BIOGRAPHY OF A STARBOARD ANCHOR.

BY H. PERCY ASHLEY.

The big Anchor rested on the smooth green lawn in front of the house, all glistening in the sunshine with its new coat of white paint, and there was nothing about it to show how it had once taken a very important part in the lives of the youngsters who were even then playing around on the grass not far away. But the old Bo's'n came along one day, and he knew the story, and as near as I can remember it, this is what he said the Anchor told him:

I came out of the ground a great many years ago, and my appearance at the time was somewhat crude. I was put on a train and taken to a place where they gave me a bath, and afterwards I was melted, hammered, and pounded until it seemed as if my last days had come. I had a chance to cool off after this ordeal, however, and a new suit of galvanized clothing was given to me. I felt very proud a few days later as I lay in state at the door of a large ship-chandler's shop on South Street in New York city. Frequently men who passed by in the crowd would stop to look at me, and some of them would remark upon my beauty and my strength, which made me expand with pride and give them one of my brightest looks. Those were the days, you must remember, when I was new and foolish, for up to that time I had never seen the ocean, except for the occasional glimpses I caught over the corner of the dock and through the tangle of shipping.

Spring came, and all was hurry and bustle in the shop behind me. One particularly fine morning a truck backed up against the sidewalk, and some men loaded me on to it, and took me away and transferred me to a steam-freighter, which landed me the next day at Newport. Soon afterward I was shipped to the bow of a large schooner yacht. As long as I live I shall never forget how the Captain and the mate looked me over; and as they patted my arms and flukes they remarked that I was very well made. Mr. Summerville, the owner of the yacht, also came forward to admire me, and after him ran two of the prettiest children I had ever seen. Laying his hand upon my arm, he said:

"Children, this is the new Right Bower. We all place a great deal of dependence upon him."

I was so much overcome at this that I could not speak, but I extended my palm and gave them my very best bow.

I did not meet my associate Anchor until several days afterwards, since he was on duty at the bottom of the bay; but the Chain, to which he was very much attached, gave me his respects. A few days after my arrival, my future chum, Patent Link Chain, came aboard, and we were introduced by the mate. Patent Chain extended his shackles in a friendly way, and I grasped them firmly in my ring. Little did we foresee the many trials before us.

It is needless for me to relate how I nearly fainted when thrown overboard for the first time, and how my dear friend Patent Chain never lost his hold upon me. Nearly all my duty was at night, for I was very much stronger than the Port Bow Anchor. There was another Anchor on board, called Kedge, but my partner and I did not take very kindly to him, as he seemed to be stuck up, and spent most of his time aft. We therefore let him severely alone, and we learned that he remarked to the Chains one day that the Kedge family were called upon to do duty only on special occasions, and to be rowed about in small boats.

The Chains of this yacht for some reason never seemed to get along very well together, and frequently when two of them were on duty at the same time they would get in a tangle, and the mate would have to go out on the bob-stay and chastise them with a marlinspike before they could be separated. But, as my friend Patent Chain frequently remarked, the other chain was very common and had a bad heart. Events proved his opinion was well founded.

We were on a cruise toward Maine when the turning-point in my life occurred. As we sailed along one day I heard the mate say that bad weather was ahead. That evening we came to anchor early in a sheltered bay, and night came on dark and stormy. The wind increased, and sighed and moaned in the rigging. Port Anchor had gone overboard several hours before, but they soon found it necessary to send me down with him. I felt a kind of foreboding of evil as I plunged into the water, and when I reached the bottom I sank one of my arms as deeply into the mud as possible, and groped with my fluke for solid rock. Patent Chain told me he had not reached for such a length before, and he added that the Kedge had been brought forward in case he might be needed.

The storm increased to a hurricane, and soon Port Anchor cried out to me that he felt his strength was giving way. Poor fellow! he seemed to realize that he was too old to stand the terrific strain that he was now being called upon to endure, and his Common Chain couldn't be counted on to hold. Already some of the links were making preparations to part. I called back words of cheer, but received no reply, and a moment later I experienced a terrible shock, for Common Chain had broken, and poor old Port Anchor had been left to his fate in the mud. I felt myself dragged through the stones and the rocks along the bottom, and wondered what was going to happen, for my good friend Patent Chain was telling me that they were praying on deck that I might hold. Little Kedge sank down near me, and tried hard to get a grip on the rocks, but he was so small that he could do but little. Patent Chain shrieked in agony that he was being torn apart, but entreated me at the same time to make final and desperate efforts to save the yacht. Up above the Captain, the mate, and the crew were working frantically to get the storm try-sail set, and they had lashed two hempen cables to Patent Chain so that he could go out further. In the mean time, however, I had found a ledge of rocks, to which I seized with my flukes as well as with my stock, and Patent Chain, spreading himself full length in the mud, clung to the bottom.

How long this dreadful tension lasted I shall never know, but it seemed years to me. It was probably only a few hours. And when I was finally assisted to the surface by old Windlass the next morning, I found the yacht was under way in tow, and headed for the nearest shipyard. She had sustained considerable damage from the hurricane, and as I reached the deck I was surrounded by awed and sympathetic faces. Everyone said I had saved the yacht; and that is why I am placed here and why I am so well treated.