Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1891-04-10
4 MYSTERY or THE SEA


4 True story.
In the summer of 1884 | was coming
across the Indian ocean in the steamship
Glenearn, homeward- bound from Shanghai
with cargo of tea We had passed Cey-
lJn, catching a glimpse of the distant is
land and a Whit of the spicy breeze off
shore, and were nearing the treacherous
chain of coral reefs known as the Maldive
Islands, when | came up from the cabin
after dinner for a stroll on deck. The
evening sky glowed with the beauty of a
rich sunset such as is rarely seen outside
the tropics. The good ship rocked easily
upon a long, smooth swell, and plowed her
way into a sea of molten gold turning it,
as by the touch of a magician's rod, into
blue depths of water beneath her keel.
The vessels wake, churned into foam and
shot through with countless flashes of phos-
phoresence, stretched far astern like a sill
very path leading to the very edge of the
full moon which hung Just above the hori
zon.
found the chief engineer leaning against
the rail and enjoying the glorious beauty
of the evening. For some time neither of
US spoke. At length he remarked in a
meditative way
guese brig when we were coming out
Now Nesbit was clear headed Scot who
had studied in one of the English universi-
ties and taken his degree then giving way
to his passion for a rowing life, he had gone
to sea and spent twenty years afoat. He
had doubled more than once the Horn and
the Cape, made a dozen voyages TO China
and Japan, and as an engineer in the Portu
guese navy, had visited the whole coast of
Africa, and once crossed the Dark Cont
nent on foot just below the equator. In
short. he had seen much of the world, and
taken good note of what he saw.
The chief engineer, therefore, was a man
who had in his head much material for a
good story and it was in the hope of get
ting a story now chat | asked
"Well, what about the Portuguese brig
He looked up in surprise.
What Haven't you heard of the ad-
venture we had on the last trip out No
Bout as curious a thing as ever came
within hail of. But it's a long yarn so
let's find some seats first, and then I'll spin
it for you
We took possession of a couple of steam
er chairs on the after deck, and forthwith
the chief spun his yarn as follows:
'We came out in February loaded mostly
with iron had rough time of it in the
Bay of Biscay and the Mediterranean, but
when we had gotten past those cussed
Frenchmen on the Suez canal our troubles
for that voyage were over. Those canal
pilots make an engineer swear more than a
storm at sea.
"Well, Just in this place, one day about
noon, we passed brig about four miles
north of us. The sun was hot, there was
not breath of wind, and the brig lay
rocking on the swell with all sail set and
tapping. She showed no colors and failed
to answer the signals which we made to
her. The captain swore little at her
want of manners, and we went on but
when we had passed her at some distance,
perhaps a couple of miles, went on the
bridge and found him still eveling his glass
at her. AS came up he said, Il don't like
the looks of that craft at all She isn't
ship-shape, and I'm going to run over to
her and find out what's wrong
"He put the steamers head for the brig,
and soon we were as close as the swell
would allow. We hailed her but got no re-
ply. Then the old man began to get ex-
cited and ordered the mate to call away the
crew of the cutter and investigate, When
the mate came close alongside he hailed
again. Still no reply. She lay with her
starboard beam toward us. He pulled
around her stern and found the port gang.
way open. A man in red shirt and pair
of trousers sat there on the deck, his legs
hanging over the side. He was leaning
back upon box under his left arm, and q
red handkerchief trailed from his right
hand across his lap. A loud hail at clost
quarters brought no movement or response
and a sudden awe fell upon the boats crew
The man was dead
'The mate pulled forward to the bow
and climbed up the chains to the deck. III,
said afterward that nothing would have
/ hired him to climb into the gangway besid,
| that silent figure. Four men lay on tn,
| deck around the forward hatch. They haC
| been dead a long time, and the burning
/ sun poured down upon CHASTITY bodies which
were almost skeletons, they were so thin.
The crew of the cutter were ordered
up and they searched the ship from stem
to stern. They found no one in the fore
castle or the hold, and no one in the cabin
but in the galley they found the Mala!
/ cook and the cabin-boy, both dead, tn,
/ cook lying upon his face with his finger
/ twisted in his long black hair. All th'
men except the captain seemed to hav
died in agony, for their bodies were writhe'
and twisted.
There was plenty of food aboard-a casl
of salt beef, several hundred weight o
rice, and some flour There were pent
of Goals for the galley fire. The ship wa
perfectly sound, not a sail was split, not
halyard started; the masts and spars wer
all secure, and the wheel and rudder il
good order But there todS not drop O
,Udter aboard Here was the secret of tn
tragedy. Every water-cask was dry, ev
cry butt had been upset and drained to tn
last drop. The little cabin-bOy lay with hi
head and shoulders inside one of the over
turned casks, and his stiff fingers graspe
tin cup into which he had been trying {
drain few drops of water.
THE ships papers and two or three hun
dred Mexican dollars we're in the despatch
boa under the captains elbow. translat
ed the papers-which were in Portuguese
when they were brought aboard the steam
er. They showed that the brig was Portl
guese, registered at Goa Her name wa
the santa Maria, and she had cleared froI
Goa three months before for a trading vo,
age along the west coast of India. He
master was also her owner; his name va
signed TO the papers with a cross. Ther
was not, as il seemed a single man q
board who could write, for no log W.
found There was a compass and a crud
chart OF the Indian coast in the cabin, bl
no sextant or chronOmeter and no sign
flags
80 these poor wretches had probabl
been blown off the coast by storm, al
once out of sight Of land they lost the
bearings and could not find their way bac
again. Their supply Of water gave GU
and they died But judging from the sil
of the brig she required a crew of abol
fifteen men 10 handle her, and there wei
only seven men on board. What becan
Of the others no one can tell, They ana