The sun. [volume] (Morris, Stevens County, Minn.) 1882-1895, 1886-07-08
AN OCEAN MYSTERY.
A TRUE STORY.

ago since the events related below oc-
CURED, yet the impression left upon
my mind has never faded or lost the
vividness OF it's outlines; and though
there is nothing really inexplicable
about it, yet the dash OF mystery con.
nected with it has always marked it
in my memory as an incident OF an
unusual order.
We were driving on our way north
wards from the gloomy and savage
neighborhood OF Cape Horn, home
ward bound in her Majesty's frigate,
the dear old Bruiswater, now, alas!
long since consigned to the shipbreak-
err. 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 tine ship, which was not to be
accounted for save by one theory only
that OF superstition. For things
had not gone well with us since we had
hoisted our homeward-bound PEN
dant. True, we had sailed out of Val
paraiso Bay with the said pendant
streaming away, and with all our
''chummy" ships playing "Should
Auld Acquaint lance 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 midshipman's berth had
rolled up in q rich volume OF sound,
every night for more than q week be-
fore, the old strain;>so well known and
so lovingly cherished in her Majesty's
service:
And when we arrive at Plymouth Docks,
The pretty little girls come rounds in fiocks,
And one to tho other they do say:
"Oh, here comes Jack with his three years
pay;
For see he's homewa ard bou-ou- ound,
For see he's homeward bound"
But still, as I say, things had not
gone we'll 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
wav 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, a 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 our weather 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 steel haw-
ser; blocks damned with ice and snow;
canvas as unyielding as board; men
up aloft for an hour or more try
ing to take 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, dark 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 scuttles tight shut, to keep
out the seas that Numbered ceaseless-
ly 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 except in 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
gradually crept in among the mon
started, no doubt, by the older hands,
always and deeply imbued with the
spirit of superstition-a sort of dim
suspicion that the ship was under a
oan-bewitched, in fact; that, as they
said, there was Jonah aboard, and
until he went over board we should
never weather the dreaded Cape, but
were doomed to thrash continually
TO windward, never gaining an inch on
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,
If course, in the midshipman's berth,
careless and light-hearted from our ex-
IRENE youth, laughed at the solemn
Jones of the old quartermasters, 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
had either confessed his crime, or had
voluntarily paid the penalty of it
But, as the bad weather continued
and the ship seemed quite unable to
4 advance upon her homeward track,
some Of us too began to allow our
minds to be influenced to a certain de-
yree by the mysterious language and
ominous hints of these men, so much
our elders in years and superiors in
practical experience.
Matters had got to this pitch, and nc
change appeared about to take place
II the aspect of the weather or the di
,ection of the wind, when one wild and
vretched forenoon at seven bells (elev
IN thirty the men were piped to mus
Ter on the main deck for that one DROP
of comfort which they could look for
ward to in the day-the serving out O
each mans ''tot" ofgrog. Faces which
at other times wore look of gloon
we're Frightening under the influence
,f the spirit; the joke began to pass
around as the blood warmed an6
lowed more rapidly through the veins
when whisper-a sort of muttere(
) suggestion, made at first with a kline
If apologize reluctance, but will
> growing confidence and insistance, al
J tgained ground-passed through thu
!. ;hrong of men that one of their mum
i. oer was missing. Such a whisper makes
|, Us way through a ships company
> however large, like q current of electric
q ty, and SO it was in this case; but al
, irst the men kept it to themselves. L
,, ,ould not long, however, be concealed
! Ind presently it spread to the mid
; shipments berth; next the wardroon
! heard it; and soon the captain him
! elf was made aware of the suspicion
;. Well remember how, as We sat in tn
, sid, damp, comfortless, dirty bert h
). discussing the matter with boyisl
, .agerness, the sudden shrill pipe o
,oatswain's mate burst upon ou
j ;ars, followed by the hoarse cry O
! Hands muster by open listl" So