The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1884-06-05
BEANS AND BIG FISHES.
Yarns Worth Telling Reeled Off by q
Sailor Man.

Yarns Worth Telling Reeled OFF by q
Sailor Man.
'.Look alive, nowr' shouted red
faced sailor to a waiter in Water
street restaurant.
"Aye, aye, sir," replied the waiter,
taking the captains measure and mark
ing him mentally for plate of corned
beef and cabbage. 'Wot shall bring
alongside?"
Bring me dish of Marblehead tur-
key, and look alive" repeated the
customer, who a moment later was
deep in the mysteries of baked beans.
''Ihat's new name for beans, isn't
it?'' inquired person at the same
table.
My father called 'em so." replied
the skipper. 'Tm Beverly man N.Y.
self, and we consider that aour beans
lie a trit1e closer to the wind when close
hauled than on the east coast. Beans
is the mainstay of New England folks.
They talk about fish maxim brains; |
tell ye it's beans. Why, Lord bless ye!
Look around here in New York. Lcni,
at your prosperous Americans, they're
most of 'em bean-eatin' Yankees De-
Prive Down Easter of his beans, and
tell ye you hit MIN where the cop
Pers on. Ever hear the story of Capt.
Elder E,ugridge? No? Wall, he was
eiocr and skipper both-a mighty pious
man-and once he took trip as far as
New York; big thing for him. Wall,
they got struck with contrary winds,
and blowed off shore about fifty miles.
Along comes one of these Cunarders,
and seein' the schooner flynn her col
ors union down in distress, they slows
up and sends off a boat, and after a
hard pull in a heavy sea-wav they halls
the schooner, and the mate sings aout:
Schooner ahoy! Ye sinkin'?' Not
quite so bad sings aout the elder,
but we're aout o. beans. Kin We let
us have pot?' Wall, they say that
that mate nearly bust his windpipe a
swearin'. There was poetry writ on
that" added the skipper.
''By yourself?" asked his listener.
''Wall, [ tell ye," replied the cap
tain, ''betwcen you and me it was writ
by chap by the name of Jumper in
the Sailors Own Book, in Gloucester,
but ordinary, when | spins the warn,
it's supposed I'm the one that writ it.
Some o the lines wants lin and over
haulin', but it's wot they call blank
verse. 1t goes like this:
ship once crossing over the sea-
l tell the story as twas told to me
Made hundred miles or so from shore,
W hen craft was one day seen that bore
her nag reversed, while 'Cainst the mast
The torn sails tuttered as the wind rushed
past.
"'Outwith the boat?" the captain cried,
And the seamen dartcd over the side;
Their oars fell in with a regular dip
AS they rapidly neared the silent snip.
Nhen they reached the deck a sight met their
Which made them start with fearful sur
prise.
All around on the deck the crew were living.
And groaning aloud as tho they were diving:
The captain alone on hen-coop sat,
WIN ms lace IN his hands and weed on his
He gazed on them all with a blood-shot eve.
And the crew looked up with heartrendine
Say, why do you raise the flag of distress,
And sit around deck in idleness?
Are you out of food? Have you used up your
water?
Have you got the plague? Or what is the
"we came from Beverly, and that signal
means,
That for full three days we've been out of
beans"
That's poetry wot is roetrv." said
the skipper, ''but food never bothered
me much. l was: always lookin' aout
for fish. and We got the name of fin
gerlng .ne biggest fish agoin'. l
orcCught a halibut into Boston once that
weighed over 600 pounds. l reckon
that beats the deck. I've seen seven
halibut that weighed together 1,732
pounds taken by the schooner John
Dove in 1871"
"What was the largest Goldfish you
ever caught?" asked the listener.
Hundred and four pounds, was the
reply, land it was over five foot long.
But Capt Martin, of Gloucester, caught
the biggest that | ever heard on. 1t
weighed Ill pounds. I've caught
lobster that weighed 20 pounds, and
horse mackerel weighing 600 pounds.
| once tackled onto the biggest fish in
the world" continued the skipper
ga whaleP" asked the other.
ga whale amt q fish," retorted the
man of the sea. ''This one, ! reckon,
was a devil-fish-one o these ere
broadside fellows thirty foot across, all
beam, and drawin' abaout six inches.
We was lynn in harbor, when | see q
big ripple movin' araound, and think
ing it big horse mackerel / jumps in
to the boat and gifts the lads to pull
near it, and when alongside I tosses
the iron into it, and Lord bless We! 1
though the hull reef was arisin'. A fish
riz that looked like the vessel herself,
and in minute we was a-rushin'
daown the channel in way that was
caution to sinners. The channel
went araound an island, and as we
came around the second time the fish
went right for the brig. | see we was
a-goin' TO hit, and sings aout, 'Cut the
ropen but the man didn't have any
knife. Cast it Off says L It's
spliced to the painter, says he, and un-
der water That minute we struck.
The fish dove under the brig, and we,
not bein' able to dive, kind o tele-
scoped. The dingy just smashed all
to pieces. We fell into the water, and
was hauled aboard by the hands, and
the pieces. kept comm up all day.
The fish? Wall, l reckon he's
a-goin' yet. Some of 'em are thirty
feet across, and have kind o. horns at
the head, and often git foul O. anchor
and chains, and hauls vessels along
just as if they was boats. "-NeU York
san.