The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1884-01-31
Riding Horse MacKereI

AN EXCITING RIDE ON WHALE BY THE
SECOND MATE OF THE ''WEEPIN' SUSAN"
'See that mar 2" said the captain of a
cod fisherman at the Fulton market Slip
pointing to found -shouldered, long
lnbed sailor who was busy scraping
down the mainma asst with piece of win
dow pane; ''wa.l, he's rid what amt
a-goln' to be rid again. No, he didn't ride
out no gale o vino, nor no sea sarpint, nor
no Davy Jones COW. What he buckled
to was regular out an outer Of a hoss
mackerel. | seen him do it," added the
skipper, hammering the rail with be-
laying pin land he rid him well, too.
Hi Amos, drop down minute will
ye?"
Amos slackened away the halyard that
had suspended him in mid air and lower
ed away, and coming forward, wrenched
the reporters arm with New England
cordiality.
81 amt much on pipin' my own horn, !"
he said; "but as Captain Lish has made
the attidavy Pm bound to stick to it, It
come" he continued, seating himself on
the rail, ''somethn' like this: | was
secoid mate of the mackerel- man Weep
in Susan. That wasn't her registered
name, but she was so master damp when
close hauled that we gev her the handle
sort Of ott-hand, and it stuck to her like
burrs to a curly dog. We generally lav
on and by between Biddeford and Mn
hlggan, and in a stress of weather put
into the first hole We could ketch. One
evenin it came on to blow, and the hull
fleet got inside of Fort Popham and laid
1t out snortin' noreaster After she
bloWed out, it came on dead calm, and
the boys got on what they call racket.
There was over 300 sail of m ckere- men
packed into little harbor so YOU could
almost jump aboard of 'em one from
another, and on each was a crew of from
10 to 10 men, making probably 1000
men IN all. Wall, about noon, somebody
sounds fog horn, and in a minute more
over 900 of them fog horns was a toot-
in like they had gone crazy, and the
other hands what hadn't horns was a.
ammln' on tin pans they'd yanked out
OF the galley, and everybody was a-yel-
lin. | tell ye it made a noise that made
the fish shed their scales all through the
bay. FIJI swan We could hear the hCwlin'
and roarin' five miles.
"Nell the hull gang was agoin' it when
our skipper noticed a big school Of what
we took to be mackerel right across the
bay in shore. You kin bet we dropped
them horns and jumped for the boats,
and IN minute was under way A half
dozen Of the others see what was up and
put after us, but we got there first, hev
over the net and was round the school in
short commons. In haulin' in the net
we worked into shoal water, and | was
standin for'ard and holdn' the seine,
when there came a Jerk ard splash,
and big fish riz in front of me, and the
first thing knew | was on top of a hoss
mackerel II foot long. | fell right as
tride of it, and in tryin' to fend off the
crltter | grabbed it by the gils, and
Lord bless ye. in a second was rushin'
along on the ere critters back like a
steam engine. | was SO took back that |
hung on for all was WORTH the lads a.
screamin and yellin' so't thought nv
time had come. Down went the big
cuss, but he couldn't sink me on account
of the shoal water. Then he turned up
lhe beach, leadin', as luck would have it,
right along one Of these ERE fences or
fish wires, and gon' like lightnin, and
spray a-hgin' and a bracin' back like
was leadin' charge. In minute or 50
we reached the fence, and the critter gev
sharp turn and dashed up along to'ards
the boats again, stretch OF 200 yards.
BY this time the riggin's of the hull fleet
was black with the lads a-screamin' and
hurrahin'. | don't know how it came,
but atore the critter reached the boat it
slowed, and off | went, but hangin' on
like grim death, his gills cuttin' into my
hands like knives. But | was bound to
hang on or bust, and hang on did. My
slldin' to le'wald headed the big critter
in, and he rushed clean on to the fiat. |
rid him clean ashore, and if you kin beat
that for rldin' | want to see the hoss. y
New York Sun.