The National tribune., 1893-11-16


-LGa l. hours of the night watches the
~ mariner resorts to spinning
yarns az the pleasantest and
most congenial manner Of breaking the mo-
notony of the situation. and the man who pos
sesses the mos. fertile brain and vivid imagin-
alton, il is safe to say, stands high in the esteem
of his shipmafes.
In these startling midnight tales the truth il
entirely ignored aud, In fact, any sembiance
thereto wond at once stamp the narrator as
being wholly devoid of ideas and not worthy
an audience. On the contrary, be who could
entertain his listeners with tho recital OF some
incident which never did nor possibly could
occur was at once prime fsvorite of the whole
ships company.
During many years at sea, both before and
abaft the mast--for be il known that the OH
GERS OF the quarter. deck are as much given TO
the innocent pastine as the men In the fore
castle--the writer has heard many a &C uffer"
(stoiy) that would cause crimson blush to
mantle the cheeks and rise to the brow OF
veraeity. Some of these are here repeated.
II was a moonlight night and the noble ship
James aud Mary was running down the Trades
with everything drawing allow and sloft. The
starboard or Second Mates watch had the deck,
and some 10 men were seated in 8 group upon
the main hatch.
Now. P!l tell you what is is. my lads" be-
gan an old, weather-beaten son of Neptuue,
who had shipped under the name of Tom Long,
these ere ATTITUDES what we're in are the
pleasaDtest that sailor can find anywhere
around the world. Cause, you see, It amt too
hot or too cold; it's just about right. But I've
been in my time where Teller would a.wished
he'd fell over board on bis first voyage afore he
got to such piace."
where was that, old son." asked one Of the
crew.
at was this away. Some years ago left a
vessel in tho Pacific Islands and iainsda rxhalar
Cd 20 -ururusr-Iuntng' We cruised about IN
til we begun 10 get short of water and fresh
provisions and the old man was just making
up his mind to 90 into port to reflt, but hadn't
just decided whether he would go to Honolulu
or bear away TO the southland to make Aus
tralia.
LAS | said, he hadn't made up his mind, but
it didn't make much difference then, for we
was in dead calm and couldn't a-gone no.
where. When all of sudden, in the middle
watch Of the night, we felt the ship lifted up
until about half her side was out of the water.
and then carried ahead Eastern any steamer
ever travelled since the days that the boy
played with the teakcttle. Twenty.six knot
an hour. ift,was one!
'What's the matter q says our old man.
"Don't know, SIR says the Mate. Never
see thing like this afore.'
cover our stern we were leaving a wake
that reached clear to the horizon. All we
could do was TO stand still and hold on. Two
days and two nights we kept a-going Not 3
man daring to let 20, not even to get bite to
eat. for fear he would be blown overheard.
"Bimeby we raised the land, and We were
heading straight for it.
'''Great NeptuneI' shouted the Skipper.
''rhe chip that's got US in tow ia going to pile
us upon the reef
" But just as he spoke we began to slow down
q bit, and when within about q mile of the
shore, what do you think 2"
a" Don't know, Tom, don't know" quickly
replied the interested listeners.
"Well, lads, as / was telling you-two
whales, that WAS each good cable's-iengrh
from bsow-hole to fuke, broke water close
alongside and sheersd of. one to starb'd and
the other to port, and We kBowed it WAS them
brutes what had been carrying ns on their
backs.
"'Iet go both anchors cried the Cap'n
"And down went the mud hooks. When
our beadwsy was stopped, and the ship SWING
to her cables, we began to feel the hot air COM
lug of from tho land. We Glued up che sails
and spread the awnings; but, as | am sailor.
afore the canvas had been stretched over our
decks an hour it was scorched as brown by the
sun as . tar-bueket. Pretty soon the Mats
called out:
We're dragging, we're dragging"
"Now. that was queer. Tor there wasn't wind
enough to blow fly of the bald head of tho
skipper. Ijnmpsd for'ard and looked over the
bow and there wBre the ends of our two chain
cables a. hanging. The heat had been that great
that they melted off about four feet from the
ha wse' pes!
Then we set sail and run for Honolulu,
where | left her"
"Pheww murmured some Of his auditors.
81 believe We. Tom. / believe ye," rejeined
the Boa,swsiD, as he removed the pipe from be-
tween his lips. for joined that same ship
when she went up to cruise in the Arctics. We
got pretty well to the nor.ard, and as the
whales were plenty We stayed little longer
than we'd orter and one fine morning VIC found
ourselves froZep in.
".We're got to make the Winter here said
the old man.
"We knowed it az we'll as he did, and it
didn't make us feel any the better for it. Every
day it growed colder and colder until along
about Christmas time the cook couldn't boil
water on the galiey-stove for the ice in his
kettle.
1.-THE Cap'n would stand on the quarterback
and give an order, and the cabin boy would
have 10 stand close beside him and cut the
words off his beard rs they froze into icicles,
then carry them for'ard to the Mate, who
would put them before his own mouth to thaw
out, and when they began to melt you could
hear them spoken just as plain as though the
Skipper was Not two feet away.
," Now, that's what you wont call cold
weather." concluded the narrator in an oracular
I tone.
You lads have seen some purity strange
things, and no mistake" spoke sp Jim Bow
liz, a grizZled mariner, "but them was all ous
10 the Pacific aud the Arctic. But I've seen
sights in the East. though they had nothing to
do with cold or heat, yet they were such as
world mske any man believe the world was
a-coming TO an end. IL was when was aboard
big hunk of 3 bark bound to Manila Now,
it seemed the cd man had tro chronoms-
tiers in the cabin, three of them bed taken the
voyage before from q sinking ship and / sup
pose he had them both set correct before leav-
ing port.
However. when we were in the Indian
Ocean of them got astray. that is. they
didn't 'jibe.' and which one was wrong, and
which one to go by, the Skipper didn't know,
so he was all a: as to our longitude.
I'VE worked up our latitude hoping to fall
| in with son,e other vessel that would give Us
our time. But we didn't.
80 when we got in about IL degrees south
we kept off the west in order to make the broad
side Of Madagascar, because if any Of you are
navigators you'll know by hitting point Of
| land you find your exact time. We kept
on this course for matter of two days, when,
in the night time. all at once, we fetched up
We were nearer the land than we'd calculated
sp. In an hour aft she struck. the ship WAS
a wreck on a rect abvs.s MALI mile from shOrs,
AND We III the boats.
to" All hands made a safe landing on the beach.
but tell yen. shipmates. it WAS Il wild country.
L IL. IT,. g..