1880, The J. M. Wall, struck by lightning near Crescent
City.
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FACTS
Constructed in Eureka in 1875,
the J. M. Wall was a two-masted schooner employed in the lumber trade along
the California coast. She was bound for Crescent City in 1880 when she
ran into a thunder storm at night.
A bolt of lightning hit the foremast
and traveled downward blasting a hole in the port side of the hull nearly
eight feet long and a foot wide. It appeared as if the ship would sink
within a few minutes. Unwilling to accept this fate, Captain Stockfleth
grabbed a piece of canvas, a hammer and some nails. A crewman lowered him
over the side by a rope tied around his waist. The ship was rolling more
than 30 degrees as the storm tumbled the ship. Despite being under water
at times and despite the darkness and the chilling temperature Stockfleth
managed to nail the canvas over the hole.
With the help of the pumps the
ship was able to stay afloat for twenty days while the captain repeated
his heroics whenever the canvas was about to come loose. The ship was able
to reach Crescent City harbor where the damage was repaired, only to capsize
three years later on the Crescent City bar where it was completely destroyed.
.
FICTION
Stockfleth's Prayer
(A prayer said at sea
before hanging over the side
in a lightning storm at night
to nail canvas over
a gash in the hull.)
Oh, Heavenly Father,
your dark sea and night sky are so vast.
Your thunder and lightning
terrify me with their power.
Give me the wisdom to know what I can do
and the strength to do what I can.
Make tight the fragile line that ties me to this
ship.
Let this piece of canvas that powers us with your
wind
hold back the sea with these puny nails.
I make this prayer in humility and awe
savoring the impossibility of this act
knowing that if I survive it's because
you've let me wedge my will, for an instant,
into the great working of your universe.
Amen.
