Rensselaer Gazette, Volume 3, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 March 1860 — The Beh Oner "Hirondelle"-A Hard time on the Lake. [ARTICLE]

The Beh Oner "Hirondelle"-A Hard time on the Lake.

‘The following graphic picture of life on the lake amid such gales as that of last Sunday and Monday week, which our readers we doubt not will remember, we elip from the Chicago Press and Ti ibune. “We went a hoard this well-known little : crafl yesterday to examine her cargo of shinigles, and were surprised at the icy and frozen appearance of everything on board. She left the port of Newark, at the mouth ol the Kalamazoo river, Sunday evening, and was •out in the storms and squalls of Sunday night and Monday morning. So rough wan -the water and sea, that, when about half way across, the sea broke over her almost at every plunge. Some seventy-five M. or wore of shingles from her deck load were washed overboard. The crew lashed themselves with the vessel, so that, .should a sea dash them overboard, a rope around them and fast aboard would enable them to haul themselves back on deck again. The mate was washed overboard and carried ■off ten or fifteen feet irom the vessel, but by means of the rope thus precautiously fastened around him, he drew himself back aboard. The captain was thrown <1 nvn upon his deck-load by a sea striking him, but did not pitch him overboard. The weather was freezing cold, and the wet garments, sails, rigging, cargo, rails, booms and everything, were glazed with ice. From eight o’clock Sunday evening till eleven o’clock Monday forenoon the c-optuin was on deck, and, most of the time, at the wheel. A watch of fifteen hours under circumstances such as we have described, was a terrible ordeal. His garments were stiff with ice, his limbs benumed with cold, his hair lull of ice, and his cap was frozen to his hair ho firmly that come time after he came into the harbor lie had to cut off frozen hair to get his cap ofl. II is anchor and chains were leit on the bar. His craft was seen-outside and one of Prin■diville’s tugs went out and brought her in. Verily, one half of the world know not how the other half live, and one vocation often knows precious little of the perils and hurd>ships of another. *‘When our bankers and merchants, our mechanics and laborers, gather at their firesides in the evening, although they inay hear the howl of the March wind, or the beating f< S>f the sleet against their window-panes. lit- ' tie know they of the hardships of the sailors on the lakes. When we saw this captain ‘ to-day, and heard his story of the passage, and saw his weather-beaten face, we had nut a doubt but he had suffered more from the ■elements that one night than hundreds do in 'their whole lives. It was bitter cold, but tthoy as eld not exercise Jest they should be Itwashed overboard, as one of them, indeed, ir-vas in spite of their precautions. Captain says there is yet a considerable ice floating in the lake. An off land breeze car.riea it off, and a warm sun and the disap of the ice leads those on shore to ‘fancy that spring and a genial sailing season .-have come. But 10, a change of wind brings rthe ice back again and a snow squall makes it-wirrter once more. The beginning and the end of every navigation season witness scores of insta.acss on the lakes in whirl the bold and venturous sailors are subjected to hardships mn.ilar to and as severe as those we have -referred to. And it seems as if nor,bwiy heeded the lessons such cases are fitted 'll’, teach. A desire to make one more trip at a big freight, or’.to be the‘first out,’or the •f first in,’ or the pent-asp enterprise and activity ready to explode, and which trout ‘do •|or die,’these moving causes iw-e., each season, bringing-about result of sufferissg, wreck •and less v.’h'ch are appalling. A. C.“