The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1897-07-09
STRANGE THINGS AT SEA.
a Cloud Graded Frog and q Cat That
Would Not Drown.

y RAN1C TIN0S Al SEAs
Cloud Graded Frog and Cat That
Would Not Drown.
A remarkable story about the Ameri-
can ship Iroquois picking live frog of
cloud in midocean excited murmur
OF comment along the water front, and
had the story come to port with almost
any other man but Captain Taylor it
might have been doubted. Taylor's rep
utation for veracity is we'll established
in Portland, SO the strange story was
taken without grain Of salt and with
only a few drinks Of whisky. An un.
usual tale Of the sea always brings to
mind another, and the frog story of the
lroquols was no exception.
There's strange things happen on
board ship, sometimes" said al Belts,
the we'll known river pilot, "and scrap
Ing frogs off the clouds with topmast
Is not the strangest. ! remember an oc.
currence on board the old clipper Plum
duff, which was SO remarkable that
am frequently accused of handling the
truth in careless manner when I re-
late it.
'"The Plumduff was en- route from
Calcutta for the Columbia in ballast,
and l was first mate under Captain
Tlmbertoes. Among other live stock
aboard was maltese cat. The cat be-
haved very we'll for the first week or two,
but when we got over on the equator she
made the night hideous with her inces-
SAINT yowling. Old Timbertoes had the
gout and did not sleep we'll anyway,
and this inf1iction nearly made him
crazy, SO one night he came out, and,
finding the cat in good, convenient
position, kicked her over into the sound
ing sea.
"The only witness to the deed was a
lascar sailor at the wheel, and when he
told the rest of the crew we almost had
a mutiny OH cur hands, as they prophe-
sled all sorts Of bad luck would happen
to the ship. Nothing came of it, how
ever, and as we were in good ballast
trim we came flying along in rattling
shape, and about 80 days after leaving
the Ganges oyr mudhook went down in
Astoria harbor. In due season the GUS
tom house boat came out, and when the
officers clambered aboard Denny Curran,
the boatman, Stacked away on his Ian
yard and his boat came around under
the stern. A moment later we heard a
yell, and Denny was coming up the
ladder hand over hand as though the
devil was after him, and in his boat,
making a united chorus of 'meows. >
was our old maltese cat and five half
grown kittens.
"When Denny recovered his breath,
he stated that, as his boat swung
around under the stern, the animals
Immediately sprang off the top of the
rudder, and the unusual sight nearly
frightened him to death. We then went
back and made an examination Of the
rudder and found that with her claws
the abandoned cat had scratched cav
ity out of the top of the rudder, and
while the lascar sailors had been
mourning her death she was engaged
in rearing family. The rudder, being
high out of the water, of course pre-
vented her getting wet very often, and
number of tishbones still reposing in
the cavity indicated the diet which had
kept her alive. She was taken ashore,
and think Scott johnson, the Astoria
stevedore, has some of her descendants
yet, and to this day they will eat moth
ing but sea fish. Portland Oregonian.