The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1882-04-14
SOHE SBA STORIES.
TALES OF ADVENTURES THAT BROUGHT 70
MIND OTHERs EQUALLY REAIARKABLE.

in the Barge Office at the Battery. New
York, recently, the conversation turned to.
ward adventures and accident that fall to
the lot Of seafaring men in general It's
been my experience 80 4 red faced man said.
that's it is the small things in life that do
the most damage. Some years ago had
second mate that had sailed with me when
we were both boys and on and on ever since.
de might have been master years ago, but
he would drink. What that man went
through was a caution. He was cast away
half a dozen times, and twice he had to eat
human flesh to save himself. Once he fell
from the mizzen royal yard when the ship
way lying to in a gale of wind, bur we pick.
ed him up, and lost two hands in doing it
In fact, be seemed to bear a charmed life IL
anyone ever did, but De was finally killed BY
a fish about six inches long. You may
laugh, but come aboard my vessel tonight
and In show up the log. We were bound
for Bermuda with load OF coal for the gov
eminent We were bowling along one after
noon with a ten-knOt breeze, and as it was
smooth we had the main. hatch open To cool
the ship. My mate stood by the combing Of
the hatch when all at once ten or fifteen ay-
ing fish came aboard not those soft kind
with long wings, but what they call CUR
nards, with heads as hard as rock. Tomake
a long story short, one Of them struck him
on the forehead such blow that / heard it
at the wheel. He staggered a minute. threw
up his arms and fell backward into the hole
and broke his neck
THAT certainly is a curious case a
Swefe said, 'and I can add one to IT, In
the spring Of 1880 I arrived in Boston from
Liverpool. We came to down by Fort War.
ren, and after everything had been made
snug, the men stripped and went in SWIM
ming. / stood on the quarterback watch.
ing them, and noticed that the water was
full of jellyfish so / sang ont to them to look
out for them, because they sting sometimes.
Soon the men commenced to badger one an
other about jumping, and finally the cOOk.
went aiOft and out on the fOueyard and OF
he jumped, coming down like a shot we
waited second OF so, expecting 20 see him,
but he didn't appear and we becoming
alarmed, 1 went aloft SO that / could look
down on the spot. About ten feet under
the surface ! saw him kicking and thrashing
about as if he was drowning and entangled
in something I sang out to the second
long bCat-hOok he soon hooked on TO the
man. The crew dragged him mp. and with
him ieilyfsh that was twice as big as the
big umbrellas we see on the stages here. In
the middle of the fish, tangled in a mass Of
steamers, was the man. We had him outou
short notice, You may be sure, and he was a
bad sight Everywhere the steamers had
touched him was @ red mark. He came TO
after a while. and said that the animal must
have been swimming along seven OF eight
feet below the surface when ne struck it in
jumping down. It measured nearly nine
feet across, and the steamers must have been
more than 200 feet long"
That reminds me Of an experience I had
when a yOuEgster." the captain Of a Span
ish brig SAID, before 1 went to sea. / wasa
diver, not wrecker, but pearl diver. and
a hard business it was. We worked OF the
Mexican and Panama coasts, principally on
the Pacific side. Sometimes we worked
alone, but generally on shares, and some.
times on regular pay. We went TO the
grounds in small sailing vessels, then tOokto
the small boats ana covered as much ground
as possible. Each man was provided witha
basket and a knife. For sharks2 Yes, but
it's a poor defence, because it is almost i'm
possible to swing your arm with any force
under water. The best weapon is a short
spear. When YOU reach the grounds Won
strip, catch your teet in a big sinker, take
the basket that has a rope for hosting, drop
over, and soon find yourself at the bottom.
Then your business is to knock as many ovs-
teTs OF as you can and pile them into the
basket before you lose your wind. It's a
terrible strain, but 1 could stand It in those
days six minutes, and ! have known men
that could stay down ten but IT'S sure
death in the long run. Ii the ground is well
stocked, you can get twenty OF more shells. .
but it's all luck, When the basket is full,
it is hauled up, and after you come up for
your wind, down you go again, the sinker
having been hauled up by a small cord for
the purpose. Tt was on one Of these trips
that I ran foul OF the animal that gave me a
lasting fright. You'll smile when I say that
It was only a star-fish, but that's all it really
was. 1 made my first trip that day all right,
but on striking the bottom on the second
trip saw big shadow over me, anG some
thing moved along like huge bird. It was
only a devil fish, one Of the big sting rays
that grow about twenty feet wide in that
country, but it gave me the shakes, never
theless When / went down for the third
time the water was nearly sixty feet deep
over a coral bottom. 1 went down with a
rush, and landing on the edge Of a big
bunch Of coral, swung of into a kind OF a
basin. The basket went ahead of me. and
rs 1 swung of to reach the bottom. some
thing seemed to spring up all around me,
and / was ia the arms Of some kind OF mon
ster that cOiled about me, waved its arms
over my head, and twisted about my body,
arms and legs. 1 tried to scream, forgetting
that was IN the water, and lost my wind
1t was just as if plant had sprouted under
me and thrown its vines and tendrfls about
me. There were thousands Of them. coilfng
and writhing, and I thought had landed in
a nest Of sea snakes. gave the signal as
soon as / could, aud made a break upward,
part Of the creature cIinging to me, while the
rest, I could see, was dropping 70 pieces
They hauled me into the boat when I reach
ed the surface, and pulled the main part Of
the animal from mt. It was oval. about
three feet across, and the five arms seemed
to divide into thousands OF others OF
course there wasn't any real danger, but the
fright il gave me lasted fOr months The
starfsh is common enough and known as
the baskethsh, and il generally grows two OF
three feet across probably landed on top
of that one, which at that time was TIE larg-
est had ever seen. / afterward saw the
body OF one that was washed ashore ON the
lsthmus that must have had n spread OF