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Show Wedding NearlyCaused Death ThriUInsr Experience of Preacher Who Tied Knot. A wedding reremon) by the Itev. H P C rofton nearl) resulted In his death bs shipwreck after a terrible struggle against the waves It wis in August, IMS when I was rector nt Turks Islands In tho West Indies snld the llev Mr Crofton "I whs sent for to marry a couple ut a small settlement of about MO Inhabitants Inhabi-tants at Cockburn Harbor being part of a group called the Cakos Islands, nnd separated from the islanl of (Irand Turk where I was resident by twen-tv-two miles hy oceun I had had many nnrruw escapes In tiavellng on this piece of WHtcr in small boats which are the only ones to he c,ot na n llile, and August being what is called In the tropics a hurricane month, I wn advised ad-vised not to go The couple however, were lend) and waiting to be mnrrled there wan no resident minister of nny kind there nnd I dl 1 not like to disappoint disap-point them True, they might have got civilly married nt the Registrar 8 office of-fice und waited for the religious cere-mnnv cere-mnnv lo take pi ice at mj next regular visit but the leople of the Turks und ( atcoj iHlinds have, us a rule nn unaccountable un-accountable prejudice ngulnst this way oufof the diniruit) though It is com-monl) com-monl) resorted to in the tlahamns 'Well I got down to Coi kburn Harbor Har-bor all right and the couple were dul) married nnd seemed thankful to me foi omlni. The bridegroom klnll) of-reicd of-reicd to end me buck on the Hundny for the ceremony took place on a ftun-diy ftun-diy In n little deckel si hnnner bont of his called the Seagull, nbout fifteen feet long and five tons burlen This wa a sm ill bo it enough In all con-si con-si lence, to be traveling on ocean vvn-teis vvn-teis In the hurricane months but it was a cao of llohson a choice either I had to tnke this chance or w lit at Cockburn Harbor for perhaps a week or ten da)s Sailing Without a Compass ' I atnrted on the f-eagull at nbout 0 P m on the Sundnj night Oeorge Lockhart, n brother of the bridegroom, acted us skipper, another man aa mate und crew uli in one und the passenger consisted of tiuself un 1 a friend of mine a Mr Algernon Stuhb Tho weathei was a llttlo cloudy when we started nnd wc hnd tho usual snuthenst trndc wind to heat ngalnst llecause the) know the Turk islnnda channel so well and can generall) get tho (irank Turk lighthouse In about six hiura (when the) get about half Ml ncrossv the Cnlios sailors have a rather careless habit of sailing without with-out a compass This nerlect nearly proved fatal to us W'e hnd not been sailing long when the he-vens became black with clou Is nnd the wind began to blow rrom the northeast In fitful gusts, the sure prccuisor at that time of the )ear of a hurricane Hut we were In foi nomethlng worse than a hurricane The wind shifted round all the points of the compass rendering navigation fearrullv dllllciilt, nnd during dur-ing the whole or Monday wo knew not I where vie were Just picture to jour-selves jour-selves the preellcament wo were In A' small, compassless boat, with no pro visions In the midst of a tropical l"n nelthci the slipper nor an of tile-other tile-other thiee or us knowing In the iasi v here wo wern owing to our having no c mpass urd to the bewildering changes In the wind which drove u hlthei and thither During the whole of Monda) we could not catch a glinu c of tne sun The sea lashed t tho tiemendous gale was iiinnlng inoun tains high and the thunder urd lightning light-ning wete Incessant Fight Against the Storm. Vnxlous as I was concerning our sSret) I eould not help admiring the Intense grandeur of the scene before me It will temaln photographed on my memorv till I die I never saw such a sight In mi life It seemed as If all the element were cither lighting with each oilier or that the sea anl wind thundei und lightning were combining torethcr to dislioy the poor little fcea- Luckll) unlike man) of the boats I have had to tnke my quarterly vo lges In the Seagull wns decked Hid thi not been the care I should not now be alive to tell the story, for the seas were rontlnmllv breaking over ft Hut the brave little boat roo superior to them all although It shivered from stem to stern when some unusually heavy sea struck It Wo were fortunate also In having a hrnve and competent skipper I can see George Locklurt now never for a moment disheartened even when he lost his bearings hut In snlte of the constant drenehlnga to evblili he was suhjeited manfull) keeping it his post it the tiller with his mii'e les strained tout and his race set gilnilv Mgernon Stubbs and the other mm also kept their courage up In fait vie all en-ci en-ci uraged each other to the best of our abllltv although the outlook wns blark enough In all i onsclence The best that I expected was that the Beagull woull be thrown up somewhere on the shores of tan Domingo Water Everywhere, Nothing to Eat We went on like this till Tuesday morning The sk was still sunless and gloom) but the scm nnd the wind bid gone down a little though not enough to take nwa ull danger. The pangs or hunger now began to make thewn-selves thewn-selves felt and addd to the wretchedness wretched-ness of our situation No land or rock or vescl coul 1 be seen nothing but a vvnste of angr) waters melting awa) Into a gra) horizon All of n su Men we noticed far awa) on the horizon what I miy describe as a gieenlsh oi emeral I hue among the blackness of the sk) The other sailor who was an ol t Nassau fisherman Immediate!) Im-mediate!) Jumped up excltedl) shouting shout-ing White water Now the term 'white water Is iipflled b) the natives to the clear shallow water whlcii )ou find In tho tropic il cn)s and bank This reflection In the clouds the sailor sail was probablj Ihe reflection of tho clear and shallow water of the Calcos river 'Then we ran into the smooth anl hospltnblc waters of the Cilcos banks nnd soon the kind-he irted people of Cockburn Harbor were welcoming us back ns It were from tho grave for the) had nevei expected to see any of us alive ngnln The) soil they had not had such a fearful storm since the 60s |