Northwest enterprise. [volume] (Anacortes, Wash. Ter.) 1882-1887, 1882-12-16
WAS HE DEADi

WAS HE DEADi
On the afternoon of March 10th,
1876. as Captain Wroughton, of the
schooner Caribbean, San Bias
trader, homeward bound to New
York, was passing from the Howard
House, in Aspinwall, to the Office OF
| the British consul at the railroad
depot, he was accosted by man,
evidently sailor, who begged for Il
chance to work his passage to Jamai-
ca, where the schooner was advertised
to stop on her voyage northward.
Being likely fellow. and telling a
reasonably plausible story, his re
quest was granted, and he was taken
before the British Consul-fCr the
Caribbean sailed under the flag OF
that nation and shipped.
He signed the articles as Abraham
Sherrie, indicting his name in a bold
but very peculiar hand, and with the
initial letter of both given and sur
name in printed capitals. He wrote
with his left hand, having lost the
thumb and first two fingers of his
right, as he stated, from frost.
The man had evidently been for
time on one of the debauches with
which the average sailor signalizes his
terms ashore, and Captain Wroughton
Judged it expedient to send him on
board the schooner at once. There.
during the remaining coupe OF days
that preceded her departure, lie be-
came a decided favorite with the
crew and proved himself an able
seaman.
In person, he was a man of less
than medium height, stoutly built,
and with arms of disproportionate
length and remarkable muscular de
velopment. His head was large, and
endowed with shaggy growth of
black hair, which thatched beard
less face, strongly pitted with small
pox, and Scared from knife-wound
which had laid open the left cheek
from the outer line of the eye to the
upper!lip. This wound, in cicatrizing,
had so contracted the muscles of the
face that the corner of the mouth
was drawn up, and the position of
the nose slightly shifted, lending the
entire visage the resemblance of n
constant and most stunnatural grin. A
remarkable physical peculiarly was
that his chest was covered with a
dense mat of hair, while the limbs,
like the face. were absolutely and
naturally as free from any capillary
growth as a child's. f.ts
Circumstantial as this description
already is, it will, with the readers
permission, be even slightly added to.
The physical peculiarities of Abra-
ham Sherrie were balanced by more
than one mental attribute worthy of
note. He claimed to be native of
Newfoundland, but his English was
strongly marked by the accent pecu-
liar to Somersetshire. His education
had evidently been above the com
mon standard of his class, and he
spoke French, Spanish and German
with remarkable, though not absolute,
correctness and huency. even for a
seaman, whose profession usually
renders him more or less familiar
with strange tongues. A notable
personal characteristic was that,
although habitually profane in
speech, he never swore in English.
On March oath, the Caribbean
sailed for Kingston. In making the
casting necessary for the dead beat
to windward from the Columbian and
lower Central American ports to
Jamaica, she was caught in furious
norther and blown so far inshore
as to sight the palm trees on Fuerte
Islands. off the harbor of g, C,r.agena.
The gale, which had continued for
over twenty-four hours, fortunately
moderated, and allowed her to crawl
off shore again, and on the 9th she
resumed her interrupted course.
During this gale, which was accom-
panied by constant and heavy squalls
of rain, the crew were compelled to
remain on deck and suffered severe
ly from exposure. The only one seri
Ously affected, however, was Abraham
Sherrie, who, still uncovered from
! the effects of his debauch in Aspin
wall, was additionally weakened by
the extreme strain, and fell into O
low fever, which, in the course of a
day, totally incapacitated him foi
duty.
On the morning of April 1st
while weathering the dangerous
Baxo Nuevo reef, one of the seamer
!; who WAS tending the jib- b-sheet looked
I down the forecastle hatch and saw
I. Sherrie on the floor at the foot o.
|, the ladder. He was lying on his
! face, with one arm doubled teneatl
!. his chest, and the other wounf
around the bottom of the ladder
Supposing that he had attempted t.
get up and fallen, the sailor. as sooI
! as the schooner went in stays and re
: leased him from duty, went below t.
= his assistance and found him dead
i Death, or-to use a phrase mor'
U appropriate, perhaps, in view of tn