Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1903-10-27
DAILY SHORT STORY
Breaking a Calm.
Copyright, 1903, by c. B. Lewis

brig Tornado. bound from LlVerpool
around the Horn, we expected to find
a period of Gains, and no one was sur
prised when we lost the winds and lay
like a log ON the water for five sue
cessive days. Then the five days be-
came seven-eight-ten
On the afternoon of the tenth day
the captain ordered three boats down
to tow the brig to the eastward. The
idea was at first hailed with satisfac-
ton, but after we had Iabored for an
hour without seeming to have moved
the ship as much as q hundred feet
the men refused to do another stroke
of work.
At midnight of the fourteenth day
few catspaws began playing about and
sail was trimmed to catch them, but
the brig had no more than got steerage
way when it fell fat calm again.
From the first day of the calm we
had visitors in the shape of sharks.
There were only two or three on the
first day, but after that we could al
ways count a dozen at least. But for
the presence of these monsters the
men could have found some relief
teenth day, after a long spell of box
hauling the yards about to catch the
puffs which had no weight in them,
the carpenter announced that he was
going to cool off alongside if it cost
him his life.
Some of the men had gone below
and some were lying about wherever
they could find shade when he went
over the bows. 1 was seated on the
heel of the bowsprit, where 1 got Il bit
of air as the ship rose and fell on the
CLASSY ground swell, and was the only
one aboard who witnessed the tragedy.
Before dropping into the water the
man looked about him. The dOrsal fins
of ten or twelve sharks were cutting
the water, and he must have fully re-
allied the risk he was about to run.
1 Furthermore called his attention to it,
but he growled out something about
my minding my own business and
made a dive from the rail.
Every sharks fin went out Of sight
in an instant, and 1 thought the man
would never rise to the surface. He
came up after a few minutes, however,
and swan off to distance of about a
hundred feet. He was treading water
and brushing his long hair out of his
eyes when l saw flash of white in the
water near him, and next instant he
was pulled down. He uttered but one
cry and threw up his arms.
Fifteen seconds after he was pulled
down an enormous shark broke water
with the unfortunate man in his jaw.
For a full minute the voracious fish
circled about on the surface, with his
victim kicking and struggling, and
then he disappeared into the depths to
be seen no more. Several of the men
came running forward in response to
my shouts, but nothing was to be seen
except few ripples on the surface.
That night queer thing happened.
1t was clear moonlight night, and at
midnight the man on lookout awoke
from a stolen nap to find a derelict
close aboard The whole crew was
routed out to take action in case she
drifted aboard of us, but that did not
happen.
She approached within a cables
length and then came to a standstill.
She had come on us from the north,
being caught in some current per-
haps not over 200 feet in width. We
made her out to be a brig, with both
masts and bowsprit gone, and she was
so plainly a drifting wreck that we did
not even hail her
The next morning she still held her
place, and she was boarded for infOr-
nation. She proved to be the Polar
Star, from an American port, and the
last entry in her log referred TO a
gale in which she had been dismasted
and was about to be abandoned. The
date was eight months old. All the
crew were willing to turn to, and we
took cargo out of the derelict which
afterward sold In Liverpool for $751;
600. When we had finished transship-
ping, we towed her half a mile away
and scuttled her
On the morning of the twentieth day
of the calm, being a spell which only
few ships have ever encountered,
the second mate declared that there
must be a dead man clinging to the
ships keel. 1t was an old superstition,
and one now laughed to scorn on most
ships, but on this occasion no one in
obliged in ridicule.
The men soon began to talk among
themselves, and within an hour the
captain had given permission for a
boat to be lowered to make an inves-
tigation. The mate and two men went
in the boat, and, beginning on the port
bow, they worked aft and around the
ship. When they were amidships OH
the starboard side they began shout
ing and cheering, and the announce
ment was made that they had found
a body. Four or five feet below the
water line the copper sheathing had
been rolled up by some accident. and
held fast by the sharp edges catching
in his clothes was the body of
drowned sailor. AS the brig rolled the
corpse was brought into view and
pulled away with boat hook.
We must have picked him up as we
lay there, although it was curious that
q corpse should be floating around