protruded from under his moustache. His grey eyes were alert. "Way enough:"' he cried. Standing up in (lies taggering boat, with the yoke lines still in his hands he dropped two half-crown pieces on the cushions of the seat. The boat soared and hung under the high the high and menacing wall of the banpientine's siaboaid side. The .skipper sprang surely to the third rung of the ladder, rattled up and over like a .youth of twenty, and leaped to the deck. "lioth watches," he cried. ".Mr I'inlav. crack 011 the heads'ils ami snatch up the anchor, '"look alive, lads."

Jibs fluttered up. The big windlass just aft of the fo-castle-head was manned in a twinkling. To the clank, clank of the cable through the hawse-hole the boatswain raised the gusty notes of a chanty. The wind fell dead. The black clouds settled down on the island. The jibs of the barquentine shivered. Bells rang frantically iu the darkling cHv. The sailors hushed their singing and swuii" at the gerat irons of the windlass with redoubled vigor. The sweat sprang out on their desperate faces and glistened ou hairy arm and chest. liven Mr Finlay lent a hand to the work. Captain Barker raced aft, slammed down the sashes of the skylight, and joined the sailor at the wheel. The nor'-east was like a darkening blanket. It showed a ragged edge up tile dome of the skv.

3he clanking of the windlass ceased. The jibs fluttered uselessly. Mr Finlav walked att and reported tile anchor catted. llis young, weak face was drawn to unusual lines by the anxiety of the moment.

"I'm afraid we're tou late to make any southin', sir,*' lie remarked huskily. ilie skpper faced at him sharply and then looked across to where Tally's schooner was hanging foolish hcads'ils. "Xor'-cast is aliout our course--—when we get the wind," he said.

And then in a second- -quick as the drawing of a breath—the liurrieane descended upon the bay. The fury of it was indescribable. lor a moment it seemed as if the bari[uentine meant to sound under the frighful pressure of the wind. She quivered down on a even keel. Then the jibs split and she leaped forward like a horse spurred to madness. .Spray Hew in sheets. The tumult was deafening. It was as if the whole sky had slipped from its eternal lashings, and the wean been wrenched from its lied, and the island torn from its coral inoor-

Captain Barker clung beside the sailor to the straining wheel. Together they held the tortured vessel on a course across the white and screaming wateron a course which they prayed would keep her clear of the laud. For a second, through a rift in the Hying send, they saw the Ada B driving ahead. Mr f'inlay lay over the scuttle of the after companion holding with knees and hand and wondering duly if his libs were, reullv broken. Jj'-Hie Presently the houses against the barquentinc's foremast—galley, sail room, and deck-to'easlle went over the bows like a llight of prehistoric birds. The crew drew forward and took refuge under (lie narrow deck of the fo'castleliead. They galley stove trundled after them and settled an old score with the cook by barking his shin and burning his hands. One of the harness-casks broke away iron, its lashings. r „i|„| across the ordinary seaman, and wed<!"d itself under the windlass.

Still the goo,, ship tore on through the blinding smother, racing the wind end the following seas. Aft, (he skipper and the helsmnn hung to the wheel. 11l- Finlav. a weather-beaten navigator at best, kept to the shelter of the companion and thought of his father's cot tage ashore.

The foremast, with its weight of yards, had snapped oil' close to the deckwithin ten minutes of the striking oi the storm. The boatswain had cleared the wreckage at rink of his life.

The mad flight of the barquontinc Isisjted live hours, through a gloom that was of minjjled -sea and cloud and wind. Then, suddenly, the roaring of the torn water?* changed ils note. ".Surf!" yelled Captain Barker to liir* fellow hero at the wheel; and even while the face oi' the man blanched at Ihe wnrd the old buri|uenLme lifted her sh ikiny; howrj and across the first while hurdle. "A sandy beach—and a cove to berth her'in!'* cried the skipper. "Hold her steady, lad, and we'll all live to lie jibout it."

Tlic Fox had notliitig in h.T helds save a light ballast of sand. She was like a tiling alive ; leaping, si riking ami leaping again. Main and mi/.;an masts went by tile board. Then there was a lending and grinding of l : inbcrs on the swirlinc sands.

■ lust two hours later by his watch Captain Barker era wed up a rock* liiil oil his left. Behind him Mr Finlav and the crew of ihe broken Fox smoked t heir pipes and salvaged what they could of the stores. Though the hurricane had passed the world continued to treniide and ring with tumult of battered waters and vibrating rocks. The skipper reached the summit of i the ridge and looked over. There, in a sandy cove like the one behind him -a pocket, in the frontage of a formidable ciitl—lay a battered and dismantled hulk. A glance of his seaman's eye told him that the wreck was what had so lately been the Halifax schooner Ada IS. Men were standing at' the lip of the tide. Captain Tally himself was clutching at a canister in the wash. Barker shouted and waved his arms.

"How long have you been berthed?" he hailed.

lally stared at him open-mouthed Presently he bawled back, "A-mallei 0' a hour, I reckon."

I lien we've beat yon by an hour and a-half." yelled old Barker. "By George," he added to himself, "the Fox was a sweet model for racing." He looked over his shoulder down to the wreckage of the barquentine. ''Four hours from Barhadoes to St. Vincent; well, that's good sailin'!" he muttered.— Theodore Roberts in Munscy's.