222 FISHERMEN'S OWN BOOK, 



had grasped the rope, our vessel gave a tremendous lurch, throwing me 

 over the rail into the water. I clung to the rope, however, which was of 

 considerable length, and hauled myself alongside by it, when my shipmates 

 reached down, grabbed me by the arms and assisted me to climb over the 

 rail." Had he lost his grip of the rope his rescue would have been im- 

 possible. 



In the Summer of 1873, when returning home from the Grand Bank in 

 the sch. B. D. Haskins^ Murphy encountered the terrific hurricane of Aug. 

 24 and 25, which wrought such awful havoc among our fishing fleets. The 

 little vessel, deeply laden with salt codfish, slowly pursued her way towards 

 home until she neared Sable Island, where she was overtaken by the storm. 

 An attempt was made to carry reefed sails and gain an offing from the Isl- 

 and, but so rapidly did the gale increase that the vessel was soon hove to 

 under close-reefed foresail, and even with this small sail her lee side was 

 buried ; while to make matters worse, it was ascertained by sounding that 

 she was drifting into shoal water. It was night, intensely dark, and every 

 wave looked like a breaker. The little schooner was continually swept by 

 the seas which ran sharp and high ; everything moveable on deck was car- 

 ried away ; the waist-boards stripped off ; and it seemed impossible for her 

 to outlive the hurricane. Finding the water constantly shoaling, and de- 

 spairing of escape under sail, the anchor was let go, but the storm was so 

 violent that it would not hold. About midnight the wind, which had been 

 blowing from southeast changed suddenly to north-northeast, and for a 

 while kept jumping from one point to another, howling fiercely from which- 

 ever direction it came, and knocking the sea all up in heaps. About this 

 time the men on the Jfaskins, who scarcely expected to see the light of 

 another day, were startled and terrified by a most remarkable phenomenon. 

 "Driven swiftly along by the hurricane," says Murphy, "came a dense black 

 cloud, bearing on its eastern end a huge fiery pillar." The cloud, resem- 

 bling an unearthly spectre, carrying with it phosphorescent fires, passed 

 close by the vessel and swept out of sight to leeward. " So appalling was 

 its appearance that four of the men, overcome by their superstitious fears, 

 as well as the terror inspired by their fearful situation, went into convul- 

 sions."* In the meantime the vessel was drifting, and a depth of only six- 

 teen fathoms having been reached, it was determined to cut away the masts, 

 in hopes that the schooner might fetch up. The only tools available for 

 this purpose were two dull hatchets. It was slow work to cut in sufficiently 

 on one side of the masts, especially as the workers had to be constantly on 

 the alert to save themselves from being washed overboard. After a while, 

 however, the job was accomplished, the lanyards cut away, and, after stand- 



♦Murphy. 



