The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1899-04-03

as 20 throw everybody 10 the deck, and
the man at the tiller several times mar
rowly escaped being Drained by the
heavy boom as 1t swept across the deck.
AT last they weathered the point, and
from that time made good weather to
PoughkeepSle, where the crew deserted
to man, all OF them declaring that they
would rather go TO the penitentiary than
70 make another trip in such craft.
Captain Blocker managed to scrape
together scrub crew, with which he
made the return trip to New York,
making good time and having no trou-
bic. On the next trip up he carried
crew of old river men, each of whom
swore that he was mot afraid of the
devil himself
This voyage was a great deal worse
than the last. All day did they tack
and ratch about the point, losing ON one
tack all that they had gained on the
previous ore, until about dusk, when
the wind increased TO a gale and the
captain, finding that he could not hope
TO weather the point that night, put her
about and ran before the wind, intend
ing TO anchor behind the shelter of the
hills till morning.
As she scudded along at terrific rate,
yawlng and sheering as the seas caught
her under the stern, the main boom sud
denly gybed. The captain was at the til
Ter when this occurred, and as the boom
swung across the deck blight of the
main sheet fell about his neck, and
when the sheet tautened it cut the head
Oft the unfortunate man and threw it
far out of sight into the heaving waters
of the river, while the crew stood pale
and horror stricken at the grewsolne
sight. Almost instantly the gale mod
Grated. and the sloop was sailed back to
New York without further difficulty.
1t was several months before man
could be found to take command of the
haunted vessel, for in addition to the
other tales that were circulated about
her it was rumored that the headless
ghost of Captain Blocker could be seen
every night standing on the quarter deck,
grasping the tiller in his phantom hands.
AT last a man came forward and Of
fered to take the position, and though
he was stranger to everybody on the
river his offer was accepted, for he
seemed to understand his business thor
oughly. This man called himself Ru-
dolph SturdevaDt He was tall, dark,
mysterious sort of person, with sa-
turnine cast of countenancc, and was
terribly profane in his speech. Indeed,
his blasphemy shocked the wharf rats
about the Washington market, and that
was no easier task in those days than it
is now. Captain Sturdevant brought his
own crew with him, and it was we'll he
did, for there was not man in New
York who would have shipped in the
Wynkoop for love or money.
The day which Captain Sturdevant
appointed to sail from New York was
the 18th of September, and to make
matters worse it was on Friday. 1t was
one of those autumn days when the air
seems full of vague threatenings, when
the glass falls apace and the prudent
mariner seeks a good harbor for his
craft. The loungers about the wharf
tried to dlssuade the captain from his
purpose, telling him OF the experience
of her former commander and urging as
a reason, apart from other cOnsidera-
tions, that it was Friday and the thir-
teenth of the month, which made it lit
tie less than suicide to leave port in such
a vessel as the Wynkoop; but the cap
tain laughed at their fears and swore
with terrible, blood curdling oaths that
he would put the sloop around the head
land of Hook mountain that night or he
would land her in hades. And so he
started on his voyage.
Old river men say that never before
within the memory Of the Oldest of them
had such fearful night visited the
Hudson river as that memorable 18th
of September. The upbound fleet an
chored at nighrfall behind the shelter
ing hills near Nyack, and the crews of
the different vessels assembled on deck
to watch the Wynkoop as she laborious-
1y tackled and filled across the tempes-
tuous Tappan Zee. Night came on, and
still in the inky bIackness she crept
along amid the buffetipg wind and
waves. The thunder reared and rever-
berated among the hills and echoed and
re-echoed from the sides of Anthony's
Nose and Hook mountain and then went
grumbllng away across the lowlands on
the other side of the river, while the
vivid lightning ever and anon played
about the toiling sloop as she moved
YEARLY on. The night wore on, and the
watchers grew weary at their posts, but
still the flashes showed the Wynkoop
now on port and now on starboard tack,
yet never nearer the headland.
Just at midnight there came fash
of lightning which illuminated the
heavens like the MONDAY sun, and at
the same instant the thunder doomed as
il the universe had split in twain. III
that binding flash Of light they saw the
Wynkoop standing out bold and clear
against the dark background Of the east
ern shore, and outlined full to their gaze
was the form of Captain Sturdevant
standing Gu the quarter deck, his head
thrown back and his clinched fist ex-
tended upward toward the sky as if he