Show J adventurers CLUB HEADLINES FROM THE L LIVES V 9 S I 1 OF PEOPLE LIKE youa selfa Fl the liow iron serpent W H L ELLO W well ill EVERYBODY sir air weve had bad two or three yarns in this column about strong men who have been in danger of beb being ag crushed to death by huge snakes twenty or thirty feet fee long butrim but jim evrard of brooklyn N Y went up against thear the great eat grand daddy of all the reptiles jims snake was three hundred and sixty feet long it was made of solid steel links ten and a half inches long and five inches wide de it was the great anchor ancho acho chain of an ocean going steamer and when you get one of those babies wrapped around your neck worse vorse than any python or boa constrictor that Aliat ever lived it was on February anthe on the army cargo transport U S S hatteras that thatis it happened jim evrard had joined the navy asa as a radio operator in 1917 and here helas he was on the hatteras somewhere out in the atlantic ocean the ahe Haf hatteras teras had sailed a week or so before from hampton roads va A few days out of port she had run into i a bad storm that tha thad bad wrecked aher her steering gear and lefther left her wallowing helplessly to in mid ocean the captain had bad dropped both of 0 the ship three ton anchors they helped very lettle L but beside the point the point is that those anchors were down if they been jim would have had no ad adventure ventur e Re hed dhave have won ron no ten dollar bill and wed have bad no story when morning came the storm subsided once the anchors were down they had to stay down until the storm was w a av ei abue the gale was ragin 91 the pitched and rolled so violently that it would have been dangerous to try to pull them up but L to our horror the chain wis was running wild on the mer morning ning that bat the storm subsided the crew rigged an emergency m gear and began to hols hoist t them aboard tha ts where jim evrard comes into the story jim was a radio operator but in a pinch aboard phlp everybody turns arna to te and linds lends a hand and jim ani was sent down into the chain lookers lockers with is a lad named clercy and another lad named white to lay anchor chain I 1 guess that sort of calls for a word mord of explanation the chain I 1 lockers 10 chers on an the Hatteras Bat teras were were a couple of rooms eight feet square just below deek deck up at the bow elthe of the ship they were used ed ico of course lirse to stows stow the anchor chains in while they bere iere were not in enuse use up on the deck a big winch was was haul hauling in the starboard anchor and as the chain iame la in it w was as i passed through a hole in thi the decia deck 0 down own intone into the chain locker well sir if that chain were just allowed collein tol to lie lein in the locker any w way ay it landed it would tangle and snarl next tirrie time the anchor was dropped it bad to be laid in a neat coil as it came down wn and what jim band and piercy and in dWhite white were doing do down there that fateful february da day y that old lady ady adventure had picked out to give three sailors the scare scar elof of their lives A hoppy choppy sea made footing I 1 insecure nse cure bythan by that time all three of them were pretty tired the te chain with its big ten and a halt half inch links was vas heavy the sea was still choppy making their footing none too 66 s sure ure but they worked away at th the e port chain until tle the coil rose high in the I 1 ocker locker finally the chain stopped c coming on ang in they could tell by the size of their coll coil that the anchor was up an and d ou out t of the water and ready to a be heaved on d eck deck I 1 the three lads had stopped dwork work and leaning each in i a different diffene orner corner of the cramped locker bracing themselves e s against the pitching and tossing of the ship we were waiting tor for orders to to go back bic kupon up on dick deck says JIT jim but the order was slow flow in coming 11 imagine magine our eur surprise when we 0 saw w the anchor ch chain a in begin to te pa pay y out oat again it moved t slowly at first and then quite rapidly after everal seconds of watching it increased its speed we realized to our horror that the chain was running wild 1 and those lads had good reason to be horrified great loops of f heavy chain began whipping in long swings striking the he sides side of f the locker faster and faster it went and wider and wider were the loo loops P s that lashed out on all sides it was was swinging with terrific force says jim if it bitus hit us it bould uld break our I 1 bones bone like I 1 cardboard bard or crush crash our skulls elsif as if they vere egg she shells and there we stood not daring to move out of our co cor r jers wondering when the flying mesh of steel was going to wh whip I 1 in after us wondering when a chance lurch of the ship was was going to throw I 1 ui ua off balance out into the path of that whirling mass of metal the noise of the links Ws was like ft a death knell the dm din was terrific our prison was sm small 4 and we could feel the wind on our faces as the chain flew by in wider and wider arcs it swung th the e links is as they hit th the walls sounded like the b beats ata of a death knell to all of us I 1 wanted to faint but I 1 dare Nw powerless erless to do any thing ng at t all 1 I kept my mind on the oni one thing that might save sabe midi me standing g right where I 1 was in the scant protection the co corner mer of the rou room afforded me loop after loop whipped its way around thi the little locker sad and spun on an up through the hole a in the top only ft a few more of ef those loops loop ste to go now then all be safe to jim watched those last few loops goi go ind and breathed a prayer of thanksgiving they WERE sate safe over in their own corners stood white na cleroy chalky faced but unhurt then they called to the officers ufim up OB deek deck who by that time doubted it if any of them were live the causi cause ot of the trouble they had found had been old man Nep neptune iune himself A roll of the ship had bad thrown overt over the lie anchor chock anu and an other roll had bad caused the engineer to slip and throw the anchor winch butof out of gear the anchor had to be raised again says jim but we sent kinf down to lay the chain the next three men had better luck than we alwo did P i copyright service |