The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1891-08-12

under. Whales were still plenty, and
we took vote what we should do, and
decided 10 make for some island and
store the oil, and keep at 1t; so we bore
away TO tho south for land.
a reckon we'd been goin to the south
ard for a matter Of week when there
came on a gallo, the like OF which never
see sfore or since. There wasn't nothin'
that would stand il, and 1 believe it
would have blown the buttons of yer
coats. We took in all sail and let her
go and In three hours she was solid
cake OF ice; every drop that struck On
her freezin' solid, so that the back and
ib.stays looked like tho cable Of four
decker, and the shrouds and all the
standin' riggin was froze in solid heap,
too l tried to keep the jlb clear by
ksepn' mon there with an AK TO chop
away the ice, but sine was under water
half the time and wo gave it up II
blew for twelve hours and finally, in the
middle OF the night, we came to all at
once without any particular shock. In
the mornin found we had run or slid
Oh TO an ce-field and were laid up, for,
after we had grounded, another field had
settled in around Us, and there we were,
without any chance OF getting off till
the wind shifted
"Wall, we stuck TO her, and when It
cleared we see wc were In the Ice Of a
big island, and when L found the ice
twenty foot inshore from US forty foot
! thick, l made up my mind we'd never
git of-and we never did in the brig.
We stuck TO ner till tho grub got so low
that it was s'arvation; then we took to
the boat, decked it over rugged it as q
schooner, and made sail for tho Cape.
In about thirty days We were picked up
by home bound ship, in starvin' con-
dition, and brought into New Bedford,
and the owner thought we were lucky
yet, as the brig had paid for herself five
times over
ri staid ashore six months, and then
the owners launched sister brig to the
Marthy Walker, and offered me COM
mand. / took it, and made money
out of her for ten years a-runnin' in
the sealin' trade. But one spring
| the owners got il into their
heads to git me to take her down
south for whalin' trip. and / said I'd
go, and l did. First we fooled around
the regular grounds, and somehow got
| edgin' on down south. TO tell the truth,
! l was kind Of anxious to sec tho Old
Msrthy again, just to see if she was
! there; and so 10 come that we worked TO
the south ard day by day, and In week
/ or so were about, a. we thought, where
we were when the Old Marthy went
| aground 1t was cod but clear, and we
were havin' the best kind OF weather,
when, one mornin', at daylight, / heard
! the lookout sing out Sail, no! ! was
on deck in a second, 20 kin bet-no moro
sliding up on Ice fields for me-but when
! ] got on deck ! see. that what the man
bad taken for sail was q big berg, dead
ahead, with the ice al melted, so that o
green hand would have taken 1t for a
| ship every timo
at was a rouser, four hundred feet
high, and the nearer we got the stranger
| il looked. The men had never seen
nothin' like 1t, so We run to wind'ar of
| It about five thousand feet, 1t b!owin
fresh. 1t was sight, tel ye,-reg'lar
mountain; and we stood lookin' at il,
when the second mate sings out, Its a
movln'! Gown with the helm. Haul
her on the wind" Go long, says l.
But in q second we SEQ tho top moyin',
slow like, then faster and faster, till it
seemed goin' down like an avalanche.
We got the brig hauled on tho
wind, but, bless ye, it want no use.
When that mass OF ice sunk, yc could
have heard It, for six miles, the noise il
made, and we SEQ q sea coming toward
us, fifteen-foot high. We got the vccsel
so il struck her end for end, but for O
minute thought the masts would go out
of her But she met il WELL and for a
few minutes we were So taken up that
never looked at the iceberg; then heard
the second mate say, For heavens sake,
captain, there's tho glost Of the Marthy
Walker
81 first thought he'd gone crazy, but
looked where his hand was p'lntin', and
there, two hundred foot in the air, was
the old Marthy, sure enough, as natural
as life, standing out from the leo and
risin' up till she came to two hundred
and fifty foot, by my reckonin', from
water level; and every man and boy on
board saw her just as plain as they over
saw anything In their lives, only she
looked just ke n spirit; kind as IL q
c'oud was In between her and us But
we SEQ her and she want no living craft.
il was the ghost Of the Marthy Walker.
We see her again forty miles TO the
cast ard, and she's been seen since.
She'll ways be SO floating about the
south scgsS