FISHERMEN'S O WN BOOK. 223 



ing for a roll or two, the masts went crashing over the side into the water. 

 The next thing was to clear away the lee rigging and head-stays which still 

 held the spars alongside, bumping and pounding, and threatening to knock 

 a hole in the vessel. This was the most dangerous task of all, but was suc- 

 cessfully accomplished without any one meeting with serious injury.* But 

 even after the masts were gone, and the little vessel lay a dismantled wreck on 

 the water, the anchor would not hold steadily. In the meantime, somewhere 

 about an hour after the spars were cut away, a huge wave swept over and 

 across the bow, tearing off the cutwater and head, and also carrying away 

 the bowsprit. At last, when even the bravest were almost ready to despair, 

 the anchor took a firm hold of the bottom, and the hull of the little schooner, 

 stripped bare for the fight, rose more buoyantly on top of the waves. The 

 sounding line showed a depth of ten fathoms when she brought up. But 

 notwithstanding the dangerous character of the sea caused by the shallow- 

 ness of the water and the fury of the gale, the gallant little craft rode it out 

 in safety. Toward the close of the 25th the storm abated. As soon as 

 practicable, jury-masts were rigged, and sufficient sail (the sails had been 

 saved when the spars were cut away) was set upon these to work the vessel 

 in near Cape Canso, where she was fallen in with by the sch. Frank of 

 Charlottetown^ P. E. I., and towed to Port Hawkesbury. Lying at the 

 wharf, with jury-spars lashed to the stumps of the masts, the naked stanch- 

 ions sticking up along her sides, and with deck polished to immaculate 

 whiteness by the sand that had swept over it in the gale,t the Haskins pre. 

 sented a scene sufficiently desolate looking to convince any one of the ter- 

 rible ordeal through which she had passed. 



A short time afterwards Murphy met with another adventure, from which 

 his escape with life was as remarkable as in the previous instance. This was 

 on the 14th of January, 1874, at which time he and I were shipmates on the 

 sch. Eastern Queen, engaged in the haddock fishery, under command of 

 Capt. William Corliss. On the evening of the 13th we hauled out of Com- 

 mercial dock and started down Boston harbor, beating out against a mod- 

 erate southeast wind. The night was dark, with an overcast sky and some 

 indications of snow, but, nevertheless, we worked slowly along. The skip- 

 per staid on deck directing the movements of the vessel until one o'clock 

 on the morning of the 14th, by which time we were down off Nahant. My- 

 self and watchmate were then called to relieve the watch on deck. I had 



*The skipper of the B. D. Haskins told me, soon after the gale, and while the vessel 

 lay in Canso waiting for repairs, that the preservation of the schooner and the lives on 

 board of her, was largely due to the coolness and plu(;k of Murphy during the storm. He 

 particularly distinguished himself in cutting away the spars and clearing the wreck. 



fThe water is often thick with sand during heavy gales, even in a depth of twenty to 

 twenty-five fathoms. 



