The Bad Lands cow boy. [volume] (Little Missouri, Dakota [i.e. N.D.]) 1884-1886, 1886-07-08
AN OCEAN MYSTERY.
A TRUE STORY.

y SpIN sDoulIoi u6I uASbICoUy . - At3e0oSt
the dear old Bruiswater, nov, alas!
long since consigned to the shipbreak-
er. The fact Of our being homeward
bound should have made all hearts
light and all faces bright among
our 500 souls, but for all that
there was a general air OF
gloom in the ship, which was not to be
accounted for save by one theory only
that of superstition. For things
4 had not gone well with us sincew we had
hoisted our homeward- bound pen
dant. True, we had sailed outsof Val
paraiso Bay with the said pendant
! streaming away, and with all our
s'chummy'1 ships playing HShould
Aud Acquaintance be Forgot?" as we
passed by them; and we had received
!. and returned cheer upon cheer as we
made our way to, the open sea, while
from the Il nlidshipman' s berth had
rolled 1p in aaa sffich volume Of sound,
every night for more than q, week be-
fore, the old strain, SO we'll known and
so lovingly cherished in her Majesty's
service: 4ss 8 " s3,,.s, 3, 81
And when we arrive at Plymouth Docks,
The. pretty little girls come rounds in floeks,
y Auu UU6 10 Glo QUIET, fUuey 40 Say. ~ 81
+; "Oh, here comes Jack with his three years'
For see he's honleward. bou-ou-o und,.
For sec he's homeward bound. "s4:r
But still, as I say, things had not
gone well with us. We had speedily
left the warmth of tropical weather
and had gradually found it colder and
colder each morning as we made our
way down south towards the dreaded
Cape Of Storms. That was natural and
! we were prepared for it; but no sooner.
had we got to the latitude of.the Cape
itself than the wind had shifted, and
we had it day after day, night after
night, q hard gale right in our teeth.
Bitter cold it was, too, with tearing
storms Of snow and hail-heavy thun-
dering seas sweeping us fore and aft,
bursting in upon ourweathcr bow, and
covering us with spray that froze ere
(, it fell upon our decks. Up aloft, every
thing frozen hard-running rigging as
! stiff and unmanageable as asteel haw-.
ser; blocks jammed with ice and snow;
canvas as nnyielding as q board; men
up aloft for an hour or more try
ing to take a reef in the fore.topsail,
and then so stiffened with cold them
selves as to be unable to come down
without assistance; while below, the
close, musty, damp, dal ship was the
picture of discomfort; her, decks, main
and lower, always wet, often with an
inch or; two of ice-cold water washing
about on them; soaking clothes hung
up all over the place, in the wild hope
that they might eventually get dry;
ports and scnttles tight shut, to keep
out the seas that Numbered ceaseless-
sly at them as the ship plunged and
wallowed in the angry element; no
( fires allowed anywhere except at the
cooks gallery, which was always fully
occupied; and no warmth to be OBJ
tanned anywhere exceptin your ham
! mock. and even this, in most cases,
what with faulty stowage and leaky
decks was wet through.
Day after day, night after night,
this state OF things kept on, until there
y gradually crept in among the men
started, no doubt, by the older hands,
i always and deeply imbued with the
spirit of superstition-a sort of dim
suspicion that the ship was under q
( ban-hewitched, J, in fact; that, as they
said, there was a Jonah aboard, and
until he went overheard we should
never weather the dreaded Cape, but
were doomed to thrash continually
to windward, never gaining an inch on
Il our way. Strange as it may, seem,
there were many, very many, among
our blue jackets who held this belief
firmly and expressed it openly We,
of course, in the ,nidshipman's BERTH.
/ careless and light hearted from our ex-
I IRENE youth, laughed at the solemn
tones of the old quarterm asters, who
employed their hours OF midnight
watch on deck in narrating to us SIM
liar instances of vessels which. had
thus been doomed to struggle with the
storm until some unknown criminal
i had either confessed his crime, or had
4 voluntarily paid the penalty Of it.
! But, as the bad weather continued
j and the ship seemed quite unable to
advance upon her homeward track,
3 some OF us too began to allow our
minds to be influenced to certain de.
4 gree by the mysterious language and
yominous hints OF these men, SO much
4 our elders in years and superiors in
practical experience. 4: Sl=; III. II
S. Matters had got to this pitch, and mo
change appeared about to take place
I in the aspect OF the weather or the di.
rection Of the wind, when one wild and
.wretched forenoo at seven bells (elev-
! en- thirty the men were piped to mus
Z ter on the main deck for that one drop
81 comfort which they could look for
ward to in the day-the serving out of
each mans s.totn Of grog. Faces which
at other times wore a look OF gloom
I were Frightening under the influence
of the spirit; the joke began to- pass
3 around as the blood warmed and
flowed more rapidly through the veins,
when 81 Whisp PERI sort OF NUT TERED
suggestion, made atSfrst with a kind
OF apologetic reluct lance, but with
growing confid ence and insistance, as
.it gained ground passed through the
throng Of men that one OF their nuns
Der was missing. Such a whisper makes
3iIs way through q ship "a company
however large, like q current Of electric
ity, and so it was in this case; but at
! first the men keptitto themselves. Tt
f could not long, however, be concealed;
and presently it spread to L the mid
i shipments berth; next the wardroom
heard it; and soon the captain him
selfwas made aware of the suspicion.
Well I remember how, as we sat in the
5 old, damp, comfortless dirty berth,
discussing the matter with boyish
\ eagerness, the sudden shrill pipe Of
! boatswain's mats burst upon our
4 ears, followed by the hoarse cry Of
so Hands. muster by open listln So,
then, the captain thought 1t impor-
tant enough to make serious and Off
u cial inquiry into. Then came the call
ing over Of those 500 names, with
most OF which we had been familiar
\ for three years or more Of our com.
,r,issinn IN The Pacific. 3 Rnt i 81 an