Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1889-01-03
The STORY OF TIE SEA
The Captain 81 steamer Relates an II,
perience that Rivals Fiction.

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.
says the san Francisco Examiner.
The ship, said Captain Putt. had
"a hard time from the start. We had
70 do lot OF repairing at the Falkland
Islands after going through a gale that
almost sent her to the bottom.
prom the Horn up to the CHILEAN
coast we loundered in a 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
The boy was wrapped in a biz SON
wester and IN consequence could not
swim.
"A sailor named Banning saw that
the boy could not swim wrapped up as
ne was, and leaped into the water after
him.
The sea water in this neighborhood
IS so cold that a man cannot live much
longer than twenty-five or thirty min
utcs in H.
HE 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.
at did not resemble cloud nor did
1t 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 aud 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.
Just as he reached the water the
great creature reached the boy, who
was growing very faint.
AT 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
il away.
1T was some time before the boat
could be lowered, and b. the time it
was let down into the waterand manned
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.
He was on his back, lodging the
beak of his adversary and swimming
toward the vessel with all his might. /
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 birdl" yelled the mate.
running about the deck like crazy
man and shouting at the top of his
voice orders that were not obeyed.
'1n shooting |, of course, ran the
risk of killing the boy instead of the
big bird, it, indeed, he was not killed
by the fall; but there was not much
time to think Of this; the bird was
still rising and, after hasty aim fired.
at was an excellent shot
"A wing fell helpless, as if | had
broken it. and the bird tumbed down
into the water. The second bird when
il say inc boat approach, left Banning
and made Il fierce attack on one of the
boatmen, striking him with its foot
blow that fclIcd him to the bottom
of the boat. Another of the crewraised
an oar and hit the bird with all his
might when it flew away
BANNING. Gray, and the boy were
picked up. The latter was uucon-
scious, bur after a good rubbing he was
brought to, Banning was bleeding
about the face and more or less injured
about the body.
The wounded bird fought viciously
when an attempt was made TO capture
1t. II was finally lassocd and taken on
board. Three weeks aftcrward it died,
and it is now at Valparaiso being
stuffed
The boy said that before he went
down he felt himself losing conscious
ness and grabbed at the enormous bird
that was lowering over him. He
caught It's feet and held on with a grip
Of drowning man. He partially re-
thought he was higher up than he
really was aud did not dare to let go.
Il have seen many bic 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 ilattened,
was skinned and bleeding 1t had the
biz, 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 o. board
aud until it died it was not Sc N to eat,
but it slept constantly, and it took
some rough handling to awaken 1t.