Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1900-11-23
eeThEee
PHANTOM SHIP;
eeOR,
THE FLYING DUTCHMAN.
BY Captain Marryat.


of liquor in his hand, he danced and sang,
snapped his fingers, and, like demon,
peered with his one eye upon Philip; and
then would he fall and roll with screams
of laughter in the souppers. More liquor
was handed up as fast as 1t was called for.
Oaths, shrieks, laughter, wero mingled
together; the men at the helm dashed It
amidships and hastened to join their COM
panions, and the Ter Schilling flow before
the gale; tho fore staysail being the only
sail set, checking her, as she waved to
starboard or to port. Philip remained on
deck by the poop ladder. Strange, thought
he, that l should stand here, the only one
left now capable of acting--that should
be fated to look by myself upon this scene
of horror and disgust-should here wait
the severing of this vessels timbers-the
loss OF life which must accompany 1.-THE
only one calm and collected, or aware Of
what must soon take place. Tho vessel,
after running to the southwark till past
Table bay, had, by the alteration made In
her course, entered into False bay, where,
to certain degree, she was sheltered from
the violence of the winds and waves. But
although the water was smoother, the
waves were still more than sufficient to
beat to pieces any vessel that might be
driven on shore at the bottom Of the bay,
to which point the Ter Schilling was now
running. Tho bay SO far offered fair
chance of escape as instead of the rocky
coast outside, against which had the yes.
sci run o few seconds would have insured
| ~
beach Of loose sand. But of this Philip
could, Of course, have no knowledge, for
the land at the entrance of the bay had
been passed unperceived in the darkness
of the night. About 20 minutes moro had
elapsed when Philip observed that the
whole sea around them was one continued
foam. He had hardly time for conjecture
before the ship struck heavily on the sands,
and the remaining masts fell by the board.
The crush of the falling masts, tho
heavy beating of the ship ON the sands,
which caused many of her timbers to part,
| with whole sea which swept clean over
the fated vessel, checked the songs and
drunken revelry of the crew. Another
minute, and the vessel was swung round
on her broadside to the sea, and lay on her
beam ends. Philip, who was to wind
ward, chung to the bulwark, while tho in
toxicated seamen floundcred in the water
to leeward, and attempted to gain the 9TH
er side of the ship. Much to Philips hor-
ror he perceived the body of Mynheer
kloots sink down in the water (Which
now was several feet deep on the lee side
OF the deck), without any apparent effort
on the part of the captain to save himself.
He was then gone, and there were no
hopes for him. Philip thought of Hille-
brant, and fastened down below; he rounu
him still in his bed place, lying against
the side. He lifted him out, and with
difficulty climbed with him on deck, and
laid him in the longboat on tho booms, as
the best chance of saving his life. To this
boat, the only one which could be made
] available the crew had also repaired; but
they repulsed Philip, who would have got
| into her; and, as the sea made clean
breakers over him, they cast loose the
lashings which confined her With the as
] sistance of another heavy sea which lifted
her from the chocks, she was borne clear
of the booms and dashed over the gunwale
into the water to leeward, which was COM
| paratively smooth-not, however, without
being filed nearly up to the thwarts. But
this was little cared for by the intoxicated
seamen, who, as soon as they were atloat,
again raised their shouts and songs of
revelry as they We're borne away by the
wind and sea toward the beach Philip,
who held on by the stump of the main
mast, watched them with an anxious eye,
now perceiying them borne aloft OH the
foaming surf, now disappearing in tho
trough. More and more distant We're tho
sounds of their mad voices, till mt last no
could hear them no more-he beheld the
boat balanced on an enormous rolling sea,
and then he saw it not again.
Philip knew that now his only chance
was to remain with the vessel, and at
tempt to save himself upon some fragment
of the wreck. That the ship would long
| hold together he felt was impossible; al
ready she had parted her upper decks, and
each shock of the waves divided her more
and more At last us he chung to the
| mast, he heard q noise abaft, and he then
recollected that Mynheer Won Stroom was
| still in his cabin. Philip crawled aft, and
| found that the poop ladder had been
| thrown against the cabin door, SO az to
prevent it being opened. He removed 1t
and entered the cabin, where he found
| Mynheer Won Stroom clinging to wind
ward With the grasp of death-but it was
| not death, but the paralysis of fear He
| spoke to him, but could obtain no reply;
he attempted to move him. but it was i'm
possible to make him let go the part of tho
| bulkhead that he grasped. A loud noise
and the rush of n mass of water told Philip
that the vessel had parted amidships, and
he unwillingly abandoned the poor super
cargo to his fate; and went out of the
cabin door. At the after hatchway he OBJ
served something strugglng-it was Jo-
names the bear, who was swimming, but
still fastened by cord which prevented
his escape Philip took out his knife and
released the poor animal, and hardly had
he done this act of kindness, when u heavy
sea turned over the after part of the YES
sell which separated in many pieces and
Philip found himself struggling in the
waves. He seized upon part of the deck
which supported him, and was borne away
by the surf toward the beach. In few
minutes he was near to the land, and
shortly afterward the piece of planking to
which he was clinging struck on the sand,
and then, being turned over by the force
of tho running wave, Philip lost his hold
and was left to his own excrtions He
struggled long, but although SO near to
the shore, could not gain n footing; tho
l 4.