Bisbee daily review., 1903-02-07
Some Salt
 Water Ghosts
rcopyright. 1902. by II. S. Hale.l

of Philadelphia encountered brig. the ! Speedwell, in the bay of Biscay with 1 R signal of distress flying. The Speedwell had a cargo of coal ! for Gibraltar. She was also a new | craft, this being her third voyage. While lying in the Downs at anchor at | night the crew had been frightened | by a moaning in the fO'castle. At dark, on the night before the Echuylkill came up, mates and all went away in the lOngbOat and left the cap tain alone. In June. 1868, I ran away from the Marblehead whaler Josiah Bemis in the port of Port St Louis, island of Mauritius. X week after she had sailed away there came into port a ship called the Golden Horn, owned by an English firm in Bombay. She had touched at a port in Ceylon and was bound for Liverpool, and the crew had forced the captain to put in at St Louis on account of the ship being haunted. Very little of the story leaked out when the six of us who had deserted the whaler shipped aboard Of her.
 The captain and both mates were English, and there were two English sailors in the fO'castle. Of the thir- teen men forward there were five Portuguese. The cook was a negro and the steward an IrishmGn. Of those arriving in the ship at Port St. Louis only the captain and first mate re mained Cook, steward and all others were new hands. Four of the Ameri- cans were educated young men who had shipped for q whaling cruise i'll spirit of adventure. The captain aai both mates were above the Ordinar:, and even the cook was a man of 'Du- siderable education who had been driven to sea by hard luck ashore. tell you this because we had a mys- tery aboard, and superstition played no part in it.
 Such of us as had heard the gossip about the ghost from the old crew had forgotten it when the Golden Horn was three or four days out. She was a fast craft, well found in every particular, and there was nothing to find fault with. One night, while I was acting as lookout on the bows, the hour being be tween l and o'clock, I turned my face for a moment and saw a man standing about five feet away. l was in the captains watch. which is really the second mates watch. and MT. Leslie the second mate, was pacing the quar- ter deck. as l could see. It being q quiet night. with all sails full. the other men of the watch on deck were lying about to catch a wink of sleep, but ready to spring up at call.
 I at first thought the man to be the captain. though it would be strange if he came forward Looking closer, saw that he was total stranger. He was a tall, heavy man and had on oil skins, though the night was fine. If masqueradiDg was not almost a criml on shipboard. l might have thought the cook or steward dressed mp tC play joke. i could see the man at the wheel. and the mate and I looked about and counted the men in the watch. Then l advanced upon the stranger. and he backed up a few feet, glided to the port rail and swung him self over and out of sight.
 listened for the splash. but none came. l climbed upon the rail, but no one was in sight. l was still looking and wondering when Mir. Leslie came forward, and when he had heard my story he admitted that it was the ghost that had driven the other crew away The spook had been seen by every man who stood watch from midnight to ? f,lD l,,v IL. other time
 I promised to say nothing to any of the men, and I kept my word, but next night it was seen by the lookout just as 1 had seen it, and after two or three days more the thing was out. The Portuguese funked at once and almost threatened mutiny, but the others of us. assisted by the officers. went coOlly at work to solve the mys- tery. Not one of us was believer even in dreams We stretched ropes across the deck, but the shadow passed to the rail and over just the same. We stretched a net along the rail, but it went through the net as a puff of smoke would. We lighted the decks, and we even extinguished the pinnacle light for few minutes, but it made no difference. On one occa- sion every man in the ship stood on the spot and swung his arms and sought to grasp something, but the ghost came and stood and disappeared just the same.
 At Cape Town the Portuguese cut sticks, and four English sailors were shipped. We were now all English speaking and all white men except the