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March, 1914 The Marine Review 7 the covers. All deck house windows are being replaced with heavy side lights and all panel doors are being replaced with 2 1/4-inch solid sypress doors. The steamer J. H. Sheadle locked down at 8: 30 o'clock Saturday evening, Nov. 8, being preceded by the Tames Carruthers and followed by the Hydrus. The Sheadle passed out of St. Mary's river into Lake Huron at 1: 53 a. m., Nov. 9, with the wind light N. NE. This must have been approximately the time that the Carruthers and the Hydrus also entered the lake. After passing Thunder bay a strong N. NE. wind developed and the Sheadle shifted her course owing to the sea getting uncomfortable and contin- ued to shift from a half to a point order to keep running practically dead before it. Capt. Lyons says that he got his regular soundings at Pointe aux Barques. It was snowing a blinding blizzard at the time, making it impossible to see anything. At Harbor Beach the deep sea soundings showed that the Sheadle was three miles outside of the wide course line. The wind was then due north and the Sheadle was running dead before the wind and sea. At 5: 45 p. m. she shipped an enormous sea over the stern, smashing in the after windows and sweeping all the provisions out of the refrigerator, doing considerable damage to the interior of the cabin and fixtures. Capt. Lyons says that it was blowing about 70 miles an hour at the time, and that the sea was about 35 ft. high, one wave following another very closely. This was the testimony of other captains, that two or three waves would follow each other in rapid succession. The seas did not lengthen as they usually do when the wind increases in the ordinary way. The wind velocity of this particular storm increased rapidly from 25 to 70 miles an hour, and the Sheadle was continuously pounded by following seas. The table had just been set for supper when the first sea struck her. The supper was washed off the table and the dishes piled up and smashed. Some of the fit-out of the private dining room was washed into the mess room. The steward's trunk was washed out of his room and stood up on end in the galley, and from that time on there was from 4 to 6 ft. of water continuously in the after cabins. The only dry place for the after crew was in the engine room, where they remained all night. At times volumes of water poured down into the engine room through the upper skylights. Capt. Lyons continued on his course, using the lead constantly, and at nine o'clock at night had soundings of 18 fathoms carrying him well off to the west shore. He then called up the engineer and told him that at ten o'clock he was going to turn the ship around and wanted him to increase the speed of the ship up to that time so as to enable him to bring her around head to. At ten o'clock the Sheadle turned. It took her about ten minutes to do so. She rolled heavily, but came around all right head to. Capt. Lyons then ran back on a N. 1/2 E. course for 6 3/4 hours, following the soundings back from 10 to 22 fathoms. About 4: 15 on the morning of the 10th he turned again. This time the ship remained longer in the trough of the sea than she did the first time, on account of not getting so much way and running head into it, but she behaved very well, though rolling frightfully. While the steamer was coming about, Capt. Lyons braced himself by holding onto the handles of the hand-steering wheel. He was not only lifted from off his feet, but his whole body assumed a practically horizontal position. In returning the speed of the steamer was decreased from full to 55 turns, as the Sheadle got closer down to the river. Meanwhile the wind had gone to the northwest and the sea began to go down. The Sheadle passed within a thousand ft. of the hull of the Price. Just before she arrived abreast of the hull the deep sea lead was cast and registered 10 fathoms. Shortly after that it began to snow heavily and the Sheadle let go her anchor. Capt. Lyons pays a very good tribute to the deep sea lead. "The use of the deep sea lead, " he said, "was a great comfort to me. I knew where I was all the time. Having the familiar soundings right along through it all was the only thing that kept us from being wrecked. The soundings were familiar and gave us confidence. We use the machine constantly and the men are accustomed to it, but it Capt. Capt. Thomas J. Carney, of the steamer H. W. Smith, relates his experiences in the November gale as follows: "We left Buffalo Nov. 7, 1913, bound for Milwaukee, Wis., with hard coal. We passed Detroit about 5 P. M., on Nov. 8. We received weather report stating the weather would be N. W., diminishing Sunday, the 9th. We passed Port Huron about 12: 45 A. M., Nov. 9, the weather being hazy and the wind about North fresh. At 6: 40 A. M., Nov. 9, we passed Harbor Beach, the wind being N. -N. W. fresh. At 10 A. M. the wind began to freshen up and shifted to north, the sea making gradually. At noon the same day it began to snow and we checked on account of the sea increasing. At 3 P. M. the seas began to get so big that they broke Thomas J. Carney, Steamer H. W. in the pilot house doors and windows and forward cabins. At 6 P. M. we lost control of the ship and she began to go off in the trough of the sea. Then I immediately ordered her wheel hard-over and after some difficulty we managed to head down the lake before the sea. Then the seas began to pile over the stern, breaking in the after cabins and washing the rubbish down in the aft of the engine room. All the time the wind seemed to be increasing. The engineer for a while had a hard time keeping the different pieces of framework from being washed into the engine. During their trouble a barrel of black oil bursted back aft, which ran out the scuppers, calming the tops of the seas and preventing the seas from piling up on her stern, which was a great relief to the engineer. Smith The pumps kept the water out from then on, and our only chance was to keep the ship before the sea. From the time we made the turn at 6 P. M., Sunday the 9th, the seas kept piling over our decks, tearing tarpaulins into ribbons and wrecking the deck house. About 1 A. M., Nov. 10, we were about abreast of Harbor Beach. I could tell by the back-set from the breakwater. At 4: 30 A. M. we came to anchor in about seven fathoms of water; at 7:30 A. M. it stopped snowing and began to clear up for the first time since 10 A. M., Nov. 9. We hove up anchor and started for Port Huron. The wind and seas had gone down considerably and we arrived at Port Huron about 9: 30 A. M., Nov. 10, for temporary repairs. It was the worst storm I ever experienced in my time. "