Los Angeles herald., 1893-01-08
YARNS OF THE OCEAN.
The Haunted Ship Josie Gunby
and Her Swedish Mate.
A CRY OF "sTAND FROM UNDERi'

Tie Three Sailors Who Made an Unholy
Compact with Satan, and How the
Brightest OF the Lot Outwitted His
Satanic Majesty.
The first of the yarns here set out was
told on shipboard by tar of the name of
King, who said that once ON a time he
shipped on the good ship Josie Gunby from
New York to Valparaiso. She was laden
with Yankee notions and had fair weather
all the way, but the ''goings on" on that
vessel were something awful, according to
King. The first thing of mysterious ma
ture that happened was known to King
only and consisted of the bell ringing itself
just as King was about to sound ''eight
BELLS" King was frightened of course, but
he couldn't get any one to believe his story
In fact, the boys guyed him numerically.
A fortnight later, however, they all saw
something terrible, and the first mate lost
his life. The story in detail in the tar's
own words and presented by the Atlanta
Constitution runs as follows: at was near
the line The sea was as smooth as duck
pond. Every rag O. canvas was set, but
there was hardly enough wind to keep
them from Tapping. All on a sudden, just
as | was passing under the mainyard,
somebody up aloft sung out, On deck there
stand from underp The second mate had
the watch and asked me who that was
aloft. told him / did not know, and he
sent me up to see about it. l went, think
ing some o the boys was putting up job
on me and had gone aloft to get up another
ghost story. Up | went to the maintop
but could find nobody. | come down the
ratlines four at O time. How l ever got
down without falling is more'n l can tell,
cause | was that skeered couldn't stop to
think how dun it, We woke the watch.
The second mate and everybody One except
ed, for one trip was enough) went aloft to
see about it, and they didn't find nothing
either That kinder put them a-thinlxing
cause the mate swore he heard the same
thing did. Well, all next day both watches
were cussing and discussing that sing out
aloft, and the next night the port watch
were laying for something too. Just ex-
actly at the same time o. night that same
thing sung out On deck there, stand
from underg They searched aloft, but
found no more'n what we did. That thing
happened every night at the same time for
nigh two weeks. By and by the first mate
big, double jointed Swede said he would
goonies trying So the next night, just at
the right time, all the watch were huddled
together under the break O. the poop ais
tening, and the same lonesome, skeery
voice sung out, On deck there, stand
from underr The men were too skeered to
breathe hard, and that first mate was
mighty nigh as bad, but he kinder squared
hisself and roared out as loud as he could
bawl: Let go, you son of a sea cook, let go.
Come down on deck, you lubber, and exer-
else your lungs!'
Mates, I'm not given to lying, as you
all know, and l amt going to lie now,
but so help my rheumatic bones if that
thing didn't let go, and I thought that
every spar on the mainmast had carried
away at one time Rattlety-bang-wh
-whoop-and there struck on deck right
side of that first mate coffin just his size.
We ran up to him just in time to see the
coffin scoop him in and jump right over
the side, first mate and all, nor did we ever
catch sight of them again. There weren't
no more ghosts on that trip though"