The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1902-10-21
FOUND GHOST OF
HAUNTED SHIP
Yet Crew We're Almost Paralyzed
With Fear in Doing
Their Work.

When one can find Captain Hodson,
an old sea dog who is in the Homo
lulu customs service, off duty he can
usually expect to hear a good story of
the Captains experience at sea during
his younger days. Hodson tells a
ghost story, or rather a story of an al
legged ghost, that was responsible for
its own undoing.
'"Thirty-five years ago. says Hold
son, Il was in sailors boarding
house in London waiting for ship.
finally got bunk on the British ship
Gladstone. When I told my friends
about the job, they told me not to take
it as the shin was haunted AT any
rate, | took the job. 1t was a fine
vessel, and was bound down the Med
iterranean to Alexandria, Egypt. A
couple of days out, we heard noises
every little while at night in the tween
decks. 1t sounded like some one hol-
lowing and pounding on the iron
beams below. We investigated but
found nothing. These noises kept up
every night until the whole crew got
scared to death. One night everyone
ran on deck, and refused to work I'M
less two men were allowed together at
the wheel and two together at the
lookout. The men ON deck always
walked about in pairs. No one ever
dared to be alone for minute at night
time. The noises kept up, and we all
feared some disaster was coming.
"One night I was on the lookout
with another sailor A bit of squall
came up and the mate came running
forrard for help. He shouted for one
of us two to come and help haul in the
braces. My mate went, and l was
scared at being left alone A moment
later | saw something dressed in white
coming alop the deck towards me.
My teeth SET tight. | couldn't move
and l couldn't shout. 1 was pretty
near scared to finish. The figure ad-
vanced straight towards me. Near the
fo'c'sle head it stopped and COM
menced to pound the deck over where
the noise had come from, and where
we thought the ghost was. The sail
ors saw it also. They were frightened
and thought our voyage was about to
terminate in something awful. Then
the figure commenced to shout: Come
out, you devils; come out of there.
When we heard the voice we knew il
was our captain. He had gone mad
We captured him and locked him up
"The mate took command, and ther
We started to find out about the ghost
We learned that the captain had gon,
down each night, through a small
hatchway under the cabin, into tn;
1azarette and then out through int
the tween decks, where he did tn,
pounding and in his madness hat
attempted to keep up the reputation
of his vessel as a haunted ship.
We'll, we made our voyage all right
We had lots of trouble with the skip
per. He imagined that he was to WEI
Queen Victoria. Once in a while W,
would allow him freedom. Then h.
would dress up, walk on the poop, an.
shout: Lower away this port boa
for me, lads. Your skipper is goini
ashore to wed the Queen. You'll al
have a good time after the wedding
Well, we had to remove the poor ma
to his cabin on these occasions, an,
we were all very sad when we reache
Alexandria and he was sent back HON
to his relatives in England This i
, the only sea ghost l ever heard of be
ing laid il haunted ship"