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appeared to be in trouble. We launched a lifeboat and went to her before dark. Captain George Plough, our commanding officer tried his best to persuade the men on the St. Clair to board the lifeboat and be taken. ashore. Both anchors were holding and Captain Jones was dis- posed to stay with his vessel. He said that all he had was tied up in her and he would stick with her to the last. After we saw that it was impossible to get the captain or any member of the crewto go ashore, Captain Plough asked for the girl, but for some reason she wouldn't come with us. He then informed Captain Jones that if they needed us to burn a torch as a signal. We started on our return trip to the shelter of the harbor. After a long and backbreaking pull into the teeth of the gale we reached the harbor entrance. Tremendous cross seas made it difficult to get through the gap but by almost superhuman effort by the entire crew we finally reached shelter, drenched and thoro-- ughly exhausted. There were several tugs and steam barges inside the harbor and we asked several of them to go out and attempt to tow the St, Clair in, but all refused. So we went to our station and now it was blowing a living gale and increasing by the minute. It was my watch down at the end of the pier. In going to my post I had to' run between the madly rushing seas which were sweeping over the breakwater. I had not been at my post long when I saw that a torch had been lighted on the St. Clair. I worked myself back to the stat- ion and reported to Captain Plough. Every man was called for action. Some gave their money on valuables to Mrs. Plough. Then we manned the lifeboat in the worst storm any of us were ever to encounter. As we pulled across the harbor the sky was pitch black and the wind whistled through the rigging of the boats lying in shelter. After passing through the gap we TELESCOPE Page 65 hit the storm in all it's fury. The seas were coming from all directions and it was a difficult task to keep the lifeboat headed in the right direction. We finally reached the St. Clair and endeavored to pull up under the stern in order to remove her crew to the lifeboat. We had to get close enough to take them off one by one and still keep far enough off so our boat wouldn't be stove in by the larger boat. One minute we would be riding high above her and the next she would rise on a huge wave and be high above us. Several times we narrowly missed disaster when her stern came down, just miss- ing us it seemed by inches. This was a very dangerous assignment and required the united efforts of the entire crew. We were all comparat- ively fresh at the time, otherwise we could not have accomplished what we did. The girl jumped first, and then the men, with Captain Jones being the last to come aboard. We had left the harbor at seven o'clock and it was eleven when we were ready to pull away from the St. Clair. The seas were now so high and the wind so strong that it was impossible for us to pull back to the harbor. There was only one thing to do, ard that was to run with the storm and let the wind and the seas carry us south toward the shelter of the St. Clair River. That would mean a run of sixty miles but there was no other way...and perhaps by morning the gale would lessen. As we squared away and headed down the lake our job was to keep the lifeboat on a true course, running with the seas. To allow her to get crosswise into the seas would allow her to broach and throw us all into the water. Our rudder was soon struck by a huge sea and carried away! Captain Plough shouted orders to the crew that we would have to steer the boat by port and starboard oarsmen, such as give way or hold water to combat the tremendous seas which we were encountering.