FISHERMEN'S OWN BOOK. 185 



assistance. Then a strong impression came over the captain to board the 

 brig, and he could not shake it off. He was extremely desirous to keep on 

 his passage home, but the impression weighed on his mind. He felt uneasy. 

 Go on board the brig ! was the mandate plainly given, and he could not 

 dispel it. Finally he obeyed the premonition, and with four of his men 

 he boarded the brig in the dory. It proved to be the Wildhorse, coal laden 

 and abandoned. (She afterwards went ashore at St. John's Island.) Capt. 

 Johnson got sail on her, and after she got well on her course he descried 

 an object as far ahead as he could see, which resembled a man on a cake 

 of ice. He at once called attention to it and signalled to the schooner. 

 With all speed they hastened to it in the dory, and on drawing near, what 

 was their surprise in finding a man clinging to the bottom of a boat which 

 was painted white, thus giving the appearance of an ice cake in the distance. 

 It proved to be Mr. Gottfried Frankfurt, mate of barque Seawood, who with 

 three men had boarded the brig, and upon their return the boat was cap- 

 sized alongside. Two of the men succeeded in getting on board, leaving 

 Frankfurt and a seaman named Peter Anderson, in the water. They both 

 succeeded in clinging to the boat's bottom ; the barque drifted away, and 

 ere the men on the vessel got their boat ready the two were out of sight. 

 They had cruised around, and not succeeding in finding them, had given 

 them up. The cold was most intense, with a heavy sea, and for two hours 

 Frankfurt had managed to hold on to the submerged boat, with the water 

 up to his breast, the sea beating over him and the cold piercing his vitals. 

 It was a terrible struggle for life, and his companion succumbed to the fear- 

 ful ordeal, and slipping off the boat disappeared beneath the waters ! The 

 suffering man was taken on board the Johnson, where kind hearts and will- 

 ing hands administered restoratives, and he escaped without any serious 

 illness. The probabilities are that if Capt. Johnson had kept on his course 

 and not heeded the premonition, the man would have been drowned, as he 

 could not possibly have held on but a few moments longer. Who can ac- 

 count for such a premonition ? Surely it was not of the captain's seeking, 

 as he was opposed to heeding it, supposing that the barque had rendered 

 all the necessary assistance, and he wanted to get home. The Seawood ar- 

 rived at Portland, where the mate joined her. 



Loss of Sch. "Daniel A. Burnham." — Sch. Daniel A. Burnham, Capt. 

 James Nickerson, was capsized on Grand Bank in the gale of the 10th, car- 

 rying away both masts level with the deck. The crew remained on the 

 wreck five days, suffering great hardships, when they were taken off by a 

 steamer and carried into St. Johns. The wreck was in a sinking condition 

 when the men were rescued. They lost everything, and were more or less 

 injured from exposure. 



