The age-herald., 1899-07-30
SHIP HAS 4
 UNIQUE CARGO Captain DomeStico Completes a Voyage With Variety of Un-
 canny Incidents
The Philadelphia Times says:

The Philadelphia Times says:
 Captain Domestico, the Italian bark Clementina, and a big cargo of bones, are now in port. from far away Uruguay. They have completed a voyage which for vari- ety of incident has scarcely a parallel in the annals of navigation. Storm and blow, bugs and ghosts and mysterious incidents galore made up the run of the Clementina from Buenos Ayres to Philadelphia, the quickest voyage ever sailed between these two ports.
 Exclusive of amy other event of moment this latter fact makes the Clementina and her captain worthy of mention, contrasting hiS wonderful trip with that of the Anita S., another Italian ship, which recently was 237 days from Montevideo to the Dela- ware Capes. Despite most unpropitious conditions the Clementina made identically the same voyage in exactly two months.
 Italian captains are odd characters. They are proverbially slow, so slow, in deed, that it is sadd they take their sails in at night when at sea and so careful that they would anchor if they could find holding ground.
 A reporter of the Times boarded the Clem- entina yesterday almost soon she dropped anchor In the stream He was much gratihed to find that the captain spoke English in his own quaint fashion and highly entertained by the latter.s in- genous account of his wonderful voyage.
 This is my first trip with bone ship" said Signor Domestico, "and if I can do so, it is my last Such trouble we had on &C., count of those bones! l don't know how to tell you about it.
 ''We loaded them at Buenos Ayres and our destination was Antwerp. On arrival at MonteYideo we were ordered to Philadel- phia. When the southern trades began to blow we made good time. Very fast time, you say, but all of us wished that the voy- age could have been made in a day after what we had to go through.
 '"rhese bones we had on board were fresh, and when they were loaded in the hold at least three million bugs were put in with them. These soon became fifteen million, and then what time we had!
 ''The insects overran the whole ship. have seen the men shovel them up and throw them into the sea at the rate of four barrelsful a day. They were what is called the boring bug, and as I had never sailed with them before had not taken the pre- caution to have the ship painted with a mixture of whitewash and arsenic, conse- quently I was in momentary fear that she would begin to leak and go at once to the bottom.
 When only three days out of port the bugs became so bad that three of the men went into the rigging and stayed there.
 Tn the meantime near the equator the Ciementina ran into fierce gales, which lasted a week. One of the hatch covers was lost overheard, and that in itself makes a story.
 After the storm subsided we noticed that we were followed by a British steamer. I hove to and he lowered boat and boarded us.
 "How long have you been on fre? said an officer who stepped on the Clementinas s deck.
 q could not understand the man. He in- eli fad vessel the Clementina blazing fiercely for the last three days and that they had followed to render us assistance.
 Might came on while he argued and sud- denly he exclaimed:
 "'There you are burning again aloft!
 Sure enough a ghostly radiance played ftfully around the spars and top hamper.
 "Then the explanation of the mystery dawned upon me. remembered that durlng the storm it rained hard and the moisture going through the hatch, with the cover lost off penetrated the hold, developing the phosphorescence in the bones. The light thus exudiug went all over the vessel and in inc distance she must have appeared as a veritable fire ship.
 Suppressed by the simple solution of the puzzle the officer got in his boat ana de- parted All night, however, l saw his Ves- sel following curiously in our wake. We must have presented a wonderful spectacle. although the latter was imperceptible to us.
 My crew never heard the explanation, consequently a few days later, when my pet cat got, by accident, into the hold and became saturated with the phosphorus. her sudden appearance in the forecastle struck terror to their weak hearts.
 " She has been seized by demon, they cried, and then vowed candlesticks of sil- yer to their patron saint if 1t should prove no i'll omen.
 ''They finally threw the cat, which loved very dearly, product of sunny Italy, into the sea. I never saw her again.
 'I wanted to get here had enough of trouble, enough of bone ships and clapped on all sail. God favored me and l finally made your capes, an older man by twenty years than I was two months ago.
 q did not tell you all. The ship leaked, the food got bad, and 1t was all in all a voyage which I can't soon forget"