The Abilene reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1883-1888, 1884-03-06
Breaking In O Horse Mackerel.
"see that man." said the Captain


I cod fisherman at the Fulton Market
slip, pointing TO a round-shouldered,
.ong-limbed sailor who was busy
scraping down the mainmast with
piece OF window pane;> wall. he's rid
what amt a-goin' to Re rid again. No,
he didn't ride no gale o wind, nor no
sea sarpint, nor no Davy Jones COW.
What he buckled to was a reg'lar out
and-outer of hoSs mackerel. / seen
him do it, added the skipper, ham
mering the rail with a Delaying pin;
"and he rid him well, too. Hi, Amos,
drop down a minute, will ye?"
Amos slackened away the halyard
that had suspended him in mid air and
lowered 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 affidavy I'm bound to
stick to it. 1t came" he continued.
seating himself on the rail, .'some-
thing like this: l was second mate of
the mackerelman Weepin' Susan. That
wasn't her registered name. but she
was so master damp when close hauled
that we gev her the handle sort of OFF
hand. and it stuck to her like burrs to
curly dog. We generally lay on and
by between Bide;Ord and NJ nhirran,
and in a stress of weather put into the
first hole we can ketch. One evenin'
it come on to blow, and the hull fleet
got inside of Fort Popham and laid it
out, a snortin' nor easter. After she
blowed out it came on a dead calm,
and the boys got on what they call a
racket. There was over 800 sail of
mackerelmen packed into little har-
Dor, SO you could almost jump aboard
of EN-, one from another. and on each
was a crew of from ten to fifteen men,
making probably 1000 men in all,
Wall, about noon, somebody sounds a
1000 of them fog horns was a tootin'
like they'd gone crazy, and the other
hands what hadn' t horns was lammin'
on tin pans they'd yanked out of the
galley, and everybody was a-yel-
lin. 1 tell We it made a noise
that made the fish shed their scales
all through the bay. III swan We could
hear the howlin' and roarin' five miles.
"Wall, the hull gang was a-goin' it
when our skipper noticed big school
of what we took to be macherel right
across the bay in shore. You kin bet
we dropped them horns and jumped
der 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 com
mons In haulin' in the net we worke
into shoal water, and | was standin
for ard and holdin' the seine, when
there came jerk and splash, and a
big fish riz right in front of me, and the
first thing | knew was on top of boss
mackerel twelve foot long. l fell right
astride of it. and in tryin' to fend off
the critter l grabbed it by the gills, and,
Lord bless ye! in a second l was rushin'
steam eniine. / was so took back that
| hung on for all was worth, the lads
a-screamin' and yellin' so t thought
my time had come. Down went the
big cuSS, but he couldn't sink me on ac-
count of the shoal water. Then he
turned up the beach. leadin', as luck
would have it, right along one of these
ere fences or fish weirs, and goin' like
lightnin', the spray a-fyin', and
a-bracin' back like l was leadin'
charge. In minute OF so we reached
the fence, and the critter gev sharp
turn and dashed up along to'ards the
boats again, a stretch of two hundred
yards. BY this time the higgins of the
hull fleet was black with the lads
a-screamin' and hurrahin'. 1 don't
know how it came, but afore the critter
reached the boat it slowed, and Oft
went, but hangin' on like grim death,
his gills cuttin' into my hands like
knives. But l was bound to hang OH
or bust, and hang on l did. My |
slidin' to le'ward headed the big critter
in, and he rushed clean on to the fiat.
| rid him clean ashore, and if you kin
beat that for ridin', want to see the
boss. ~. Y. Sun.