The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1895-03-09

where abaft the port beam.
Christchurchl'' said. We're In for
a holy mess. What is its" moved for
the steam siren and gave out a line old
yell at 100 pound pressure.
Then VIC listened. The thing ahead TOOK
it up first and footed back, then the one
to starboard, then another, then our friend
TO port, then the one ahead again. But
their paddles seemed to work just the
same. and they were getting nearer. We
could hear the coughing of the engines
and the escape of steam quite plainly,
broke out into a cold sweat.
This beats me, y said Here, some
one, fetch a fare while 1 work up the
horn" And began to play fantasias and
what all on the siren. At intervals could
hear the others replying, blaring like hun
bred horsepower bulls. They seemed to
be all round US. The Sarah Jane began to
rock in the wash they made
What the watch on deck thought they
didn't afterWard explain, but we on the
bridge were in blue funk, with sweat
pouring down us in streams. The first
officer was cropping about with a match,
swearing under his breath as he fumbled
at the chest which held tine flare lights.
At last he got what he wanted and
jumped back up the bridge companion
with half dozen under his arm. cx-
tracted one more wild screeeh from the
siren at the head OF the funnel and bore a
hand to help him get a light. 1t was a
second or two before we could make a
1are what with dampness and excitement,
and meanwhile there was a regular row
going on over the side, and things kept
running into us and shaking the old hook
er from stem to stern.
We got our flare going at last and then
boxed over the side, expecting to SEQ any
thing. And wo saw it too. At first our
Eyes were too dazzled to make out Il single
object for we had been-at least had
for nigh on 12 hours in absolute darkness.
The others must have got thoir sight first,
and / heard them swearing and mutter
ing in their boards like men possessed.
And by and by l joined in.
Within the range of the flare light
there wasn't single ship to be seen,
though there were sounds of paddles and
painting engines and fog horns all around.
| guessed we were in the land of spooks,
and | can tell you my teeth chartered and
my knees were knocking with noise like
mill hopper. Then for the first time
became aware of an overpowering stencil.
The others told me afterward that they
had nosed it for hours back, and why
didn't find it out sooner I don't know
unless it was that all my other senses
were so active that they didn't give my
smelling faculties a chance. You've
smellcd seaweed and ozone baths and rot
ten eggs and fish manure, suppose. So
have l. Well, they seemed to be here in
tons and cargo loads, with q few noun
tains of them thrown in, and began to
feel very sick.
But the sickness was lark compared
with the funk was in. looking over the
side and seeing nothing, while all the
time there wero things moving about
working paddles and blowing off steam.
BY and by, however, my eyesight came
back, and l clutched hold of the rails like
a mailman The flare lit up pretty wide
circle Of water, and as far as one could see
it was like a great swamp covered over
with floating seaweed, which accounted in
part for tho overpowering stencil. Mixed
up in the rattle were trunks of trees and
what ali in the way of debris and rubbish,
and in between the patches of this stuff
was dark, unwholesome looking sea,
stagnant and sinking, with scum and
froth and spawn on top of it, 1t did not
need much wisdom to know where was
had never been there before, and never
want to go again.
But the spooks-what were they?
Whales, l suppose. You can call them
that il you like. I'm not well enough up
to tell you their scientific names. If
whales are like double sized alligators or
turtles, with snake running through
them fore and aft, and with four great
f1appers that churn up the water like pad
die wheels, perhaps they were whales. I'd
always understood that these beasts died
ages ago, and tell you it gave me nasty
jar to see them swimming about in that
dead water and every now and again CIV
ing out a booming roar for all the world
like fog horn. Size? Well, I don't know
The alligator things might be anything
from 30 to 60 feet long or moro and the
others about half the size. There were
dozens of them, and every now and again
they would scrape their horny sides or
their fins alongside our iron plates. Of
course we weren't actually afraid of Them
because they couldn't reach us, but I can
tell you we were devilish disturbed for all
that 1t was like taking peep into back
ages to find ourselves in that dead sea,
overgrown with rank vegetation, and to
see those suryiyals of antediluvian times
knocking about. I've seen skeletons and
made up corpses of the beasts in museums
at least of most of them-also in books,
but l never expected to come across them
in the flesh.
Well, the flare died out, and we all
staid on the bridge until daybreak, lis
tening to the things moving about And
| may tell you that night like that
needn't happen more than once to any
man.
At last day broke fine, and with the
water as smooth as a floor, though light
breeze was playing about up aloft. 1t
was queer sight cast eyes on. AS far
as the horizon, and God knows how much
farther, nothing but that blessed tangle
of seaweed, in some places thick and piled
up and elsewhere with patches of ditch
water showing. The old Sarah Jane was
in pretty tight fix, with her propeller
damned up in the midst Of this internal
stuff. 1t was no use to think of clearing
the screw, for no mariner on earth could
navigate her out of the mess she was in
cyclone had brought her there, and not
even cyclone could get her out again.
What did do? Well, I piped all hands
I