The Carbon advocate. [volume] (Lehighton, Pa.) 1872-1924, 1891-09-19
Single Copies S Gents
rnoUenr sue WAS HAUNTED.

Cyhnt Happened TO an American CIiP-
per ship with n superstitious Grew.
II don't believe in ghosts but Tllnn
forget tbe time ] had aboard an Ana
cam clipper ship which for many ri
/ thought was haunted, said Jim W..
dali. able seaman, engineer and a go
1h round workman, while spinning yat
and fairy tales with host Of kind
eptits
We were in the East Indies, said Do
San had a crew that came from
quarters Of the earth, and supsslis.-
a., ,ou could make 'em. Wew,ra born
fol Yolahana, but ran our nose b.
some pretty hard weather BeAre $50
cunie out the ship had lost 'Wcg
or. rboard, carried away her foretopu
. lost a yardarm. Captain Rates o''
clujed to put into Bombay and thy am
get some new spars, the spare ones having
Hirady been put into use.
We got into port right enough, and
r1rgyl a new tOpmast. The only yard
tbat could be bought for love or gold WIS
big iron fellow with a hollow insiale
] u svas part of what remained from Che
wreck Of an English ship J needed
some slight repair 7g, and this was done
ljy the ships carpenter. The it was
scnt aloft, and we put to sea with our
G, G,n1I cargo.
Everything went well the first raw
days our. and we had fair sailing wisli 20
Steady light wind. Finally tle v.nd
died out altogether and the ship st1rje,l
in to roll She would 30 bow on. and
then fall over from side to side, Ehj
started about suBdown when it was be-
ginning TO get dark.
The first roll she gave land I'll never
forget it) there was q horrible noise up
alot that made every man on dae,s iun'p,
from the mate to the man at the wheel.
It went z-z-z-iz-is-is-ip-bang. And every
time she rolled over bang il would 40
60 again. 1t was blood cirdieT. AND
sounded as if some one was trying to pull
down rything aloft
Il kept right on and the boys began
to growl Every one below had got on
deck, and when the mate ordered a
| couple of Englishmen to climb alof, t.s.y
refused to 60 They wouldn't have any
bloody. blarsted, blooming speeris in
thcirs.' SO and another chap weat p.
bu5 for the life of us VIC couldn't e
where all the trouble was coming f~onl,
except that the iron spar was mixed up
in the mischief somehow.
Whenever a man got on it, zi9 zap.
bang she would go, and two or hne
times we almost lost man overheard
from fright. Still we couldn't find nut
where the spool1 was, and the men he
gan to kick and tell the choicest lot Of
sea tales l ever heard in my life. Well,
sir, we got to Yokohama, and the first
thing the captain did to keep the men
from leaving that ship in nice hurry
was to have that iron sparbroughtdow
"Down she came, and the carpenter
opened it very carefully and with great
reluctance. What dye suppose he
found?"
"What?" said the crowd with one
voice.
"Why, heavy iron hammer. 1t had
been left in there at Bombay by one of
the men working on the spar. 1t was
sealed up and the plates screwed on. AS
long as we had fair weather it was all
right, but when there was a sea on, why
the old hammer would start out on
tour of exploration. The interior Of the
spar was rough and that made theracket,
and when she fetched up at the end there
was bang. But we didn't hear nary q
ghost yarn all the way back.
"Yes, Jim concluded, II think so, too,
there is only one drink in this kind of
weather. and that is beer"