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Updated: May 27, 2025
"We are on a weather shore, now," said Jasper, smiling; "and I think you will admit, Master Cap, that a strong under-tow makes an easy cable: we owe all our lives to the under-tow of this very lake." "French flummery!" growled Cap, though he did not care to be heard by Jasper.
Then I felt something that told me he was coming and saw a body rolled over in the surf, and knew it for the one I sought. 'Twas nearest me he was flung up, and I ran down the beach, caring nothing for the white foam, nor for the under-tow, and laid hold of him: for had he not left the rescue-line last night, and run down into the surf to save my worthless life?
Much crackling and splitting were going on, and fissures leaping into life and multiplying in all directions. "The under-tow ice has jammed below among the islands," Jacob Welse explained. "That's what caused the rise. Then, again, it has jammed at the mouth of the Stewart and is backing up. When that breaks through, it will go down underneath and stick on the lower jam." "And then? and then?"
Its effect on Cap was marked, the feeling that was uppermost being evidently that of surprise. "Under-tow!" he repeated; "who the devil ever heard of saving a vessel from going ashore by the under-tow?" "This may never happen on the ocean, sir," Jasper answered modestly; "but we have known it to happen here."
"'Tis the under-tow!" he exclaimed with delight, fairly bounding along the deck to steady the helm, in order that the cutter might ride still easier. "Providence has placed us directly in its current, and there is no longer any danger." "Ay, ay, Providence is a good seaman," growled Cap, "and often helps lubbers out of difficulty.
The surf-board is a tough plank about two feet wide and from six to twenty feet long, usually made of the bread-fruit-tree. Armed with these, a party of tall, muscular natives swim out to the first line of breakers, and, watching their chance to duck under this, make their way finally, by the help of the under-tow, into the smooth water far off: beyond all the surf.
He had, of course, dropped the sail, and the boat being on the lee side of the rock, was easily attached to it, but swung about considerably, as there was rather more than usual under-tow around the holme, occasioned by the state of the tide a circumstance which our young hero had not sufficiently considered.
This turbulent haven seemed to promise every facility for the shipwreck on which he had so perversely set his heart, and he was content to wait there for whatever storm or collision should bring matters to a crisis. Perhaps the mere steady under-tow would suck him down to destruction. The under-tow is not inconsiderable among the seething currents of life in a two-year-old mining-camp.
There was a deafening noise as we came near the shore, the shrieking of the wind in the rigging, the crash of the combing seas, and over all the awful grinding roar of the under-tow sucking down the pebbles.
And once on the beach, the sea has little mercy, for the water is deep right in, and the waves curl over full on the pebbles with a weight no timbers can withstand. Then if poor fellows try to save themselves, there is a deadly under-tow or rush back of the water, which sucks them off their legs, and carries them again under the thundering waves.
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