The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-11-12

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strengthened him 10 do right. But hs
couldn't The bad was too deeply root.
ed. Before the pilot left the ship. the
youth (cail him SMITH had a fight
with a big Swede and hit him with a
Delaying pin. In five minutes he was
In the brig. Captain buchanan. after
keeping him three or four days on
bread and water, went to him and
said:
II want you 10 do a seaman's duty.
III you come on deck and do the best
you can, you'H have a pleasant time;
III not. you'll have a pretty hard exis-
tence."
He went on deck and made a good
hand. Captain Buchanan continues the
story:
After 40 degrees south latitude had
been reached. I noticed that he had a
hacking cough and sent him to the sick
bay. The nights began TO get cold and
dreary and we were chasing the Ma
gellan clouds one day Smith asked
for me. and at his request / read the
Catholic prayers 10 hin. He said he
wanted to make friends with the Swede
before he. died. and, by a strange COIN
cidence. the Swedc at the same time
asked II he could wait upon him. I
both requests. The Swede
went into the sick bay, and in a few
moments h cry of 'Murderi' was
heard. l hurried 10 the bay and found
Smith trying to stab h Swede. He
declared he meant to kill him before
he died. n was slashing him with a
knife when his life suddenly ended.
And now comes the strangest part of
the affair n the demonstration of the
superstitions OF the sailors. The man
at the wheel declared TO me that five
minutes before he heard OF Smiths
death he had seen him jump over the
rail with his sheath knife in his hand.
I halfaNa tho eaflor fhpuOhf he uaG fal-
ing the truth. He was so overcome
by something that he let go of the
wheel, and a sailor never does that UNI
less he has had a terrible fright. for
he knows the punishment Is hanging
THAT is. IT was in those days.. After
ward ! showed him Smiths body and
the sheath knife. but he could not be
persuaded that he had not seen Smith
sink into the sea. h effect of this
strange appearance To the man at the
wheel vas to increase our stock of su-
perstition on the ship"
While Captain Buckmand does not be-
lieve I'm the superstitions of sailors. and
while he has,, to use his own expression,
"a standing offer of 800 for the first
ghost brought TO me and $500 for the
first well-developed devil" he never
theless acknowledges that strange
things happen at sea, things that
would battle the philosophy of Horatio."
-, wv
happened to him:
II was running down the trades in
the South Pacific under a heavy press
of canvas" he says. The watches had
all been posted and ! had seen that the
ship was on her course and had retired
To my bed i'm my cabin. Suddenly L
heard a voice saying: John, get up'
/ turned over. contented myself with
the thought that I had been dreaming,
and relapsed into unconsciousness.
loon after 1 was awakened by a vigor-
Gus slap on the face and the exclama-
ton: John H., get up L arose, hur-
ried to the forecastle. took up my glass.
and shouted. 'Starboard your helm!
Hard a-s%tarboard!' The man at the
wheel obeyed instantly, and our yards
scraped the yards on another vessel
coming from the opposite direction and
commanded by an Englishman whose
crew was worn out by continuous b
and who had used al his oil to quiet a
wild sea and was sailing without a
light of any kind. Had I not been
reused and gone on deck when | did we
would certainly have had n collision.
Now. that voice that j fancied | heard
seemed to be my mothers voice. The
strangest part about IL was that no
person on board the ship knew that
John H was the first part Of my
name. | afterward asked my mother III
she had any particular recollection OF
oct. II. with reference to me. She said
she had not.
Another time after a while the
captain continued. II was working on
a Pacific mail steamer, from Acapul-
co. Mexico. to San Diego, Cal. in a
thick fog. | told my men that i had
the altitude and longitude of San Die
go. and directed them to slow down the
ship and take soundings. Then ] went
into my room, locked my door securely
- II - - Nhn old
sailing vessels. where every mans
hand was against the captain. you will
know that the door could not be easily
opened from the outside when locked)
and sat down. The lights were burning
low. Suddenly the door opened and a
voice exclaimed: joint / hurried to
the door. there was no n to be seen,
and then hastehed to the deck. There
I heard the sea lions on the beach and
had just time TO order the anchors
out TO prevent our going on the rocks.
The voice that called me was, To my
ear, that OF my sister Maggie. and she
was at that time in Paris.
sailors have so many superstitions
that I canno enumerate them ALL"
said 1.-THE captain with a smile, as he
recalled some OF the odd things hey
do. For instance. no sailor will put
on his left shoe before his right. nor
will he tie the right before he has the
left on his foot. The story that goes
with this Is that a sailor who ran away
from his ship. with his left shoe tied be-
fore his right was On. was caught by a
coast guard and i'm his anger pronounc-
ed a curse on every sailor who put on
his left shoe first or tied IL before both
were IN. ! never knew a sailor who
did not believe the story of Mother
Carey's chickens Mother Carey's
chickens are p~etrels. the harbingers of
storms. You never see a petrol In calm
weather. In such weather they dive.
The sailors believe that Mother Carey
lived on the coast NJ Ireland and that
her son was lost at sea. h went for
months to the shore to wait his re-
turn and eventually lost her mind.
When the petrels appeared she thought
they represented her son n fed them.
Il helped" aid Captain Buchanan,
turning away from superstition to the
church, ito save $50 OF the 200 passen-