The record-union., 1892-11-10
FOUGHT OFF THE BIRDS.
a Sailors Battle With AIbatrosses
Near Cape Horn.

a sailors Battle With AIbatrosses
Near Cape Horn.
Captain Hart of the steamship Mari
posa, sailing between San Francisco and
Australia, was formerly a wealthy young
man who went to sea because he loved
lie on the water. He was asked by a
passenger on one of the Mariposas trips
70 tell how he came TO adopt seafaring
LIE, and to relate mis- most thrilling ad-
venture. Here is his story:
was "A years old when left Harvard.
mad come into possession of the property
left TO me by my father in that year, and
as my mother had also died and my sis
ters had married, l determined to spend
a Few years in travel. | went to Europe
and TO South Africa, returning to London
the same year.
/ tried to engage cabin passage in the
Josephine, then one of the largest sail
ing ships a1oat, but old Captain Hardy,
whom everybody called ''the bear" be-
cause he was so rough and brusque, re-
fused with many an oath, saying he didn't
keep any hotel, and no man could sail on
his ship without signing articles and do
ing his proper amount of work. OF
course knew ship as we'll as l knew a
house, and decided to go on the Josephine
before the mast just for the fun of it.
saw twinkle in the old Captains eye as
/ signed the usual articles for voyage to
Sidney, y. ). w. He simply remarked,
however. You're big enough to do your
share of the work"
procured regular outfit, sent my kit
on board and took my place among the
crew. L 1ound friends IN the Iorecastle at
once, lor assumed no airs, acted lust as
everybody else did and studiously minded
my own business. In spite OF my dis
cretlon, though, l made some enemies
one OF them was in the same watch with
me. his name was Norris, and he claimed
to be an Englishman, but he spoke with
q slight foreign accent, and was dark
enough to be taken for a Portuguese or a
Span1ard. | disliked him from the first,
and he evidently had as little regard for
me as 1 had for him. He insulted me one
day in the 1Orecastle during our watch
below, and l struck him a blow under
the ear that put him to sleep very effect
ualIy.
We had a fairly good voyage until we
struck some extremely rough weather off
Cape Horn. For two days we ran under
close reefs with the wind abeam, and
then the gale became so violent that we
had TO heaVe to to weather it. On the
fourth DAY of the storm the wind moder-
sted, and Captain Hardy ordered us aloft
10 shake out the lower reefs. Norris and
were on the main royal yard when a
heavy puff of wind struck the ship and
Threw her almost upon her beam ends
AS l stood on the foot rope with my arms
over the yard the heavy piece of timber
was almost perpendicular, and 1 had to
cling hard with hands and feet to keep
from going over. Another lurch came
when was resting my whole weight on
the foot rope. The rope suddenly parted,
ana l felt myself falling. Instinctively |
lung out my arms to grasp something,
but my head struck the to'gallant yard
and over | went into the sea.
l must have been in the water an hour.
and IL WAS then ahOUt Nsrhar I
peld piece OF a vessels hatch about
twenty yards away in the same trough OF
the waves in which was swimming, and
managed to reach it. l fioated about all
that night. Soon after sunrise | saw a
number of great albatrosses. Nearer and
nearer they came, and l could see their
cold, staring eyes regarding me with
something in their expression that made
me shlver. Even then l did not appre-
ciate my danger. One of them whirIed
past me so close that [ was famed by the
air he had disturbed. 1t was not until
another had made a vicious jab at me
with his beak as he swooped by that |
began to understand the horror of my DO
sltlon. had no weapon but a jacknite,
which l opened and with which | pre-
pared to defend myself. 1 had been lying
down all this time, but l now sat up and
made ready for the attack that / felt sure
would come. 1t was not long DELAYED.
First one albatross and then another
flew at me, picking at my eyes and face.
l slashed right and left with my knife
screaming the while in the hope of scar
ing the vicious things away. l must have
wounded several, but they came at me
again and again, each time more savagelV.
Occasionally, in spite of ali that | could
do, one would fasten his beak into nv
flesh and tear piece away. My face be-
came trightfully lacerated and | was soon
covered with the blood that flowed from
my wounds.
L was on the verge Of fainting when I
heard shout near at hand. Turning. l
saw boat closely approaching, manned
by crew of rough-lOoking natives. [
had been so absorbed in my fight with
the birds that Il had not observed how
closely TO the land l had drited and that a
boat was coming to my rescue. / was
taken on board and was glad to see that
the birds had given up the fight. They
made a few wide circles around the boat
and then sailed away to the westward.
The natives spoke a Spanish dialect
which l could only slightly understand
but from it l gathered that they were
tuegans and that / was being taken
ashore. Alter my recovery l went to
Sydney, where l ran across Norris. He
acted as if he had seen a ghost. He shiv-
cred and shook with fear, and / taxed
him with cutting the rope. He admitted
1t and begged for mercy. / hadn't the
heart to kill him. 4 few nights after
ward he ran amuck while drunk, and [
found him in the act of stabbing an
American sailor in a saloon. I expert
enced thrill of pleasure in seeing him
soundly thrashed.