Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1896-06-06
A RED-EYED SpOOk.
1t is the Concentrated Spirit Of An
Entire Crew.
How the Sailors Explain Accidents
to the Steamship Empress Xxx
periences ofa Mariner Who Seems
to Be a Magnet for Ghosts.

New York. June 5.-The British
steamship Empress. Capt. Stewart from
Java. has been hoodooed by ghost, her
crew believe. She was locked at North
Third street, Williamsburg, to discharge
her cargo of sugar
The Empress sailed from Middlesbor-
ough-on-the-Tees, December Z, 1880.
Seaman Billy Jarkup said that between
one and two bells of the night watch
ghost with red eyes opens an iron door
between the boilers and sticks out us
horrible head The ghost has also APP
peared to Harry Williams, the store
keeper. who corroborated Jarkup yarn
in every detail.
On the first occasion when the appa-
rition showed itself, Jarkup says, he feit
as if he had been touched on tender
nerve with cold steel. He pulled HIM
self I'D the ladder, and the ghost said:
Don't be afraid. Come back and CHAT
bit"
Jarup afterward became quite famil-
lar with the ghost. The ghost, Jarup
says, asserts that he is the concentrated
embodied spirit of lost ships crew.
The spirit travels on different vessels,
having boarded the Empress from a
sailing craft from Middlesborough.
Some time it will leave the Empress.
1t is a common belief on the steam
ship that the ghost shifts about the coal
in the bunkers, and always away from
the furnaces.
In the Mediterranean, $50 miles east
of Algiers. the crank shaft OF the for
ward engine snapped off close to the
coupling. Chief Engineer James Alder
disconnected the engine and the En-
press proceeded under steam from her
two remaining engines. She was de-
layed II days by the accident. When
the ship was ploughing through heavy
seas three weeks ago Bo'sn Jack Stan
ton and Able Seaman Fox were hurled
against the forecastle BOBBY hatch and
seriously injured. In the forecastle 1t
is firmly believed that the ghost OF the
stokeroOm costs an evil spell over the
ship. If the ghost does not quit in this
| harbor many Of the crew say they will
not ship on the Empress for another
voyage.
Harry Hudson. one of the Empress's
able seamen, had passed through somG
| thrilling and awful experiences. There
are those in the crew who believe that
spirits of Hudson's former shipmates
will always haunt him.
Hudson was an apprentice on the
British ship Marian Opale when raft
was sighted in the Indian ocean. The
mate, with boats crew, found dead
! Malay and a book printed in Hindoo-
| stantee on the raft. The book, as it
proved, was infested with cholera germs.
From handling it Mate Ransom took
the disease. He recovered, but Capt
! six and twenty of the men forward, the
cook and the steward, died of the plague.
One after the other was dropped over
| board. Mr.. Ransom, Hudson and the
cabin boy were all who survived out of
a crew of SO. They were taken off by
the British ship Falls, and the Marian
| 0pale was scuttled.
Again, when a sailor on the British
| ship Fleur-de-Lis, Capt. Mackenzie,
Hudson says, a wild laugh was heard
| by the watch one night in the Southern
| ocean. A torch lighted on the forecas-
tie head and the laugh was repeated.
A small boat was sighted and the mate,
| the steward and a volunteer crew put
out to her.
A man was seen to dive from the boat
| He laughed like a demon as he took
the plunge. He never rose. A wo-
mans body was in the boat, which bore
the name of the ship Mary, of Hull.
| Yet again, when a seaman on the British
| steamship Adjutant, Capt. Oakley,
Hudson was wrecked on August 4, 1894,
among Riffiian pirates in Benza Bay,
Morocco. Only two firearms on the
| rounded schooner kept at bay the pi-
rates, who were armed with brass guns
with stocks shaped like shoes. H. NJ. S.
Dolphin steamed away from Gibraltar
| and rescued the crew.
No wonder that ghost haunts any
ship in which Yarn-Spinner Harry Hud-
son saiiSi