Waterbury evening Democrat., 1891-07-06
THE spirit" SHIP.

our course, and the weather naQ become |
pleasant. One night, as L came on watch |
at midnight, found we were only making |
Storage way, there being only faint |
breeze from the east. twas bright moon |
light, and about three miles away was a
large ship headed to the south. The course |
we were both steering would bring us al |
most within speaking distance.
While could see the strange ship well |
enough with the naked eye, as could all
the men in my watch, when I came to put
the glass on her 1 saw her lookouts on the
bow and noted all the particulars of her
rig. took her for an English ship bound
around the cape, and one which had come
down from the Gulf of Bengal to the east
of Madagascar. The sea was so calm that
we could have launched canoe, and
when the stranger was mile away every
rope stood out in the moonlight like sill
yer thread. She was a pretty sight, and
every man in the watch kept his eyes on
her. She was almost opposite and not
more than forty rods away-to give a
landsman'S meaSurement-when she sud-
denly settled away in the water and was
gone In minute. thought my eyes were
full Of STICKS" and that I had been the
victim Of an optical illusion, but while
rubbed them two or three Of the men cried
out in chorus:
shes struck a rock and gone to the bot
tom with every soul on board!"
Men! Have we been looking at a ship
out there?" asked.
"Of course, sir"
"Was her hull painted black?"
cit was"
GA new foretopsail2
Eyes"
ga gilded fgurehead Of mermaid or an
angel"
"And she went DOWN."
aye, like stone flung overheard"
Iordered the brig hove up to check her
headway and the captain came on deck to
see what it meant. The other watch was
called, two boats lowered, and away we
pulled for the spot, never doubling that
we should find men clinging to some Of
the wreckage. / can show you in the
British Museum to-day what we found and
all we found. A sailors bag marked P,
two !ship's buckets unmarked, two oars
marked &c M" a sailors oilsktn coat not
marked, a cage with dead parrot in 1t.
OF all the thousand articles aboard of that
ship which would float we found nothing
else, though we lay by till noon next day.
Now, what sent her to the bottom? We, OF
course, expected to find q rock not charted
but though we made soundings for two
miles around we found nothing. Later on
a man-of-war spent a week in that locality,
but with no better success. 1t was two
years before the lost vessel was ascer-
tanned to be the French merchantmen
Mignon. AS no rock could be found it was
generally supposed that she was struck
by whale-that monster Of the deep
probably came up directly under her and
| smashed out half her planking. A French
novel writer has made use of this incident
to dispose of some of the characters in his
| pages.
| Suppose a landsman knew that when
| ever he left his house he was under sur
veillance-shadowed by some one who
meant him evil, and was only waiting a
| favorable opportunity to stab him in the
back2 His feelings need not be envied.
| Take the same instance n the broad
| ocean-one craft shadowing another day
and night with evil intent, and you can
| imagine Jack Tar's feelings-no law to ap-
| peal to-no chance to evade the grim pur-
| suer. Such a case happened to me when
| scond mate Of an Australian trading
schooner, and some of the queer points
| about it will never be cleared up. We had
| picked up a cargo among the spice islands
! of the Banda Sea, and the intention was to
| proceed to Singapore for market. At an
| island called Wetta, where we stopped to
| take on the last Of our hard wood, we we're
| offered big price to take band of about
| fifty nativeS-men, women and children
to the island Of Timor, lying to the south
| This charter was made, and we had a
pleasant run and no trouble. Oddly
enough there were about dozen natives
at Coopang, which is the chief seaport OF
Timor who wanted to go to the east emo
of the island of Java. They were, as we
afterward knew, conspirators who were
planning against the Government of Java
but they paid us good price, and we car
ried out our part of the contract.
The difference it made to us was that We
must now coast along the big island te
Sunda Straits. matter Of 700 miles, in
stead Of voyaging through the landlockec
Flores and Java seas. While open piracy
| was unknown, were many suspicious Graf
in those seas, and at brief intervals trad
ers were plundered or captured outright
We had no cannon, but our crew Of eigh
l men had muskets and cutlaSses, ant
| could be depended on to fight. We stood
off the coast under the land breeze afte
landing our men at night, and by day
! light had an ofing Of twenty-five miles
Then we headed to the west We hat
lust done so when we noticed Graf
astern of us. She was nearly of our size
but could sail three feet to our two in an!
sort of wind. Such craft conf1ne them
selves to the coasting trade, and seldom
make long voyages. We could not see
why this fellow should be so far from Tn
coast, unless on our trail, and we soon fel
r assured that his business was with us. II
r shortened sail to keep about mile aster
| Of us, and hung right there all day.
Ellis plan is to creep up to us and lay u
aboard at night" said the Captain as W
| talked the matter over. while L can
, | make out over four or five men on hi
: | decks, I'm satisfied that he has twenty
thirty hidden away"
l We shoul have been prepared as well a
we could when night came but late in tn
8 | afternoon gale came up from the NORTH
| west, driving us out to sea, and we kne