The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-03-01
STORY OF THE PHANTOM CAT
She Came Aboard in a Gale and All
Hands Yelled to BE Put Ashore.
From the Seattle Post-Intellie

From the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
OF all the disasters daily reported in the
Pcst-Intelligencer as having occurred dur
ing the recent storm, not one compared in
grewsomc fearfulness with the experience
of the steamer Mabel on Friday night OH
her return trip from the Skagit river. 1t
was one of those singularly blOod-curdling
stories that would not obtain a moments
credence on the unsupported evidence of
single witness. To this one all the crew
have testified, some with hushed voices
and paled faces, others with clustering
swear words and the strange oaths which
characterize the true mariner. In fact,
Lily, Bogardus & Co., the owners of the
Mabel thought for time that they would
have to seek new crew, and this might
have been difficult matter for the reason
that the strange appearance on the Mabel
may be supposed to have tainted her in the
superstitious mind of the seafarer.
When this terrible thing occurred the
Mabel was eight miles out between West
Point and Ten mile point. Pilot John w.
Brooks and Assistant Walter Allenby were
both in the pilot-hOuSe and attending strict
ly to duty, and during the tremendous eX-
citement which followed subsequently one
or the other bravely stuck to the wheel, or
there is no knowing what would have be-
come of the vessel: for all the crew were
incapacitated by terror, even Chief En-
gineer Charles Sperry, hitherto believed
to be a man of thoroughly well-balanced
mind leaving his cuddy-hole and rushing
on deck screaming: For Gods sake, put
us ashoreP
Pilot Brooks says that at the time the
crew was so suddenly struck with terror
it was blowing a living gale, whatever
that NAV be- from the southwest. The wind
howled and moaned around the smoke
stack as it does around the solitary palm
of the desert in the opera of The Queen
of Sheba." The waves ran higher than
some foot hills, and some forty or fifty
or them came splaShing and crashing on
the Mabels decks.
After this one wave, more mighty than
foI1- rafe cd fe 1nff fpcv,, l,n.
mighty deep, almost bringing the bottom
up with it, reared itself nearly as high as
the foremost, and broke with roar
across the Mabels bows.
The wave brought 1.-The thing with it.
AS the wave scurried through the lee
scuppers the deckhands saw a most I'M
canny object that had ridden on it's crest
and they were paralyzed with horror.
On the forecastle hatch sat cat, licking
the salt water from its paws and calmly
combing out it's whiskers with long, white
claws.
Those claws! how they made the crew
shudder.
blood mounted to the pale cheeks of the
men as they caught the Svengali glances
What was the color of this monster that
even the sea had refused to harbor it was
difficult to ascertain, not for want of wit
nesses, but because they would all talk
at once, and no two would agree.
Meanwhile. as the cat went calmly on
with its toilet the crew grew a trfie bold
err. One man had the hardihood to throw
a potato at it; another a stick of wood ;
and then all of them were throwing any
thing and everything they could lay their
hands on. Action gave them courage, and
they yelled to encourage one another:
xiii it! Kill it!'
But not a single missile struck the crea-
ture
This will prove to anybody as supersti-
tious as sailor man that it was no cat
but a fiend that had stolen the shape of
a cat. 1t was when this natural con-
clusion forced itself upon them that Engi-
neer Sperry yelled in agonized tones:
For Gods sake, put ashore. Tain't
natural. Put ashore at the point"
While the crew turned appealingly to
the pilot the cat disappeared. That
proved everything. Demons act Just like
that in fairy stories.
1t was seen later climbing the mast. One
of the boys is sure he saw 1t making for
the hold. The steamer was brought up at
Lilly Bogardus & Co.'S dock in fear and
trembling That, of course, refers to the
crew And they were persuaded to make
another trip on the Mabel with many mis-
givings. For there was this terrible,
haunting thought: Suppose the demon
cat should be a female, and they genera
ally are; and suppose she should bring
up a family in the hold that would ride
the storms and haunt every ship on the
sound. How awful that would be!