The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-05-26

I AtAN SiNAA NA ttlNible not weather NAV have
weakened us more than we suspectesi At
I any rate. we nearly broke our backs null
/ ing away az the oars for sixty minutes aud
i then save 10 up. The captain coaNed and
I threatened. but finally retired 10 his cab
| in and the boats were hoisted in.
The eleventh day came and went then
the twelfth, thirteenth and fourteenth AT
midnight OF the fourteenth a few cats
paws began playing about. hut the ship
\ had 10 more than got a stccraCe way
/ when IL fell ahat. dead calm again. At
sunrise on the fifteenth morning the same
/ thing happened again,and again in the
/ afternoon. and We may have made some
thing Ike a mile 70 the south.
/ From the first day OF the calm We had
visitors in the shape OF sharks. There
We're only two on the first day, but after
I that We could always count at least a
! dozen. But for the presence OF these
/ monsters the men could have found some
relief from the heat in the water on
/ the fifteenth day. after q long spell at
| box hauling the yards about to catch the
puffs which had no weight in them, the
/ ships carpenter announced that he was
going to cool of alongside 10 IL cost him
/ his life Some Of the men had gone below
/ and some were lying about wherever
they could find shade, when he went over
/ the bows. I was seated on the heel OF the
/ bOwsprit. where I got bit OF air as the
/ ship rose and fell on the CLASSY ground
swell, and was the only one aboard who
Witnessed the tragedy.
Before dropping into the water the man
looked about him. The dorsal fins OF at
| least fifteen sharks were cutting the wa
ter and he must have fully realized the
risk he was about to run. I furthermore
/ called his attention to IL. but he growled
/ out something about my mindlng my own
/ business. and made a dive from the rail
Every fin went out of sight in an in
slant and l thought the man would
/ never rise TO the surface. He came up af-
| ter a few minutes. however. and swan on
/ to a distance OF about ten feet He was
/ treading water and brushing his long
/ hair back, when l saw a flash OF white
| in the water near him and the next in
slant he was pulled down. He threw up
| his arms but uttered no cry Fifteen sec
onds after he went down an enormous
shark broke water with the carpenter in
his mouth. For a fun minute the mons
ter circled about on the surface, with his
victim kicking and struggling, and then
he disappeared into the depths to be seen
no more. Several of the men came saun-
tering forward IN response to my shouts,
but nothing was to be seen except a rip
pie on the surface.
On the night OF that fifteenth day a very
queer thing happened. II was a clear
moonlight night. and at midnight the man
on lookout, who was stationed for form 8
sake on the bows, awoke from n nap to find
derelict close aboard. The whole crew
was routed out to take action I'm case she
drifted aboard OF u.s. but that did not hap
pen. She approached within a cables
| length. and then came to a standstill. 1t
was likely that she was i'm sight from
the masthead the afternoon before, but
no one had been sent aloft to look around
| She had come down on us from the north.
| being caught I'm some current. perhaps not
over 200 feet wide. We made her out to be
a brig with both masts and bowsprit gone.
and after showing a light and hailing her
without result, we knew that she was
abandoned.
Next morning she was a bit nearer us.
and after breakfast the gig was manned
and Capt. Cross put aboard of her. Two OF
us climbed over her bows with him and
helped him to rummage about. The craft
was named the Pole Star, and hailed from
Newbern, N. c. She was on her way to a
| Mexican port, and had been blown far TO
the westward of her course. The last en-
try in her log referred TO a gale in which
she had been dismasted and was about TO
be abandoned, but that entry was eight
months old. For eight months the brig
had knocked about in all sorts of weather,
and was still floating. She had about two
feet of water In her hold, but most OF that
had come In through her decks.
Her cargo consisted of machinery and
| furniture, and was but little damaged. In
leaving her but very little had been taken
aside from water and provisions. and Capt.
Cross promised us a fair divide II we would
| loot the derelict. All the crew were will
ing to turn to, and we took out of her a
| spare set of sails, two anchors and chains,
a capstan, three portable engines, a lot Of
wood working machinery 200 mirrors a
| great lot of fine tools and other things,
| which do not recollect, though the whole
was valued at $4,000 in Liverpool. We
| had her alongside of us for two days, and
then towed her half a mile away and scut-
tied her.
On the morning of the twentieth day of
the calm, being "spelT'' which only three
| or four ships have ever encountered, the
| second mate declared that there must he
a dead man clinging to the ships keel. II
| was an old superstition and one general
ly laughed to scorn, but on this occa-
| sion no one INDUCED in ridicule. The men
soon began to talk among themselves,
and within an hour her captain had given
permission for a boat to be lowered to
make an Investigation. The mate and
| three men went in the boat, and begin
ming on ms port bow they worked aft
| and around Nthe ship. When they were
amidship oh'the starboard side, they be-
! gan shouting and cheering, and the an
nouneement was made that they had
! found the body.
-Four or five feet below the water line, the
copper sheeting had been rolled up by
| striking something IN port, and held fast
| by the sharp edges catching his clothes
was the dead body OF a sailor. AS the
ship rolled he was broght into view and
pulled away with boathook. We must
have picked him UP as we lay there,
| though it was curious that a corpse should
be floating around there among the sharks
and more curious that they had not pulled
him away. There he was, however, and
! though too badly decomposed for burial
we got a weight to his feet and sent him
| to the bottom. And did that break the
calm? The log Of the Tornado says tina.
the breeze came at noon, and she wen.
| flying down to the Horn in her old style
! and reached port without other adventure
| Capt. Cross lost his wager with the Amer
| leans but his share OF the salvage was
! a much larger sum, and there were many
big dollars left for his mates and men TO
Jingle in their pockets.