The Appeal., 1900-11-17
VOYAGE G PHEB[ Ann
RETIRED SKIPPER OF MAINE WHO
SAILED FROM BANGOR TO
BINGHAM
HE SPINS A COASTING YARN
TELLS of Capt. Jabcz Perkins, Who
Laid q Wager n, PnrsOn
Could Not De-
eide.

gor to Boston in the schooner Phebc
Ann, whereas he SHOULD have made the
trip inside of a week with the fair chance
he had. The towboat Inen, the sailmaker,
and two stevedores, who composed the
jury on this occasion, had unanimously
agreed that Capt. Jabe1 had used Mp
enough tirne to get to Gibraltar and that
he was dead slow, when in came a red.
whlskereG coaster captain and squa.
himself down OH a bale of Oakum. The
skipper filled his pipe rei1ectively as he
caught the drift OF the talk. and then
he had his say concerning Capt. Jabez
Perkins. Said he:
'He's a safe man, but he's cussed long.
winded,'' said the Oldest retired coaster
who frequents Cass1dy's store, referring
to Capt. Jabez Perkins, whose strange
disappearance from the haunts of men
and the eyes of ship reporters has been
the subject or debate by several Of the
best guessersa in port. "Yessir, he's
wosen dago sometimes takin' a montl.
o Sundays to git nowhars. This amt
the fust time he's gone and lost Eisself.
either; it's jest such a trip as he made
two years ago ir the Glory Ann Bate
man, FIN here to bingham.
CARRIED A CARGO OF SHINGLES.
Had a middlin' load O. short stuff,
mostly shingles, and a good chance out.
SO he'd ought to get up there and back
in ten days at the outside; but he was
gone and gone. without a word fm
him. till near Thanksgivin', and the Bos-
ton papers said the Glory Ann Bateman
was ''mfSsin'. So She was, but finally. at
long and at last, she turned up, and him
as cool and satisfied as if he'd made "a
flying trip and beat the whole fleet.
Where was he? Well, l got some wind
of his doings next summer after that
when 7 went down the bay mack 'rellin'
Never heard the like Of it; pears he
clean forgot where he was bound or what
for.
'"Nelf, first I heard was he stopped
down off Crow Cove-tnis was in Septem-
Der, just fore election-to get a mess of
tinkers, and while he was there lie got
into an argument over politics with a
feller that owned a weir. Th~y set ar
talked an talked an chewed it over,
till they got SO deep into it-that the argy-
1qent sloped over into religion, am that
led to contradictions on a. certain pint.
They bet each other $40 on this, an the
Cnly way to settle it was to leave it out
to a minister, an there wasn't no min
lister for ten miles; but they were bound
to settle 1T then and there, and so they
hired a team and druv to t'other end of
the island where the parson lived.
WOMAN COULD NOT DECIDE BET.
"Parson wasn't to home, an his wife,
though She said she knowed Scriptur
pretty middlin' well, lowed that $40 was
too much of bet for her to decide, and
she SAID they'd have to wait till the
parson got home, an he was off to
Swans Island to hitch couple. Like s
week.
well. sir. stead O. lettin' it go for
the time bein'. them critters jest camped
down there an fished and smoked an
,swapped lies for four solid days till the
parson come back, an then they was as
pint to be settled was what kind O. fish
they used to kotch in the sea O. Galilee,
or some O. them waters you read about in
the Bible. Capn Jabez he said they was
off Matinicus, only, p'raps, little small
er, while the weir feller ne said the sea
of Gallilee was fresh water. an whoever
heard of cod bein' caught in fresh water?
The minister said he'd be blessed if he
knew what kind the fish was-there wan't t
nothin' bout them in any books he'd ever
read, and it didn't make no difference,
,neither-they was jest fish.
''Well, Cap'n Jabez said it made $40 diff
ference, and that he'd like for once to
meet a parson who could answer a
straight question on p'ints O. the Bible
without any backin' an film, but tnat he
never had, and didn't expect to on Long
Island. anyway. =
CONVERTED TO METHODIST FAITH.
''Well, sir, as they told it to- me down
there, the parson. stead OF gettln mao
natured, an invited him and the other
feller to the house where they We're
goin' to hold sort Of revival: Cussed II
there there ave Week Ssi after r that. that and and When he
come away he was bowling. Methodist,
and him a Baptist o the first water
when he landed. All bets on the fish Of
the sea of Galilee We're declared, off all
hands parted friends, and Cap'n Jabez
made the parson a present of six punches
of shingles right off the top of the deck
there was more. shingles where them
come from, and it was cheap religion at
that, shingles of that kind being then
only $2.2o a thousand.
I'm such fOOlery as this Cap'n Jabez
had then wasted 'leven days, but that
didn't count much with him. He owned
the old nooker and lowed he'd go and
come in her when he pleased. After he
got under way again he suddenly made
up his mind that he'd oughter go home
to vote, an it was bout ship an up the
where he lived. There wasn't much Of
anything up that lection, but he said it
was every mans business to vote, an if
the consignees couldn't wait in peace an
he had in the Glory Ann Bateman, they
could wait Uneasy and be damned. =,
HELD ON TO HIS MUDHOOK." .-
after he'd voted he stayed around to
wait for the return. and by the time the
bangor papers had got it all figured ul
and the papers had reached as far as
cape Rozherwav five days more had gone
into eternity. Then the wind came ahead
and there was nothing to do but stay
there to an anchor or made a dead beat
agin It. Not bein' fond of work Capt.
.Jabez held on to his mudhook and took
life easy, goin' to huskin's and such like.
We'll, sir, 1t was four days more be-
Tore the weather come right again, and
then. havin swapped three kits of mack
rel for two bushels Of potatoes and lot
OF onions and other truck. Cap'n Jabez
got under way, sayfn' he'd land those
blasted shingles in bingham inside of two
days. and then he'd have some peace to
go somewhere and do somethin'.
We'll he tucked sail onto the old sled
and she went down past Owls Head
flynn. It looked as If he really would
make straight streak for Hinghann this
time, but off Georges Islands he fell In
with a fleet of small boats and hove to to
have some CAB S'ith tner,. They all said
s how mack rel was just crowd,n' the
Water in -them parts, and q man could
make more money catching ,eI.i than he
Gould diggin' gold. Cap'n .Iabez used to
z be a mack relman, you know, and this
4 set him right on edge He clean forgot
about the shingles bound for Hing gham
and got out all his mackrel gear and set
all hands at it. The fish took hold pret-
ty well, and 1T looked like a good thing
Detter'n luggint shingles-when all Of a.
sudden 1t shut in thickern n hasU puddin'