Connecticut western news., 1891-11-05
OCEAN "REMINISCENCES.

Let me recall trifing incident of my shipboard life-an experience small and brief, indeed, but wildly fresh and of clearest and keenest outline in memory. We were on the Mozambique parallels, well to the eastward; the weather hot, the sky copperish and the sea of sal Jewish blue, with thick, slow flow of swell as though the water was heavy and sluggish with oil; weak bfeeze of wind blew off the port quarter, with 8 sort of sting of heat in it, like the bite of the sun himself; and the ship under all studdingsails on that side went rolling forward in kind of loathing way, as though alive to the trucks with instinct; and very well remember the stopping noise of the water as it fell from her bow like flinging bucketfuls of liquid grease overheard.
 It was about 3 o'clock in the after noon when the thickness over the star board bow died out along the horizon there and showed the sealine clear to the edge of the ocean, with twisting and glancing of yellow fires in it from the sun. as though lines of molten brass were slowly sinking in it. It was then that a sail was made out some three points on the bow or whereabouts, apparently a large ship, showing to her courses with her mizzentopmast gone and the spanke1 gaff naked, with some colors flying at it. As we slowly rose she showed like a frigate upon the water, with her band of broken ports and her big wing of stand ing jib; and heard the captain tell the the mate, after taking a long view of her through telescope, that he believed that she was such and such ship, naming a well known Indiaman of those days She was in distress, it was now gathered; for it seems that she carried 8 brace of sig nal halliards at her gaff end, on one of which was hoisted the English engign, row of bunting out of Maryatt's code, signifying that there was serious sickness on board.
 see that ship now as saw her then; her canvas had the whiteness of froth touched by moonshine; she rose and fell very majestically, her ports bristling and fading as she leaned to the heave of the waters. By tine aid of the glass, which furtively employed on the mate turning his back, I could distinctly make out the white quarter boat swing ing at her davits, the gleams off the glass of her large windows, the hurried shadowing of her sails as they swung in and out and the flags lowering in reds and whites and blues from the peak end. The helm of our ship was shifted for her, and we got her right under our flying jib- boom end. There was not enough yawn in the foot of the foresail to disclose her from the poop; and it being now o'clock and my turn to quit the deck, 1 strolled forward on to the forecastle to watch the very noble picture on the sea line that was rendered significant beyond expression by her appealing colors and by the mutilation of her abaft A group of our Jacks stood against one of the catheads, gazing too. I had not been looking above three minutes when one of them exclaimed in hoarse voice:
 "What, the blazes! Is that there muck a-drawing up around her, or is she a-dis- solvingT'
 ''The Flying Dutchman,' or my eyes ain't matesI' said second man in sub- dued voice of mingled awe and astonish- ment.
 Watch her a-dying out! Smite me. if mortial eyes ever see the like of that afore."
 My gaze was upon the ship as the men spoke, and sure enough I observed her to be slowly melting out, not as though a fog were driving down upon her, but as 8 rainbow dies, the tints shining and fading and perishing. In a few mo- ments all was blank sea where she had been.
 There was an expression of dismay on every wart-ridden, whiskered face l glanced at. The captain, the mate and number of passengers were moving and moping like goblins over the brass rail at the break of the poop in search of the amazing phantasm. It was, of course, a mirage; but it took all hands, from the skipper down to the cooks mate, some time to realize it, so marvellous had been the illusion, so substantial to the vision that rolling and stately fabric, so exqui- sitely had the painted mirroring of her fitted the line of the sea. With some fancy that the real object could not be far off, the captain continued to head in the direction in which the mirage had shone until the darkness came, when the ship was brought to her course afresh. A few days before we sailed from Cal cutta we got news of this phantom ves- sel. She had been some leagues below the horizon on which her likeness was painted, signaling for assistance to an other ship seven or eight miles distant from her. Had the quality of the at mosphere remained as it was, by which mean had the mirage fingered awhile longer, no doubt we should have brought the simulacrum of the other vessel into view. Thus it will be seen that ships as we'll as men have their ghosts.
 
 This recalls to me another incident, belonging, however, to no experience of my own. It was the chief mate of this same ship from whose deck we sighted the mirage who told me the story. He was third mate of very handsome clip. per bark, bound to New Zealand port. The captain of her was tall, austere man, with grizzly beard and an eye of the dead blackness of unpublished jet Instead of speaking of him as the "old man," his sailors called him ''the monk" !" He was exceedingly reserved, said little or nothing at table or on deck outside such instructions as he had to give; yet, spite of his monastic or collegiate looks, which might have qualified him to adorn pulpit rather than merchantmah's g quarterback, he was an excellent sailor, possessed of a thorough knowledge of every walk of his vocation, and a man of considerable refinement of speech.
 Nothing particular occurred until the