Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1885-06-11

priest would be heard: PAY youl
debts! Pray for the lost souls in Purga'
| tory''
There is a legend of Herr Won
Falkenbeg who was compelled to beat
about the ocean till the Day of Judg'
ment. on board ship without helm
or steersman, playing at dice for his
soul with the devil. 1t was common
for seamen who traversed the German
Ocean to declare that they had met the
phantom ship. Some legend of the
kind suggested to Coleridge his Crime
spectre ship in 1t. and dice are thrown
for the souls of the crew.
"Her lips were red her looks were free,
| Her locks were yellow as gold;
| Her skin was white as Ieprosy
| The night Life in death was she,
Who thicks mans blood with cold.''
The Flying Dutchman was a name
| given to one of these phantom ships.
1t scudded before the wind under a
| heavy press of sail when other ships
were afraid to show an inch of canvas.
She was generally declared to have
been seen in the vicinity of the Cape OF
Good Hope, and was always regarded
crew committed some atrocious crime;
the plague broke out among them; no
! harbor would consent to shelter them;
the apparition OF the ship still haunts
the seas in which the crimes were per-
petrated, etc. The superstition orig
mated with the Dutch. though the En-
glish sailors put the most faith in the
legend. Sir Walter Scott alluded to the
oh IN, <>f
COR, of that phantom ship whose form
Shoots like a meteor through the storm.
Full spread and crowded every sail
The demon. frigate braves the gale.
And well the doomed spectators know
The harbinger of wreck and wo"
1t was probably no uncommon occur
renee in early times for seafarers to
fall in with ships abandoned to the
winds and waves, with corpses on
board. Such instances may have sug-
gested the legends. On the other
hand they may have had their orr gin
in the looming up, or apparent suspen-
sion in the air, of some ship out of
messed at sea, and caused by unequal
mosphere.
We close our article with Cornish
tradition of phantom ship as related
by Mr.. Hunt:
One night gigs crew was called to
90 to the westward of st. Ives Head.
No sooner was one boat launched, than
several others put off from the shore.
and a stiff chase was maintained, each
one being eager to get to the ship, as
she had the appearance of a foreign
trader. The hull was clearly visible;
she was a schooner gged vessel with
a Light over her bows. Away they
pulled, and the boat which had been
first launched still kept ahead by dint
of mechanical power and skill. All the
men had thrown off their jackets to row
with more freedom. At length the
helmsman cried out, "Stand ready
to board her!'' The sailor rowing
the bow-oar. slipped it out of the row.
lock and stood on the forethwart, TAX
ing his jacket on his arm, ready to
spring aboard. The vessel came so
close to the boat that they could see
the men, and the bow-oar man made a
grasp at the bulwarks. His hand found
nothing solid, and he fell, being caught
by one of his mates. back into the boat,
instead of into the water. Then ship
and lights disappeared. The next
morning the Neptune, of London, Cap
tain Richard Grant, was wrecked at
Gwithian. and all on board perished.-
EI,.u1,I. ~ Sfua Hc,. m,