FISHERMEN'S OWN BOOK. 151 



A Perilous Night. — Friday, Jan. 4, 1878, a severe storm came on dur- 

 ing the afternoon, and most of the Lanesville dory fleet arrived in ere it 

 became very severe. At sundown there was great anxiety felt for the safety 

 of Sylvanus C. Lane and Lorenzo Grifhn, who had not arrived. Sad were 

 the hearts on the shore as the cold wind blew its fitful blasts and the blind- 

 ing snowstorm raged in all its fury. It was a tough night to be exposed in 

 an open dory on the rough waters of Ipswich Bay, and so these fishermen 

 found it. They could not make any headway to the port which they wished 

 to gain, so they drifted to leeward, having hard work to keep their craft 

 afloat. Soon they heard the breakers on the beach toward Ipswich, and 

 their only chance was to throw tlieir anchor, and it held them in eight fath- 

 oms of water. There they waited for the wind to change, knowing full well 

 their fate if the anchor parted. It did not part, although several times they 

 shipped heavy seas, nearly filling their dory with water, which they bailed 

 out with a bucket. Fortunately the wind changed, and the worn out fisher- 

 men rowed home, arriving at midnight, where they were received by their 

 loved ones with thankful hearts. 



A Rough Experience. — Feb. 28, 1879, sch. Alfred Walen, Capt. Patrick 

 O'Neal, was coming home from Brown's Bank, and while reefing the main- 

 sail, the vessel took a roll to windward, and one of the crew, Richard Cos- 

 tillo, who was on the end of the boom, lost his balance and went overboard. 

 After making four attempts to catch the log line he succeeded in grasping 

 it. The vessel was going nine miles an hour, with a heavy sea running, and 

 he was dragged under water. The vessel was put up in the wind, and the 

 unfortunate man was some three hundred feet off, still clinging for dear life 

 to the log line, and swashed up and down by the heavy seas, rendering his 

 position extremely dangerous. He felt the pulling of the men on the line, 

 the force of which pulled him under water, and he could not remain on the 

 surface. He was hauled, as near as he could judge, some sixty feet, when 

 he gave up all hopes of being saved, as he did not come to the surface un- 

 til he was hauled under the quarter of the vessel, when the men got into a 

 dory, and getting a rope about him, got him on board the vessel, where, 

 after long and repeated efforts, they succeeded in resuscitating him. He 

 never has recovered from his fearful experience, having raised a great deal 

 of blood, and has not been able to do much work since. 



An Unfortunate Skipper. — The captain and owner of a small schooner 

 at Portland had hard luck of it. He had fished on Georges seventeen years, 

 and in the Spring of 1880 concluded he would sell his little home in Glouc- 

 ester, pay off the mortgage and with the proceeds go to Boothbay and live 

 quietly. Afterwards, in Gloucester, he accidentally lost his right index fin- 



