The Press., 1899-07-20
A..SHIP
That Rose From the Sea.
A SAILORS YARN.

5S>sSSsSSsSSsSSsSSs sSsssssSsSssssssso
"You landlubbers write narrowing
tales of the ships that sink in the sea.
But did yon never hear of sunken
ship that came back from Davy Jones'
ecker ?" said one of the veteran sea
logs at $the Sailors Snug Harhor, at
Staten Island. near New York. to Wis
tor. 81 saw one come back, " he went
On in lower tone.
~ have seen ships go down. / have
been in many wrecks and have seen my
full share of all the strange sights of
the sea. but no other sight ever made
my blood run so cold nor my heart sink
SO low as the sight of great ship ris
ing to the surface through a thousand
fathoms of water. with crew of dead
men between her decks. 1t happened
back in the fifties. when I was able sea-
man on the Mary Clay, brig trading
to South American ports. We were
coming up from Rio, think it was,
with cargo of hides and coffee, and a
long spell of storms and contrary " inds
drove ne far out of our course and off
to the east in the Atlantic. Our main
and top masts had all gone by the board
long before the storms ended.
"When the weather cleared finally
and the waves wen. down. we were on
tine edge of the Sargasso sea. The green
surface\o of that ocean graveyard was
torn and broken by the storm as far as
patches of torn seaweed were floating
all around u.s. There came day of
calm and Sunshine after two weeks of
storm, and all hands were set to work
fixing up jury rig. with which we
finally reached port. We had bit of
canvas spread forward and another aft
on poles. just enough to give us steer
ing waz> while we worked. A current
and light wind from the south helped
away from that sea of grewsome green
''There was a long. heavy under
swell. waves seeming to come Hp from
the very bottom as if the storm through
which we had passed had stirred the
ocean to its uttermost depths. Joe Dill.
the first mate, and | were at work by
the rail or the starboard side forward
at 1 0 o'clock in the IL morning. w hats
that2' said Joe us he caught my arm
and pointed to a disturbance in the
water some 200 yards off our bow.
81 looked at the spot indicated. Be-
yond hemp of broken weed from the
Sargasso that was drifting along beside
us there was big patch Of fairly clear
water. AS looked huge bubbles APP
peared on the surface and then great
mound of green water and greener
weed seemed to rise so feet above the
surface. AS this mound of weed and
water rolled away to the level of the
surrounding sea there broke from the
spot where we had seen the bubbles the
broken masts of what had bee n a full
rugged ship.
''Dill shouted some warning to the
captain, but he did not move out of his
tracks We stood there as if chained to
the deck: and saw the hull of big ship
rise out of that sea as slowly and ma
jestically as giant whale undisturbed
might come to the surface to blow. She
came up on an even keel and rose until
her upper deck was clear of the water
and floated there, rolling slowly with
the even roll of the sea that had cast
her up. We could see that the vessel
had foundered in storm. Her masts
were all broken off as if she had been
caught unprepared in sudden squall.
and the spars and rigging were twisted
and piled upon the deck and hanging
over the rail as if the crew had been
unable to cut them away.
"We could zee that the risen ship had
been long under water. Barnacles hung
from her rails and the broken timbers
above deck were covered with the dark
green Shiny weed that is found only al
great depth. 1t was easy enough tc
guess how she bad gone down. Caught
in a sudden sqnall. she bad strained he1
framework and broken rent some
where below the water line that Sent
her to the bottom. probably before the
crew had time to man boat. But how
had she come to the surface2
"Oficers and crew of the Mary Clay
ran to the starboard rail and looked al
the derelict that had come up from be-
low with staring eyes and blanched
| faces. No man IF us had ever heard Of
such thing before. and we were 81
close to the wreck that there was NJ
chance that we were mistaken. TIL,
ship was not a derelict that had beer
floating with decks awash. She had no
been concealed from our view by float
ing seaweed. The vessel had risen t.
the surface in big patch of clear wa
ter and half the crew of the Mary Clay
had seen her come up.
For a time we were so startled BY
| what we had seen that no man made {
move to dc anything, Then the captain
recovered his nerve and called for vol
| unteers to board the strange craft and
| see what we could learn abont her. Al
first the men drew back. There was
something SO uncanny about She stran
ger that they wanted to get away al
fast az possible. Finally boat crew,
led by the first mate. volunteered, an6
we went over and boarded the sudder
and mysteriously arisen dereict. We
slipped on the thick green slime that
covered the deck as we climbed over
the rail. and the pale faces of the mer
showed that they had no heart in the
work we had undertaken to do.
| "a hasty glance about the decl
showed that every thing was gone by
the board except the broken spars an6
torn rigging that hung to the sCumpl
of the masts. The beats weec all gone
The wheelLouse was stove in. and the
captains cabin had been crushed by
falling spars. With an oar from oul
boat we scraped among some of the sea
weed and slime and found that the
matches had all been battened down
We found the main gangway covered
with dense heap Of seaweed, in which
there were scores of crabs and strange
looking dwellers in the depths of the
southern seas With much labor we
cleared away this mass of stuff an6
] reached the head of the ladder leadina