Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1888-10-27

best Job | could out of rope which was
quite tagged out.
s'Well," said he, s'if that's your best
you are as much of Iubber as your
friend Martyn But I'll dock you both to
ordinary seaman's wages.
tried to show him that the rope was
too much worn to make a neat piece of
work of it.
''Indeed," said, lit is sadly tagged"
Tagged, is it.'' cried he, scornfully.
'sThen III finish it over your lubberly
back"
'.No, you won't!' roared out voice
from behind the longboat.
The captain rushed in the direction Of
the sound, but failed to discover the
speaker.
ssWho was that1' he cried in storm
of wrath. ssLet me know who it is, and
III thrash him within an inch of his
lifel"
'sWil youl Hal hal har' was the
mocking reply, dropping seemingly from
the maintop.
1t was broad daylight when this took
place, SO we conld see that there was no
one up there. I was as much startled
and mystified by the occurrence as the
captain; but neither he nor /. nor any of
the crew to whom he applied, could
throw light thereon. But whoever or
whatever uttered the words, my purpose
was served as was Martyrs ON pre-
vious occasion. The irate captain went
below, filled more with fear than rage,
throwing behind him, as he stepped upon
the cabin ladder. the ropes end which
had SO vexed him.
Sailors, in general, are superstitious
beings. Whatever cannot easily be made
out or accounted for on natural priu-
ciples is laid to the account of the super
natural Our captain was no better in
this respect than his crew, for he was as
illiterate as they, except In the matter of
navigation, and as rough and untutored.
He evidently believed his ship was
haunted, and that spirit from the vast
deep had mind to torment him by its
interferences. His fears were increased
not many days after. On returning to
rest at the end of his evenings watch his
sluubers were disturbed by a loud and
fearful cry, which seemed to enter the
cabin by the side light, which was left
open for ventilation. The cry was heard
by the second officer ON tho quarter deck
and by Martyr, who was ct the wheel.
| Neither of them could throw any light
upon the incident to the captain, who had
rushed on to the deck in state of terror
and demanded in vain for the production
of the offender.
From that day it was clear to all hands
that Capt. James was tormented by
apprehensions of coming disaster. An
idea was fixed in his mind that his ship
was visited by spirit from the invisible
world, which preferred to make itself
| heard rather than seen. And this idea
was strengthened by the fact that when
he was on deck and became angry at the
conduct of any of the men, especially
| when his anger was made manifest by
oaths or blows, the unseen but ever Wig
liant visitor from the afar world, perched
apparently on top of the mainmast, ut
ter the insolent laugh or. solemn warn
| ing. On these occasions the poor man
would rush off to his cabin with
blanched cheek and tottering limbs, and
there abide until the gale in his moral
sensibilities should subside. That it was
| angry with no one else but the captain
| was clear, from the fact that it never
took notice of the conduct of any other
| person. The mate or the boatswain
| might act as they liked, on the men
might give or call each other hard
names; no matter-the voice was not
| heard-neither laugh nor moan fell upon
| our ears.
| But most of those who lived in the
forecastle were far from being happy;
many of them shared the fear Of our
skipper, and / saw that they would
rather have braved his wrath than to be
tormented as they were by the 'voices
of the night" or day. Martyr and my
self were exceptions. What his opinion
was could not say; he met all my ques-
tons by adroit evasions. AS for myself,
| / had no explanations to give. Thus
| matters went on until We were within
| two days sail of the islands. All the
while our captain had been kept from
| tyranny by his fears of the voice, but
now, exasperated by some fault in sea-
manship on the part Of Martyr. and
being the worse for liquor, he hurled a
Delaying pin at him which struck him ON
the head. Clapping his hands to his
head he rushed to the forecastle. 1t
was evident that the skipper expected
to hear the voice, for he looked nervously
aloft, but all was silent in that direc-
ton His courage returned and he
| desired the second officer to call Martyr
back to the deck. Getting no answer to
his call the mate went below, where he
found the poor fellow delirious. Return
ing to the deck he reported him to be in
| dangerous condition. This filled the
captain with fear. He ordered that
every attention be paid him, which was
done. That night it became necessary to
have all hands on deck to reef, and while
we were on the yards an awful cry, like
that of maniac, arose from the bow OF
the vessel and the next moment several
of US saw human form on the rail near
the forecastle and then loud splash was
heard in the water under our lee. The
captain and chief officers who were on
deck rushed to Che side. A hat was seen
for moment bobbing on the crest of a
wave, the maniacal cry was repeated,
when Capt James, himself uttering a
loud cry, fell senseless on the deck. The
mate then hailed us who were on the top
sail yard: Come down from aloft! Clear
away the small boat!'
We thought he was as near beside him
self as was the captain; and SO he was
for the moment, for when we gained the
deck he was ready to countermand the
order. Everything was awful beyond
expression; the wind and water were
raging wild; it was impossible for boat
to live in 50 rough sea, so, making a
virtue Of necessity, the search for the
poor, maddened fellow was abandoned
amid VOWS of vengeance against the cap
tain and tears for our poor. lost mess
mate. Forty-eight hours after this we
entered Hilo. A vast change had come
over TIE crew. The captain, knowing
their peculiarities, had supplied them
with money and copious hbations Of
whisky; 50, instead of reporting him to
the consul, as they declared they would,
they were ready to shout his praise all
4 l. l. r. ~