The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1888-07-26
rAg STORY or rAg sEA.
The Captain of a steamer Relates an Ex,
perience that Rivals FictOn.


A strange story told by Captain
Putt of the British steamer Talisman,
which came around Cape Horn from
Liverpool, makes it appear possible
that the stories of the sailors may not
be all exaggerations or inventions,
saws the San Francisco Examiner.
"The ship, "said Captain Putt, ''had
hard time from the start. We had
to do lot of repairing at the Falkland
Islands after going through gale that
almost sent her to the bottom.
From the Horn up to the Chilian
coast we floundered in changing gale
for two weeks. One day the mates
son, a lad of about fifteen, was thrown
by lunge of the ship from his seat on
a crosstree into the water.
1.-The boy was wrapped in big SOU
wester and in consequence could not
swim.
"a sailor named Banning saw that
the boy could not swim wrapped up as
he was, and leaped into the water after
him.
1.-The sea water in this neighborhood
is so cold that man cannot live much
longer than twenty-five or thirty min
utes in it.
The attention of every man on board
was given to the two men in the water.
but when one sailor raised his eyes and
saw an enormous bird make direct for
the boy he emitted cry of terror,
which was joined in by every one as
soon as they saw it.
sit did not resemble cloud nor did
it carry rock in its talons, but it was
an enormous creature that no two men
would care to battle with under any
circumstances.
when Banning raised his eyes and
saw the bird his first thought was to
turn around and make for the ship.
Fear took possession of him, and his
strokes grew less powerful.
Seeing Banning's danger James
Gray jumped in after him.
dust as he reached the water the
great creature reached the boy, who
was growing very faint.
.sAt first the bird seemed undeter-
mined what to do. 1t pecked at the boy
about the body, needing not the shouts
of the sailors, who sought to frighten
it away.
.sIt was some time before the boat
could be lowered. and by the time it
was let down into the waterand manned
the boy had gone down once.
His sudden disappearance sur
prised the bird, which was about to
turn its attention to Banning when the
| boy came to the surface again. / ran
to my cabin and returned with rifle
| to shoot the bird should it grow ugly.
when got on deck the first thing
saw was the strange creature rising in
| to the air with the boy, and its mate,
| which suddenly appeared, almost as
large, was attacking Banning.
.sHe was on his back, lodging the
beak of his adversary and swimming
| toward the vessel with all his might. I
never was more excited in my life.
hardly knew what to do. The boy was
being carried away and was up thirty
or forty feet in the air.
..Shoot the birdn yelled the mate.
running about the deck like crazy
man and shouting at the top of his
! voice orders that were not obeyed.
I'm shooting |, of course, ran the
| risk of killing the boy instead of the
big bird, if, indeed, he was not killed
by the fall; but there was not much
time to think of this; the bird was
at was an excellent shot.
"A wing fell helpless, as if had
broken it. and the bird tumbled down
into the water The second bird when
it saw the boat approach, left Banning
and made a fierce attack on one of the
boatneu, striking him with its foot d
blow that felled him to the bottom
of the boat. Another of the crewr aised
an oar and hit the bird with all his
might, when it flew away.
Claiming, Gray, and the boy were
picked up. The latter was uncon-
-scious, but after good rubbing he was
brought to. Banning was bleeding
about the face and more OF less injured
about the body.
.'The wounded bird fought viciously
when an attempt was made to capture
it. 1t was finally lassoed and taken on
board. Three weeks afterward it died,
and it is now at Valparaiso being
stuffed.
1.-THE boy said that before he went
down he felt himself losing conscious
ness and grabbed at the enormous bird
that was hoyering over him. He
caught its feet and held on with grip
OF a drowning man. He partially re-
gained his senses in the air, but
thought he was higher up than he
really was and did not dare to let go.
Il have seen many big condors and
other large BIRDS continued the Cap
tain, '.but never any winged thing as
large as this. The stretch of its wings
was over fourtain feet. The head and
neck were destitute of feathers, and
the former, which was much fattened.
was skinned and bleeding. 1t had the
big, strong beak of an albatross, and
the plumage, though somewhat darker.
was not unlike that of the latter bird.
Its feet were only partially webbed.
During the time we had it on board
and until it died it was not seen to eat,
but it slept constantly, and it took
some rough handling to awaken it.