The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1900-08-25
THE SCHOONER'S SIGNAL.
INCIDENTS OF NIGHT IN THE
SOUTHERN PACIFIC.


DereIict-BoardinG the Adam
dOned Vessel-A Search and Its Re-
sult-The Message at the Masthead.
Not Deciphered Till Dawn.
From the New York Commercial Adver-
tiser
TIE group of sailors in the shipping Of
fee were smoking and discussing their
chances of getting berths soon when an
old sailor who sat near a window read
ing threw his-newspaper aside and grunt-
ed
That isn't wonderful; saw something
worse than that my elf
Exp anat ors TO low ed The newspaper
cont aimed an account of a ship az sea sig
mailing to another that was passing
Doctor wanted" thin when the aske
for help was on the way the sigma were
changed 10 read: Dead" The old sailor,
after pointing out the news item, said:
Twenty years ago ] wasl!hrst mate
aboard the brig Arka1ia, hal ing from
Boston. In the early part of the year we
left port with a mixed cargo for Valpa-
raise. We had a good run down and turn
ed the Horn in fine shape. Then we start
ed up the Other side of the South Amerl-
can continent. We were within three
days easy sailing of our destination
when the thing l referred to happened.
Tt was along about the middle of the
night. l had the deck and was taking
things easy as the WIND was light, the
moon full and the sea calm.
Il was leaning over the port rail when
~.
ahead, sir, an shown no Lights 1 look
ed and sure CROUCH there was a two
masted schooner, with only her mains'l
set, right across our bows. We sheered
off, but it was a close shave. We passed
so close under the schoonerS stern that
we could see the full length of her deck
There was not a soul on it. | yelled
schooner ahoy! but got no answer.
'As soon as we were clear l sent for
the old man and he ordered the brig
hove to and boat lowered. See what
the hell ails her Mr. Martin he says
to me The schooner was not more than
half a mile away, full in the moonlight
We rowed up to her side and 1 stood up
and hailed her. No answer. The name
on her stern was Anna d. Black. Anoth-
er stroke or two of the oars and l was
able to clutch her anchor chains and
pulled myself on board.
mo enc met me, and | couldn't see no
one about. 1t gave me a sort of chill.
glanced aloft and saw that everything
was safe there. All her spars were in
tact. The forces'l. jibs and tops'ls were
fured The mainsl had two reefs in it..
The one peculiar thing that struck me
was that the tocm was made fast, as If
TO prevent it from swinging under a
change of wind. / went 10 the compan-
ionway and called down, but got no an
swer Then l asked my two men to come
on deck with me. They made our boat
fast and Joined me. 1t made me feel
easier to have two human beings at my
side.
I'VE rummaged around in the empty
TO Isle; found a lantern and lit 1t. Then
we looked about. The hunks were empty
but everything was in confusion; the deck
was filthy. We hurried out into the open
air to escape the stencil. Then we went
down the companionway into the cabin.
We found the captains desk, and by look
ing over his papers we found that the
schooner hailed from New Orleans and was
bound for Auckland, in ballast. How she
got so far out of her course was a puzzle.
The cabin, like the fo'c'sle, showed that
| something had been wrong, but we could
| not guess what.
Back to the deck we went and on the
On the deck. with his head in his arm,
was a man. He was dead, but he had not
been dead long. He appeared to have been
very sick. / turned him over, searched
his clothes, but found nothing. He was
evidently one of the crew.
When we reached the brig and the cap
tain had heard our story he decided to
stand by until daylight so as 10 make a
thorough search of the schooner. We
were In no particular hurry, and l have
an idea the old man thought it might be
to his financial advantage not to let the
schooner get too far out of sight. My
watch having expired I turned in.
"An hour after daybreak the old man
sent for me.
"Mr. Martin he said, did you notice
any signals on that schooner when you
boarded her.?
Z" No, sir says I.
look at them now, says the old man.
AT the mainmast 1 saw several of the
flags OF the international signal code.
whats the signel?" / asked the old
man, seeing that he held the code book.
Send a doctor. Yellow fever says
the old man.
The sailor stopped his story, filled his
pipe lit il and continued:
For several days l was one of the
sickest men you ever saw, but luckily it
was only ina gination. l thought, though,
that 1 had yellow fever
"What became of the schooner"
mo one knows. You may bet we lost
ell interest in her when we had decipher-
ed the message spelled by those multi
colored flags"
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