The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1899-03-22
O'TOOLE THE GHOST.


persttious over queer happenings ON board
the ships whereon they serve, and cruiser
now out on the Pacific station, TO which
was attached few years ago, might easily
have got a reputation as 'bewitched ship
on a certain uncanny occasion had not the
mystery been so prosaically cleared up,
said a naval officer on leave OF absence in
Washington. THE ship was ordered from
Mare island TO San Diego to take part in the
yisser flower fiesta at San Diego, CAL, and,
incidentally, to go through its semi-annual
great gun practice and deep water drills
as a side issue of the excursion. When We
got into the harbor of San Diego the PEG
pie ashore made a whole lot of us, and the
men forward were almost taken off their
feet with the hospitality they found ON the
beach In truth everything came so easy
for them in San Diego that the ships com
pany was a good deal demoralized, and, lib
al as the skipper was in the matter of over
looking absenteeism on the part of the blue
Jackets, the master-at-arms was kept pretty
busy all the time putting off to the beach
to bring in long sailors who got so
mixed up in the whirl of the carnival that
they couldn't navigate back to the ship.
Diego for week it became necessary for all
hands to report aboard, for the captain de-
cided to have frst-rate exhibition of the
drill, all hands abandon ship SO the chief
master-at-arms went ashore for big round
up of the derelicts, and he succeeded in
gathering in all of the liberty breakers ex
cept one man, an oiler named O'Toole.
O'Toole had been FIVE days over his leave,
and when the Jimmy Legs returned to the
ship with the boat load he had hauled in and
reported that O'Toole wasn't findable any
where, the oilers chances for a court-mar.
tial when he did return were considered OF
the best.
"Steam was got up in couple of boilers
and the ship pulled out into the open har-
Dor for the all hands abandon ship exer-
else, big flock of tugs and yachts carrying
people from San Diego who wanted to take
in the drill following after us.
'Now when the officer of the deck passes
the word and the bo's'n's mate gives a
prolonged blast on his pipe and bawls that
long drawn-out, rather moving call, Ali
ha-a-nds abandon ship there is surely
whole lot of movement on an American
man-of-war, for it is the mos. exacting drill
on the programme, not even excepting the
a ships company has got a number, and in
the abandon-ship drill his number calls
upon him to do certain things, and the hur-
rying and scurrying for five minutes after
the call goes is something lively to look at.
The deck crew handle the boats, load them
UP with provisions and all useful appliances
for prolonged season in the open sea, and
every man in the black gang down below
Al - dor -, hos alco
deal of business on hand. If the ship is
under steam the fires are banked, the valves
all set. the engines all locked fast, water
tight compartments closed, and everything
below arranged so that in case the ship real
ly doesn't 90 down she shall be found in de-
cent ship-shape order in case she rides
through and is picked up later on with
hawser.
"Well, when the ship had steamed a
couple of miles from the anchorage road in
the harbor of San Diego the call All hands
abandon ship suddenly went, and the usual
rush ensued. Within just four and hals
minutes from the time the call went all
hands were in the boats, and the captains
gig was alongside waiting for the old gentle
man 20 finish his rapid inspection and shake
the ship himself. After he had seen that
everything was made tight, the skipper
stepped into has gig, which sheered off in
stantly, and there was the fine white
cruiser standing utterly deserted in the
swell, with every officer and man of the
crew in boats two or three hundred yards
off. The drill was a first rate success and
the skipper was getting ready to pour out
his expression of approval as be stood in the
stern sheets of his gig, when a queer thing
.f.,hA als h. xtri,,
screws began to churn, and the ship slowly
got into motion. The wheel, before the
ship was abandoned; had been dashed hard
aport, aud the cruiser, under a pretty fair
headway of steam, to Judge from the churn-
ing of the propellers, began to to turn around
rapidly in circles Younever saw such asensa
tion on land or sea as that Job created. 1t
was utterly inexplicable. The engineer officers
knocked their foreheads like crazy men.
There was absolutely no theory upon which
the movement of the ship could be explained.
The steam had been shut off the main
steam pipe before the ship was abandoned,
and it is quite an operation to get ships
steam into her cylinders and TO make every.
thing ready TO turn the engines. But there
circled the ship, apparently turning on
pivot, and obviously under as much steam
as there was left in the boilers.
She's bloomin' WITCH some of the
old-time flatfeet of the crew shouted, and
the men looked at the crazy acting ship with
a bit of fear in their eyes. She was circling
about still when the chief engineer who was
in the steam cutter, had the cox 'un make for
the cruisers starboard gang with all speed,
and in a short time he with half dozen
other officers and men, had clambered
aboard and were rushing down the engine
room hatch.
"Well, the chief engineer the first man to
reach the engineroom, found Mr.. O'Toole,
oier, at the throttle of the port engine.
O'Toole was as drunk as an owl, and he
smoked a clay pipe turned upside down.
with all the complacency in life. The chief
engineer had the man by the throat in a
jiffy, and couple of minutes later, when
some of the marines got aboard, O'Toole was
put inirons in solitary confinement. When
O'Toole got sober enough he was brought to
the mast and questioned by the skipper. 1t
seems that on the night before O'Toole, be-
ing in crafty state of drunkenness, and
knowing that he would be thrust into the
brig Immediately he arrived aboard the ship
for liberty breaking, had hired a shore boat
man to pull him off to the ship. Instead o.