Source for episodes in WD


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Posted by Jeremy Kriewaldt on February 19, 2006 at 23:48:07 from 202.138.212.58 user JeremyKriewaldt.

This passage from the Adlard Cole's book "Close-Hauled" (which describes the journey of Racundra from the Baltic to England (Racundra being renamed Annette) has probably been noted before but is an interesting source for some episodes from WD:

"The sidelights had been extinguished and the steamer was bearing down at us. The crew slipped to the helm, whilst I went forward to relight the lamps. I put the starboard light in its place and, with the port lamp in my hand, crept forward again on the reeling deck, reached the shrouds and began screwing it in place. A sudden lurch, fiercer than the rest, threw me off my balance and in a second cold water rushed up to meet me. One arm was crooked round a shroud and, as I fell, I managed to grasp it in my hand. For a moment I lay suspended half in the sea, and then with one effort, as the ship lurched in the other direction, I was aboard again.

"The lamp was out and the red and green lights of the steamer lay straight on the port bow, and the yacht rolled helpless in the waves. I rushed aft and had almost gained the companion when something happened, and I found myself lying on the weather deck. The boom had struck me on the forehead. The crew shouted something and pushed an electric torch in my hands. In a moment I was by the lee mizzen shrouds and, with my arms embracing these, I flashed the torch through the red glass of the lamp.

"The steamer came on, and the yacht rolled lifeless in the deep. The side light was smoky and the feeble rays of the cheap hand torch had not the strength to pierce the sooted glass. As a last resort I flashed the torch free at the oncoming ship, and shouted at the crew to waive the riding lamp that lay hidden in the steering well; but the moment it was raised I could see it was too dirty to avail much, and the torch that I held was but a minute speck in the darkness. On came the ship, now so close that her side lights looked far apart and high up.

"On she came, and we prepared for the impact -- to life buoys lay handy, lightly tied to the mizzen shrouds.

"All was noise, but above all could be heard a sound of thrashing water, and the port lamp of the steamer disappeared whilst a green light glimmered above us, and a great black hull lay across our bow.

"At the last moment we had been seen, the ship had altered course and backed her engines. Probably it was the light of the cabin lamp shining through the portholes that had saved us.

"The ship passed on, and the Annette presently moved west again, fanned forward by a steadily increasing breeze."


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