, 1890-07-03
CAPTAIN OF THE NANCY LEE.

one morninur Iust aa nipht UNA fad.
ING into dawn thougbt hoard n
voice hallinr us from tho surfaeo of
the sea. There nro sea birds who
cry ont almost like human be,ngs
and although I was stnrtled nv tho
hail. I dismissed IL after n few sec.
onds ma the cry of n bird. Soorcoly v
had I done 40 when n camo apain.
anJ ,,is ,i,,o I Lro,, a, ,yns ,hr
-. ~ - m, W e
'oee W wo,''"n' ""s ~.
neeu 10 nan the mate on WATCH 'o'
ne hearo the cry as We'll we were
Jogging along uhder easy saii' ana
ne seized the glass ana ran UP Tn,
'orerigginR. ihere was sort o'
steam rising from tne water
u"' ."o i''".o NV, no' e''il'cu
.nu'y e.' "ne" uo"n Nv an,
aga'n' "nu III one o,ee," or"e'1o
'ne sniP INTO ',e W,"o' .ue 'ap""'
a'oisco .' nhu u ooa' 'oWeie'. % w ~ o
'ne W"'.'i NV" hV "o,''' '.ae wy
snip nno peen na''en " tas.aways, s' =
pu' 'he oo"' w"s "own , ~ oo'o'v nnS
oil us maze OUT u zone woman VI
sor' o' cs,oe cra'' aoou. wv o"p,,' aa
,ensth away on our lor. oo", , ,ne
na" neither neither pnuule ,, nor o',; a"u .,, NV,
crai' WIS "ri''hp WIN 'he "'','
anu sen, "h,'e sue s"' oo"e''"s VI
'ne Sp',"' ou' ooo. was SOU "'o's
sioe VI "e' o'"''' "'iN "o,'''"'
ana canoe were soon apoaru o.
tne Auhlra, Ne'Son, ne wh'c,,
below had ocen turned up, utiu
eNerypo,iy was on mech 10 see WIN,
was going on Inc woman WINS
white, and, ~ we soon ascertaineut
American. say white, but bronze
would he the better term, for II was
evident thnt she had long been OK
,,osad A., ,,.o,,taal ,.aa,Iar Sba wos
po''' w. "oi''"' ".'."'' 80
VI hieu'u'i siHc' r.Sui"r ic"'"'os,
ana about 40 yenrs oi age, ana nad
at one time been good.looking.
"Who and where IL the captain
Of this shippp ahe suddenly snapped.
as she rooched tb, dock
all 49,, - oatio,,,, ro,,i,ad
~" gu" e t,,.
our OH IMAM, hs ne s,ePPeu orishiy
forward,
al want to talk to you In your
cabin ~ she continued. her fingers
work,ny porvouslv and her eyes
asra
M,
lney hau not peen gone a quarter
Oh an hour Wheh Doth reappcareu on
deck. j was at the wheel, and
therefore heard all that was said.
u appeared that the woman, whose
name was Mrs. Thomas, owned and
sailed trading schooner, which had
been left her at her husbands death.
IL was n strange vocation for a wo.
man, but 1t seemed she liked 1t, and
also had good business head on
her. She had a crew of six, her
mate being an Englishman and tho
others Lascars, and she had been
sailing between nearly all the towns
on the gulf. Three days before we
picked her up, her schooner had
left Sumatru, bound for the
indian coast. The crew seemed to
he perfectly quiet and content, but
at 10 O'Clock of the previous night,
headed by the mate, had suddenly
laid violent hands ON her and sent
her adrift without water, food OF a
paddle. The intention was to run
away with the schooner and cargo
and Sc them, and this plan might
have been carried out but FOR her
rescue.
she was the spunkiest little wo-
man l ever saw. She was 80 mad
she couldn't stand still for three sec
onds at n time. What she wanted
was for our ship to go In pursuit.
Her schooner was armed with two
brass six-pounders, while we had
four twelves, and she expressed to
me her entire Willingness to see her
craft sent to the bottom before the
crew should benefit by
their acts. Captain Wheeler was
pretty well along In years, very care
iul on the question OF insurance, and
his mind was not made up until after
breakfast. Then he decided To luff
up toward the Andaman Islands In
search of the schooner, and he al
most promised to give her n taste of
our metal II she would not sur
render.
The little woman managed to eat
a dozen muuthiuls ol breakfast, aud
then returned to the deck to almost
assume control. she ordered man
aioft, bosscd the Job OF casting loose
the guns and getting up powder and
shot, and every ten minutes she was
hallins the lookout to know If any
thing was in sight. Luck was In
her favor. While we had been Jog
ging along all night, the schIoneS,
being further to the east, had been
almost bccllmed. We raised her
almost dead ahead about noon, and,
as luck would have 1t, again we had
plenty of wind, while she had none
until the vessels were not over two
milpa anurt Thn asho,nar could