Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 151, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 June 1912 — RHYME OF MODERN MARINER [ARTICLE]

RHYME OF MODERN MARINER

Being the Story of the Rescue of Captain Blake's Son From Watery f Grave. Captain Blake is a mariner bold, and his ship is the Mary Ann. His crew consists of his wife and child and’ one able-bodied man. His boat is a barge which lies near Pier B on the Jersey side, and yesterday he left he there at the dock, securely tied. On the deck of the barge his little son, not yet 12 months old, was playing about with a terrier pup called Rag-Tag. His mother was taking a needed nap in the cabin, where all was dark, when her dreams were broken rudely by the dog’s staccato bark. When she rushed on deck she saw the pup with his fore feet on the rail , and his eager eyes directed toward an object thgt was asail. She looked and saw, then almost swooned, but gave a frightened scream when she saw the baby sailing off on an ice floe in the stream. “Go get him—save my little boy!* she screamed, and in a trice the faithful pup was swimming toward the floating cake of Ice. The mother’s cry was heard by men upon a vessel near—the steamship Oceana, which was tied up at her pier. An officer named Lindsay looked and saw the baby's plight and soon had manned a boat and gone to save the drifting mite. Before he reached the dancing cake the dog was on it, too. The ice floe bore two passengers, a captain and his crew. The baby and the terrier were taken in the boat—a tiny pair of mariners, too young to be afloat. And with the child safe in her arms the mother wept for joy, but not a whjmper passed the lips of the small sailor boy. But when his father, Captain Blake, returned last night and heard his wife relate the story just as ft had occurred, he pursed his lips and whistled long, then gave his head a shake and said: “This surely is a fact from me that you can take. That kid of mine a sailor’s life most certainly will choose. He’s breaking in to learn the game by taking his first cruise.” Then, thinking of the cake of ice which was the baby’s boat, he shld: “That boy will navigate the biggest ship afloat. He’s got the first requirement, and he can’t |be called a fool; for whatever else- he might have done, he certainly kept cool.”—New York Times.