Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1896-04-29
A FREAK CREW
Said to Have Manned the Milton
Stuart, Calcutta to New York.
Mate Said 10 Be Svengal and hypnotized
the Sailors.

New York, April 2S.-The World says:
The tour-masted British bark Milton
Stuart, now discharging a cargo of o.
packages of iute. indigo and castor oil
beans at the German American stores.
Brooklyn, is one of the biggest tallest
stateliest craft in the Calcutta trade.
The towering deep-sea wanderer has
come to be known at Calcutta, where she
has been much admired, as the white
bark
The Milton Stuart carries a crew of rs.
all told, of whom 20 should be able sea-
men, For one reason or another all the
foremost hands who had shipped at New
| York left the bark at Calcutta. When it
was time to sail back Captain Norma n
was at his wits ends to find a new crew
Able seamen are rare birds on the
HoogIy. and the bark couldn't wait
There was only one thing to do and that
was to relieve the hospital at Calcutta OF
all it's convalescents that could be spared
SO the captain made them happy by
signing 10 patients from that institution.
They We're all honest chaps and we'll
meaning enough but the most of them
were as innocent of any nautical know-
| edge or experience as the admiral of the
Queens Navee. who polished up the han
die of the big front door. Such a collec-
ton of freak Seamen Captain Norman
never beheld before.
| The Milton Stuart's new crew would
| have equipped Bowery museum. Some
| were giants and others dwarfs. Some
| were prize fat men and others living
skeletons. Some had bushy hair and
| others We're bald. Some had long whisl<-
| ers and others We're beardless. All of
| them were tatooed. some more. some less.
Some We're musicians and others come
| dams.
! When the Milton Stuart got out of the
| Hoogly into the Indian Ocean only six
out of the - supposed seamen were found
| competent to splice Il rope or pound a
cable. Handling 3lJ5-ton bark with ANA :
| teur sea dogs is a strain on captain S
| nerves.
But the weather was splendid. and the
mate. Mr. Greenland. happened TO be Il
hypnotist; 1t was remarkable how
quickly the unlucky and land-lubheriy
crew caught on under his influence. They
soon learned how TO paint the masts and
| yards and scrape down and slush the
| topmast in one day. Captain Norman
believes that it was under the mate 5
| occult power that the queerly assorted
crew got on so well together.
| In the fo'c'stle there We're jolly times
| and no end of entertainment. The fat
| men grew thinner. the lean men grew
fat: the long, hiskered men got shaved.
| and the beardess tarS grew whiskers.
There was Il general evening-up in app
pearances. and the way those fellows
| learned TO sail craft was a caution TO
sharks. They became FIRST rate a. Il. :.
which is sea talk for able seamen.
The white bark made no mess Of il.
Once her sails We're lowered she walked
the water like Il thing of life. keeping
steadily TO her work and making tracks
for New York as straight as if she was
pushed along with twin screws
| What the green hands lacked in deX-
terity they made up in grit, and the OF
watch was always ordered cut TO lend a
hand if it was necessary to shorten sail.
Handicapped as he was with the queer
crew, Captain Norman sailed into New
York harbor only los days from Calcutta.
with the bark freshly painted, her yards
squared to an inch and looking more
like a frigate than a merchantmen.
The white bark beat the British ship