Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1898-02-18

make light of the affair, as 1t was polite
to do, but though the man was reduced to
silence it Wac evident that he was fully
satisfied that a spook was aboard. Next
morning the mate related his experience to
the cabin, and as he was q man whose
word could not be questioned no one
brought ridicule to bear. On the contrary,
taking 1t as an accepted fact that a ghost
had been felt, If not seen, by three differ
ent persons, we began fishing for some
natural and plausible reason to account for
the thing. Were the men depressed In
spirit? Had they overeaten? Did each one
sleep for the momentp Was the icy breath
a sudden puff Of wind and was the laugh
ter the breaking of bulkheads as the ship
lifted or fellf We argued it out that it must
be something Of the sort, but the men for
ward had their W ideas and were very
much cowed and put out. However, as
III the previous instances, the passage of
time worked something of a cure. We
were bound for Australia, and we had
stretched away into the Indian ocean and
weeks had gone by before we got another
scare. This time it came to the captain
himself. At 10 o'clock at night he sat
reading in his cabin when a chill suddenly
passed over him and he felt two ice cold
hands on his neck. 1t was as II o strong
man had put his thumbs together on the
back of the neck and clutched the throat
with his fingers. Captain Halpin started
up and shook his a~ssailant off and turned
to strike him. His idea was that the crew
had mutinied and one of the men had
stolen in to seize him. No person was
fhoro hr,f nc AZ ip ovc1,por ~ 81, oc,Aoi-Ja
oath OF establishment there was the same
low, cynical laughter heard by the others.
His stateroom door was standing open
and had been for two hours, but the laugh
ter 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 stateroom. Together
we entered and made search, and, of
course, found nothing. No man could
have been more upset. His experience had
been even more trying than the others,
and all his argument had been torn to
shreds. Something had gripped him,
though no marks were left to plove it.
Some one or something had laughed,
though the captain was all alone in his
cabin.
/ promised Captain Halpin not to say a
word even to my brother officers, and he
certainly did not mention the matter, but
somehow the particulars of the incident
leaked out in a day or two, and during the
remainder of the voyage, though the ghost
did not appear again, it was the hardest
kind Of work to maintain discipline.
When we reached Sydney at last, every
man of the crew cut and ran, and such
queer stories were put in circulation that
the Memo had hard work to ship a crew
for the return voyage. A broken leg sen
me to the hospital, and she sailed without
me, but l kept myself posted as to the
ghost. Midway between Australia and the
Cape the first mate had his throat clutch
ed by cold and unseen hands as he lay in
his bunk one evening, and two nights
later the same thing ~happened'to a man in
the d%eckhouse. While discipline was up
set and things in a bad state the trouble
would have passed away if the ghost had
not played his pranks on the mar at the
wheel a few nights subsequently. Every
man forward then declared his determine
ton to quit the ship, and they had pro-
visioned two boats and were about to lower
them when a man-of-war hove in sight
A signal Of distress brought her along,
and you can Judge how the minds of the
men were affected when l say that they
preferred going aboard of the man o f.war !
in irons to returning to duty. Enough
men were spared to work the ship home, |
and though the ghost remained quiet there
was an uncanny feeling with all. For four
weeks after loading for India the Memo
could not ship a man. The ghost business
had got into the newspapers, and the sto-
ries were circulated in the taverns, and
men would have taken their chances |
In a leaky ship they fought clear of spooks.
. crew was at last secured by paying extra
but after the Memo had been out
days the ghost laid its cold hands on one
Of the men, and the entire crew, led by the
third mate, abandoned the ship at sea.
The captain and the two mates stood by
her and eventually got her into a port, but
her reputation was blasted forever. The
case was laid before all sorts of men, and
and believers alike visited the ship
in search Of a clew. Plenty Of deductions
and conclusions were arrived at, but they
only a certain few. After many
the Memo loaded at Liverpool for
South American port, and her crew was
composed entirely Of Germans fresh from
> China voyage. Not one had ever heard
Of her troubles, but they were fated to find
for themselves. A week after sailing
the ghost appeared as lively as ever, and
again the crew put off and left her in
Of her officers. She was a doomed
ship, and her owner did the wisest thing
by selling her at the best price he
,ould get. As a GOAL barge she was never
;roubled again by the ghost, though why
& shouldn't have continued aboard no one
ian tell. You car form your own theories
md draw your own conclusions of the
whole affair. I bothered with 1t for several
hoping to get at some satisfactory
but 1t remains a mystery still.
there had been no ghost, the ship would
Tot have been twice abandoned and finally
,old for a fifth Of her cost, and that such
the case there are q hundred newspa-
DER articles to prove. Indeed the hulk is in
today, and is always pointed
tut as the ghost ship"