A Shifting Landmark

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Apr 3, 1884

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 10, No. 14.

A Shifting Landmark.

A TRADING-VESSEL, bound for the port of D—, was making her first voyage of the season. Under a bright moon, she was scudding before the wind, in danger of being driven upon the shore. It required skill to make the entrance of the harbor.

“We are running too far to the leeward,” said the captain.

“How can that be?” asked the pilot, who thought he knew the steering points, and could not err in his bearings.

“I judge by the waves. There is shallow water ahead. Set more to the windward.”

“I judge by the white spire of the church yonder,” said the pilot. “Last year I ran into this port every fortnight, and every time took my range with that spire.”

“The church ought to be a good guide, and you must be right, but yet I fear we are out of the road.”

The captain was not familiar with the localities. He trusted to the pilot. The ship went driving on, until she struck upon a sand-bar, wrenching every timber from keel to topmast.

“I knew you would strand her,” said the captain, imagining that he had foreknown what he now experienced.

“But I was in line with the church spire, as you can see for yourself. You must blame the church, and not me.”

A rocket was sent up as a signal of distress. In an hour a steam-tug came to rescue the crew, and, if possible, draw the vessel off the bar.

“We cannot draw her off to-night,” said the tug-master. “The wind and the waves are too high. Come ashore and wait until to-morrow.”

The pilot was anxious to solve the mystery, and to save his reputation. His theory was, that a new bar had formed in the ship’s channel.

“No, sir,” said the tug-master; “you cannot charge the wreck upon Providence in that way, nor justify yourself by the church. The fact is, the church has been moved from where it was last year. It was done to make it more popular.”

“Captain, let us sue the officers for damages,” said the pilot. “They ought to have let us know where they stood.”

“Their new position gives them trouble enough already,” replied the tug-master, who had opposed the removal of the church-building. “They find that they have put it upon disputed ground. They have no sure title to the lot. Moreover, the soil is so marshy that the foundations are giving way. If the church had remained on the old solid ground, there would have been less contention in our town, and you would have saved your ship.”

“What is the name of your tug, Captain?”

“Helping-hand; and she may bring your vessel off the bar to-morrow.”—Sel.