i84 



FISHERMEN'S OWN BOOK. 



The December Gales of 1876. 



The gales which swept over the fishing banks on the 9th and i6th of De- 

 cember, 1876, were terrific. All who were exposed to them and returned 

 to port affirmed that in all their experience nothing was ever encountered 

 which would compare with the fierceness of the winds and the waves and 

 the narrow chances which beset the fleet exposed to their fury. Herewith 

 we publish the accounts of our interviews with the skippers. These gales 

 swallowed up ten vessels, and ninety-eight men were buried beneath the 

 treacherous billows, the full particulars of which will be found under the 

 appropriate heading. 



Experience of Sch. "Augusta H. Johnson" — Her Captain Obeys a 

 Premonition and Saves a Man's Life. — Capt. George A. Johnson of sch. 

 Augusta H Johnson^ left Banquereau on the 7th of December for home. 

 Encountered the gale on the night of the 9th. A 7 o'clock came to anchor 

 thirty miles to the westward of Sable Island. The wind blew a perfect hur- 

 ricane with an ugly sea running. Parted at 11 o'clock; hove in the cable, 

 and at 4 o'clock on the morning of the loth anchored again; parted again 

 at 7 o'clock ; a tremendous sea boarded her at 9 o'clock, which stove five 

 dories, broke fore-boom and fore-gaff in two places ; took three hundred 

 fathoms of cable from the weather side to leeward, when John McDonald, 

 one of the crew, got caught in the coil and received severe injuries. Run 

 her from 10 o'clock A. M., to 2 o'clock P. M., when the storm abated, and 

 put on sail for home. Was in Shelburne, N. S., 17th, and on the morning 

 of the 18th saw a disabled brig about thirty miles off Seal Island. A barque 

 was near by, and Capt. Johnson concluded that she would give all needed 



