it va ADV ka V CLUB AA 4 A death rides the waves by FLOYD GIBBONS famous headline hunter dread DID ID you effir ever notice boys and girls that in all the stories you lyou read about shipwrecks and stor storms ins at sea you never seem to hear anything about the fellows who get the worst of it I 1 mean the boys down below decks in the engine room harry flurry of brooklyn N Y tells us about what the black gang la Is up against in a storm at sea lie he ought to know too harry Is a licensed marine engineer in steam and diesel harrys big thrill came when he ans wa assistant on the auxiliary allx illary steam yacht alvira on a hard luck cruise in the atlantic the cruise started from brooklyn for southern waters on february 8 1934 but they never got very far south the bad luck started the very first day harry says when the ship grounded on Ro reamers amers shoals in the channel the crew of amateur and professional sailors finally got her afloat again and the ship came back to port and went into dry dock for inspection the hull was found 0 K but they had lost a couple of days when the sea kicks up there really Is a mess the next start was made in a snow flurry and c cry tiling went fine until they gut got to the open sea once there the sails were run up and the engines e cut u t off down in the engine room the black gang wis was getting things shipshape ship shape e now when an auxiliary yacht 18 19 under sal sail things are generally easy for the te boys under decks but just as they were about to bank the fires harry says the chief mate came down and said they were in for a bit ot of a blow and a bit of a blow was putting it mildly wham a storm from the north slapped the sivira with a broadside that nearly turned her over oer in a second all was busy as a beehive in the engine room full stearn steam ahead came the order from the bridge and harry and his gang went into action death signs on the alviras Ul cruise harr harry y ran up on deck to get the smoke stack hoisted the stack had been let down when the sails were run up and they needed more draft on deck all was confusion A boom had snapped under the strain of the gale gal e and the sail and boom were hanging over the side and into the water like a sea anchor and that all hubert a young northwestern university student and amateur sailor had been swept o overboard the huge ft fives aives breaking over the rall rail made rescue impossible death had signed on the cruise of the alvira hurry flarry got his stack up and hurried down the alie ladder to his station what he had bad seen on deck very encouraging but his job was below decks and he be went to it those engines had to get going or the boat and all on it would be lost the engine room by now was a mess the boat was pitching heavily harry says and the huge seas shipped at each pitch started coming down through the bunker plates hatches and deck houses and filling the bilges with water we started the pumps harry writes but the ashes stirred up by the lie water kept clogging the strainers and the water kept rising the engines wre w re going full blast but we know how ion long that would keep up the boiler tv W 4 1 v 4 I 1 av 47 le t z 1 VA the water kept rising toward the fire plates started leaking from the they were getting and the water in the hold was u ul to the engine cranks As soon as the water reached the tires ires we were through anil and the water kept rising it was swishing across the floor like it does in a ships pool on a rough day anything that floated became a menace as it sailed balled hack bach and fojtl foite at breakneck speed with will the action of the ship in all this dirty writer waler full of fishes ashes and debris gehrls harry and a fireman spent an hour diving divine diving in nn engine room means going under the water ater to tree free the strainer from the debris dratva in by the suction of the pumps how would you like to dive into slimy water just imagine Innig ine living diving in that slimy water wondering it if you are going to be swept up against the boilers and scalded to death I 1 up on deck another fight was going on against the elements as the ship reeled under tinder the shock of the gi gigantic gantle waves but our story is below decks and below decks we stay the four men in the black gang fought the advancing water for 24 long hours without relief once the captain came down and asked if they wanted more men but the chief engineer knew that a greenhorn would only be in the way and asked for a bottle of rum instead the rum canie came down anti and harry says bays it saved the lives of ever everi body on that ship the rum ruin gaie gae the exhausted men new life and for the next two hours they worked like ura dinen the high point of the water was only eight inches front from the boilers An another cither inch slid arid it would be the boats and the boats boais could never the in a sea like thit that but that extra inch never came instead the four men watching the water in the ash pits suddenly let up a weak cheer the water had stopped the pumps were at last holding their awni after deaths vigil the black gang got hungry well sir the gung gang realized then that they were hungry harry climbed perilously up the ladder to the deck to search for food the galley was a water soaked mixture of foodstuffs food stuffs and kitchen kit clien utensils that slid back and forth across the floor door with every movement rient of the ship the ships cook was gone seasick and the galley ires fires were long since dead is but that black pang gang had to eat so harry fished up a side of lincon bacon and finding sorrie earns eggs unbroken in the ice box he be managed to snare a frying pan and carried ills his prizes down the ladder again the U S coast guard to the rescue 1 two men braced him then as he held the frying pan over a shovel full of live coals harry admits it was the best meal he ever tasted in his life he admits though that he has ha had better service they picked the food out of the pan with their hands and had coal dust for salt and pepper but it tasted swell i then value cume the const coast guard and towed the disabled yacht into norfolk va and the midwinter mid arld winter hardluck hard luck chulse of the alvira was history I 1 C service