Another vessel was abandoned here some j^ears ago 

 which, when the wreck was broken up, was found to 

 have two huge plugs in her side below the water line, 

 showing conclusively that the captain, in order to reap 

 the msurance, had deliberately filled her with water. 

 Then, finding she was sinking too fast, he had driven the 

 plugs home so as to enable the crew to get ashore without 

 danger. 



One of the narrators of these "tales of shipwreck" 

 waddles along with one leg bent out from him like a 

 drawn bow. He has had it broken three times, and now, 

 while it will bear his "heft," as he calls it, he can carry 

 but little addition to it without severe physical distress. 

 The first time it was broken was aboard a shipwrecked 

 vessel that he had agreed to stay by — all alone — while a 

 tug towed her into a haven of rest. The wind was blow- 

 ing a gale. The hawser being drawn so tight as to have 

 little or no "bight," he had become fearful that the strain 

 causing it to fray b}^ rubbing on the sides of the "eye" 

 through which it passed, might part it. While he was ex- 

 amining it the the iron plating of the "eye" snapped and 

 crumbling like an egy;; shell under the strain, one„of the 

 pieces struck him on his leg below the knee, breaking it 

 in three places. He was just able to signal the tug, 

 which was soon along side. A consultation between the 

 injured man and the captain resulted in the latter taking 

 him into Hyannis, Mass., where he was driven to the 

 station in time to take a train for New Bedford, the 

 nearest place, in those days, to obtain efficient surgical aid. 



The railroad service at that time was primitive, the 

 time slows and the track rough as a corduroy road to the 



