Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 February 1912 — WOMAN PRAYS; SHIP SAVED [ARTICLE]

WOMAN PRAYS; SHIP SAVED

Brig Stripped of Canvas Blown Through Florida Keys to Safety In Bahamas. New York.—While a hurricane whistled through the sails of the little brig Motley in the Gulf of Mexico till the last shred of canvas was stripped from her and she drove onward seemingly to destruction, Mrs. Addle Edwards, the young wife of the master of the vessel, went among the members of the crew to cheer them up. “I prayed every day," said she, as she stepped from the liner Allemania“l did not believe we would go down. My little son and I have sailed tor six years on the Motley and we had weathered all kinds of storms. I faith, even if the sailors had little, and we came through all right” Mrs. Edwards, whose home is Elmhurst, L. 1., was on her way to visit with relatives in Brooklyn. “My little boy was born on the water,” she continued, "He has been on the Motley more than he has been on dry land, and I have sailed into many ports on the Atlantic ocean, even to Africa. When the storm came the child was calm, possibly calmer than he would have been at our home in Elmhurst with such a wind blowing. “We had loaded with lumber at Mobile and were bound for May agues In Porto (Tilco. Within a short time afterward the wind rose to a hurricane The sailors—there were two mates and six seamen, besides my husband, my boy and myself—did not like tt. The gale increased, and pieces of canvas began to rip off till it was appar-

ent that our sails would go if the wind continued. “By the time we reached the Florida keys we were moving along under bare poles. Then it was dangerous, for therewas ho telling when we might be driven on one of the distant keys and wrecked. Luckily we escaped that fate and luckily, too, the wind blew us almost Im the direction, we wanted to go. “It was almost 21 days and nights that I was without sufficient sleep and I was worn out When hope had almost gone the gale blew us into Middle Innaguez in the Bahamas. We wefe a sorry looking crowd when we arrived, and I was glad the voyage was over so far as I was concerned.”