The Savannah morning news., 1903-07-10
THIRTEEN AGAIN.

! Talking about hard luck said an
enthusiastic amateur fisherman sitting
on the porch of the De Soto the other
! day, well you may or may not be-
Iieve in the unlucky thirteen, but I've
done with tempting Providence and go-
in agin superstitions. That old thir-
teen trouble has always been sort o
worryin' to me- but l made up nay
mind not long ago to forget it. That
was all very well, as long as the thir-
teens were not in evidence, but the
first turn Of the cards brought 1t all
back again, and now l try to be quiet
and simply hold my breath, stay on
land and keep a sharp lookout every
time the middle of the month APP
proaches.
THE special trouble that l speak of
happened some time ago, and II was
while in Charleston on a visit. one
of my friends planned a fishing trip
out to the jetties, and of course l was
tickled to death. There will be only
a few of u.s. he said, and l got up
early and with only cold bite instead
of breakfast, FASTENED to the wharf.
1t was not until l was within sight of
the boat that l happened to think about
the date having some important bust
ness on the next day-it was the morn
ing of the 18th.
MY friend met me and began intro
ducing me to the others, and kept
wondering where they would all be
slowed as it was not a large boat.
Don't you fix up any party of thirteen
1 said to him. and he laughed and said,
%, no. The boat certainly was loaded
when we got in and l kept counting the
heads, somehow expecting to find the
fateful number, but made out only
twelve Once well out of the dock,
however, a new head, covered with
short red hair poked out from under
one of the side seats. 1t was the thir-
teenth man-but my friend said, the
kid don't count, hes only bout II or
13 years old. so l slowed him SOS you
wouldn't know.
That was bad enough, but there
were other things. The boat, naph-
tina launch, was hardly big enough to
accommodate the party sober, and
when the commissary was opened and
a gallon of whisky and six dozen bot
ties of beer were produced, the boat
was almost overloaded at once.
Some in the party had lunch along,
and it included l verify believe some
thirteen year old chicken and ham, but
that was washed down with beer and
the boat kept getting more crowded.
Instead of thirteen it seemed by the
time we got off Fort Sumter that
there were forty-siX in the boat and
all getting noisy Further down it be-
gan to rain hard. | thought maybe
this would mean turning back but
it was only a half turn. we went
to Sullivans Island and out the back
way to the inlet. On the way the
steering gear broke, and we went in
the marsh and stuck for HON.
or more.
After awhile the rain stopped and
out we went again, making for the
ietties as fast as possible. Three of the
thirteen in the party had cotton quite
lively now and wanted to fight; but
there wasn't room. So they settled
down in the bottom and shot craps in
stead.
Arriving off the jetties some few
in the boat which by this time was
like a can of live sardines, made ready
to fish. The anchor rope wasn't long
enough at first and we had to go so
close to the rocks that a change in
the tide would have smashed us, but
nobody thought of that. Somebody had
gone to sleep on the bait and it was
pretty well smashed as shrimps are
not very sturdy; but the lines went
out anyway, and two or three catfish.
''iiDNNi AiO9S Silui MS ana OLneG refuse
from the deep We're hauled. Then
some croakers and few whiting came
over the rail, and as I'm sitting here
l got the thirteenth fish and it was
a beaut. True enough it was a sea
bass that l guess weighed twenty-five
pounds and he fought like good fell
low | worked him and everybody
sober got on that side of the boat
and yelled-and just as he was coming
over the side the line snapped, and
away, he Went.
There's waterspout, over by Nor
ris Island said someone, and the
wind is bringing it this way. Well
That anchor came up in a rush. Then
the engine wouldn't work and we
had to fend off the rock wall with
the boat hook until under way. A
race for Sullivans Island was next
and a pretty badly scared crew it was
that got around into the cove. Up
the creek we steered and at a resort
near the Inlet a majority of the crew
stopped and decided to wind up the
day with a new jag. Others stayed on
board, being too sleepy to get ashore.
With friend or two l boarded
trolley from the Isle of Palms and
went back to town. No Sir, l don't
want any thirteens in mine"