The times., 1897-03-28
The Ghost of the Memo"


aboard. Next morning the mate re-
lateI his experience to the cabin and as
lie was man whose word cOuld not be
! questioned, no one brought ridicuie TO
bear. On the contrary taking il as an
| accepted fact that ghost had been
felt, If not seen, by three different per-
sons, we began fishing for some natural
anu plausible reason To account fDT the
thing. Were the men depressed ia
spirit? Had they over-eatene Did each
! one sleep for the moment? Was the
ICY breath a sudden puff Of wind, and
was tine laughter the creakiHg Uf bulk
heads the snip lifted Jr fell? We ar
| gued 10 out that IL must be something
| OF the sort, but the men forward had
/ their own ideas, and were very Inuch
| cowed and put out. However. as IN the
| previous instances, the passage II tIIns
worked something OF cure. We were
| bound for Australia, and we FAD
stretched away into the Indian Ocean,
| and weeks had gone by before We got
| another scare. 1his time 10 cal,. - the
captain himself. At 10 O'Clock as
night he sat reading in Ills c,tttr, when
Il chill suddenly passed over him. and he
| felt two ice-cold hands on his neck 10
w. "a - - SNANi4t man tisNfl pau LIZ
thumbs together on the back of the
neck. and Clutched the throat with his
fingers.
Capt Halpin started up and shook his
assailant Off and turned 10 strike him
| His idea was that the crew had usutined
and one OF the men had stolen i'm u seize
| him No person was there, tut a. if ia
answer 70 the captains oath Of astofiSh-
ment there was the same low. cynical
laughter heard by the others. His state
| room door was standing open, and had been
for two hours, hut the laughter died away
in that direction and the door closed The
captain came on deck and called me and
whispered that a man had passed into his
staterOoIn. Together We entered and
made search, and Of course found nothing.
No man could have been more upset. Bis
experience had been even more irving
than the others, and all his arguments had
been torn to shreds Something mad
gripped him, though no marks We're lett
to prove 1t. Some one or something had
laughed, though the captain was all alone
in his cabin.
l promised Capt. Halpin not to say
word. even to my brother officers, ana he
certainly djd not mention tije matter. nut
somehow the particulars Of the Incident
leaked out in a day or two, an dmins
the remainder Of the voyage. though the
ghost did not appear again. II was the
hardest kind Of work 10 maintain diSCi-
! pine When we reached ydney at last
every Eau Of the crew cut and TLn. and
such queer stories were put IN CiICI4idtio
that the Memo had hard work to snip a
crew for the return voyage A broken
leg sent me TO the hospital tnd she sail ii
without mt, but ! kept myself posted -
to the ghost. Midway between Australia
and the Cape the first mate had lis
throat clutched by cold and unseen lands
as he lay IN lis bunk one evening, end
two nights later the same thing happened
TO a man in the deckhOuse " bile dIsci-
pHne was upset and things in a bad state
the trouble would have passed away il
the ghost had not played his p~anks on the
man at the wheel fJ= Nights subse-
quently Every man forward then de-
cIared his determination 10 quit the snip,
aud they had prOvisiOned two boats and
were about 10 lower then. when man o.
war hove in sight.
A signal Of distress brought her along,
and YOU can Judge now the minds OF tie
men were affected when I say that they
preferred going aboard the man Of-warin
irons to returning 10 duty Enough men
were spared to work the ship home and
though the ghost remained quiet there was
an unCanny feeling with all. For fCur
weeks after loading for India the Memo
could not ship man. The SiOSt business
mad got into the newspapers ana tie
stories were circulated in the tJvaIns,
end though men would have taken their
chances in leaby snip they fought clear
of spOCks A crew was at last secured by
paying extra wages. but after the Memo
had been out seventeen days the ghost laid
its cCId hands on one Of the men and tbe
entire crew. led by the third mate. Iban-
dOneG the ship at sea The captain ard
the two mates stood by her and eventually
got her into port. but her reputation Was
blasted forever The case was Laid before
all sorts Of men. and scOfferS and believers
alike visited the snip in sea rch 0f a clue
Plenty Of deductions and conclusions We're
arrived at, but they satisfied only a GER
tain few. After many months the Memo
loaded at Liverpool for a South American
port. and her crew was composed en-
tircly Of Germans fresh frOn a China yOy-
age.
Not one had ever heard OF her troubles,
but they were fated to find out for them
selves week after sailing the ghost
appea red as lively as ever. and again
the crew put off and left her in charge or
her officers. She was a doomed ship. and
her owner did the wisest tmng possible by
selling her at the best price he could get
As q coal barge she was never troubled
again by the ghost, though why il shouldn't
have continued aboard no one can tell
You eau form your own theories and draw
your own conclusions Of the whole affair
! bothered with il for several years. top
ing 10 get at some satisfactory eluci'a-
ton, bur il remains a mystery StiU n
there had been no ghost the ship would
not have been twice abandoned andfnaiy
sold for a fifth Of her cost. and that suci
was the case there are hundred news
paper articles to prove Indeed. the hulk
is III commission today. and is alwayB
pointed cut as the ghost slip"
Blue Moons and Green SIMS
"Once in a blue noon Is a saying