DANGERS OF THE GUNNING-PUNT 441 



(and wet) is a winter sea. I have undergone such, and 

 they are experiences one does not forget. 



In the present instance, by grim exertion at the setting- 

 poles and taking turns with the bailing-scoop as sea after 

 sea broke inboard, we kept her going and afloat. In mid- 

 slake, where the water was deep, it was a question if she 

 could weather it— or not ; but at that point we began to 

 meet the drift-ice which had been accumulated by the 

 tide and west wind along the eastern shores. This 

 circumstance perhaps saved us ; for though the ice added 

 greatly to the labour, it had the effect of "flattening" the 

 sea, which no longer broke into us. Ere we gained the 

 weather-shore, we had three inches of water in the hold, 

 the fore-deck was awash to the gun-crutch, likewise the 

 coamings amidships; hardly an ounce of "life" was left 

 in our craft, and as S — ■ — remarked, "one more bucketful 

 would have sent her under." 



This incident, however, is mere child's play as compared 

 with the narrow escape of my brother Alfred in the Holy 

 Island slakes on that fearfully memorable day, October 

 14th, 1 88 1, a day which strewed the north-east coast 

 with the bodies of fishermen and the shattered wrecks 

 of their vessels. The morning broke fine, but the 

 barometer having rapidly dropped to 28° 40', the 

 Northumbrian men did not put to sea. Those of Eye- 

 mouth and Burnmouth, a few miles to the northward in 

 Berwickshire, set sail as usual, and encountered the full 

 fury of the cyclone, with the melancholy result that 170 

 lives were lost, and the manhood of the latter village all 

 but annihilated. 



The following is my brother's description of that 

 terrible day :■ — " Launched the punt at seven and poled 

 up the North Slakes with the flood, picking up a couple 



