FISHERMEN'S OWN BOOK, 147 



near staving a hole through her. Finding they could not tow the heavily 

 laden dory, they were obliged to cut her adrift and she soon capsized, and 

 dory and contents proved a total loss. The squall had by this time come 

 upon them in all its fury ; but the little craft behaved well, and they got 

 her up under the lee of Salt Island and came to anchor ; but the anchor 

 would not hold and commenced dragging, carrying them off to sea. After 

 dragging some four miles it finally held ; but it was so rough, and the wind 

 ahead, that they dared not attempt to get underway, so they hung to it, de- 

 termined to take their chances. The cold was so intense that the water 

 shipped on deck froze almost as soon as it struck, threatening to sink the 

 little craft, and this danger was most to be dreaded. When men's lives are 

 in the balance, however, they will accomplish almost incredible tasks, and 

 so it proved in the case of these poor fellows. Notwithstanding the cold 

 winds, which pierced them like a knife, notwithstanding the showers of freez- 

 ing cold spray which constantly broke over them, there they stood at their 

 posts, beating ice the livelong night — a night which none of them will ever 

 forget — and by their almost superhuman efforts they kept their little craft 

 afloat, and the next afternoon brought her safely into port. 



A Perilous Time. — Friday afternoon, Jan. 4, 1878, two young men of 

 Riverdale named George Stanwood, Jr., and Fred A. Lewis, went out fish- 

 ing in Ipswich Bay in a dory, and at noon time, just before the storm came 

 on, started to pull in. The snowstorm came down upon them so thick that 

 they could not see, and to their best judgment they pulled for Annisquam 

 light. It was a tough pull, and to add to their perils their dory sprang 

 aleak, requiring the utmost exertions of one of the men to keep her free 

 with a bucket, while the other pulled. Thus passed the afternoon until five 

 o'clock, when the dory drove ashore on Coffin's Beach, just this side of the 

 Loaf^ where she was dashed in pieces, the men, wet and well nigh exhausted, 

 succeeding in making a landing through the surf. They then dragged 

 themselves along as best they could to the house of Mr. Gardner W. Her- 

 rick, where they were kindly received, their wants attended to, and hospita- 

 bly entertained for the night. In the meantime their friends at home were 

 fearful that they were lost. This anxiety was dispelled in the morning when 

 a messenger was dispatched, assuring the anxious friends of their safety. 



Loss OF A Boston Fishing Schooner. — Sch. Little Kate of South Bos- 

 ton, 32.69 tons, formerly of this port, engaged in the haddock fishery, went 

 ashore off Duxbury in the gale of Thursday, Jan. 10, 1878, and became a 

 total loss. Of her crew of thirteen men not one escaped. All were resi- 

 dents of South Boston, all related by blood or marriage, four being brothers. 

 Seven of them were married, leaving that number of widows and twenty-one 



