Show fC ADVENTURERS' ADVENTURERS CLUB HEADLINES FROM THE LIVES OF PEOPLE LIKE Ten Terrible Seconds EVERYBODY HELLO j This is a yarn about a couple of ropes The yarn yarn well well well- Its It's told by Herman R. R Wallin Vallin of Brooklyn N N. Y Herman Hermanis is supposed to be the adventurer and principal character in it but somehow or other the ropes managed to take over the story One of those ropes chisels into this story solely on the strength of the fact that it wel it-wel well that well that that it just If we mentioned it here its it's only to post it as A. A W. W O. O L. L L at a time when it was needed for guard duty The other rope comes in at the crucial l I point in our story Like the hero of the old twenty thirty p it shows up in the nick of time to right the wrong the theother c f other rope has done and prove to the world that though some ropes may be low down and onery there are good ropes as well as 85 bad I And now that Ive I've told you the plot of today's little drama I lets let's bring in Herman Wallin and Wallin-and and on with the show Today Herman is a radio operator on the S. S S. S Birken- Birken Birkenhead Birkenhead head bead but this adventure happened in July 1926 when j Herman was occupying the radio shack of the S. S S. S Cornelia plying be be- between between between tween New York and the West Indies The Cornelia was almost at the end of her out trip trip just just two or three hours run from the first of the tropical island ports at which she was due to call Hermans Herman's Radio Shack Located on After Part of Boat Deck I It was a dark night and Herman was on the lower deck making his way up to the boat deck where his room was located And before And before we go any farther with this yarn well we'll have to tell teU you something about the way the S. S S. S Cornelia was con con- Suppose we let Herman Berman do that himself My liMy radio shack Herman says was on the after part of the boat deck the deck the only quarters located on this part of the ship A few feet away from my room on either side of the shack were davits for two lifeboats which had been removed Since the members of or the crew M I He Be went vent through an open space between the two boat davits davits and and walked overboard J t seldom came up on this deck and then in the daytime only no ropes had been stretched across the openings between the davits And there you have not only the layout of Hermans Herman's sea-going sea penthouse pent pent- t house h use but also the lowdown on that rope that just wasn't wasn there That missing rope was quite a problem You know they dont don't have han any open lights on the top deck of a ship because they interfere with the vision of the officer on watch up on the bridge On nights when there wasn't any moon Herman used to have to watch his step pretty carefully Usually he would start walking from rom the ladder in a straight line counting out the number of steps it required to get to his door But on this particular night he paused half hall way in his course and looked back Lots Lot's wife was turned into a pillar of salt for stopping and looking back S Herman just sort of lost his bearings but that was almost as K bad When he started out again he was going the wrong way in the dark He e Was st still counting steps when all of a sudden he went f through an open space between two boat davits davits and and walked overboard f And Then Came the Ten Terrible Seconds f And ADd then came those ten terrible seconds the seconds the worst moments In Hermans Herman's life lile It felt as if time had been slowed down like one ODe of those slow motion movies seemed movies seemed as though that dive from the top deck was taking a year Herman lIerman can still count countr counti r i over every everyone one of those seconds seconds can can still remember how the lights i 1 of the lower deck went crawling past him as he be fell One of his arms grazed the rail of the lower deck as he went by and through his mind flashed Hashed the thought that that rail was the last thing he could possibly have caught hold of Below him now were only the smooth steel plates of the ships ship's side straight down to the water line Herman thought of the threshing the water at the ships ship's stern and remembered hearing that anyone falling overboard close to the side inevitably gets sucked into the vortex of the churning water and chopped to mincemeat iu The e water was coming up at him now He could see it gleaming dully beneath him and he braced himself for the shock of hitting it Then suddenly his left arm hit something something hit hit it with a sharp stinging blow that bent it double and almost took Hermans Herman's breath away Herman lIerman didn't know what it was but instinctively he made a aF F grab for it He lie caught it and It-and and his hand skidded several yards t along a wet slimy surface before he realized what it was A rope ope A missing rope had gotten him into this spot in the first f place Another one one one-a a rope that was very much present present seemed seemed ed edI I to be helping him out of it l' l L His Feet Were Vere Dragging in the Water Vater When He Stopped b Herman clutched at that rope until he thought his arm would come off oil My My feet were dragging in the water as I came to a stop he heI I Says and the tug of the water added to the strain on my hands I heard faint shouts above me The telegraph rang and I could feel the side of the ship shuddering as though it had hit some ob ob- obstruction in the water Then I could see heads thrust out over the deck rail and several voices were calling to me to hang on A couple of men sitting silting on the lower deck had seen me flash by and had shouted to the officer on watch to stop the ship A rope ladder came over the side and a dockhand deckhand came down downto to help Herman lIerman back aboard When I reached the deck he says I was so weak with fright that I couldn't stand up ap They took me to a stateroom and put me in a bunk Outside of a afew afew afew few bruises and a pair of skinned hands I was as good as ever in ina Ini i a few hours but I saw to it next day that a couple of 01 lines were stretched between those empty boat davits And in case youre you're wondering what that other rope was doing hang hang- tog lag over the side of the ship heres here's Herman with the answer It was wast t what is known as the guest line he says Its Its a heavy rope put over the side near the waters water's edge and used to tie small boats and r f launches near the gang gangway The ship was approaching the first of our ourt t tropical trO ports and this line had been put out only a few hours before I Released by Western testes Newspaper Union |