Greene County herald., 1904-10-14
10 N A H:
A TRUE SEA YARN.
BY GEORGE GRIFFITH.
(Author of 1.-THE Stolen Submarine" SCI

senses are concerned, proved to the let
ter. To the sailor before the mast
Jonah" means an unlucky man. That
is to say, man who has had no luck
in his own life, and brings no luck
wherever he goes, especially on board
ship-and this is the story of such a
man during the period that was ship
mate with him.
Two vessels of the famous Blackwell
line left Melbourne loaded with wool
about 80 years ago. One was the Lin
co+nshire, and one of the somewhat
mixed crowd forward of the mast was
an old shellback named Bill None of
us knew what names he had used when
he had signed on, and he never told
us. He was just Bill.
From the captains room to the fore
peak there was no man on board that
stately old craft more learned in sea
craft than Bill was. From truck to
kelson there was nothing about sail
ing ship that he didn't know, and yet
he had not been many days at sea
before Bill, stranger to all of us, as
we mostly were to each other, began to
be looked upon with suspicion. He
was IAN unlucky man" Little jobs
that he did as well as any man on the
Seven seas could do them somehow
went wrong while the work of a novice
held good, and, worse than all, he had
the fatal gift of prophecy.
We lost the Somersetshire the first
night out, and Bill said as she faded
cay into the twilight:
well, we'll see her again before we
see old England"
The morning that we sighted Staten
island that pyramid of rock which is
commonly called Cape Horn was as
fine and bright as you would see
spring morning off the coast of Eng
land, and not much colder. The sea
was smooth; we had a fair wind, and
there were only few white fleecy
streamers of cloud in the sky. Every
one on board seemed to think that we
should get safely round that dreaded
corner of the earth; but when l came
on deck at seven bells (7.30) that
morning l saw Bill standing on the
forecastle head
81 guess Wen see that - thing
again." he said. before we've done
with it."
He was right. Within an hour or so
the barometer went down with jump
and all hand were hard at work short
ening sail. Square masses of fog, each
distinct from the ether. and konwn as
Cape Horn blankets" were looming
up round the southeastern horizon.
That afternoon the tempest burst on
us. Then came 20 days of stress and
strife and struggle, during which the
gallant old ship was driven mile by
mile down toward the icy solitudes of
the South Shetlands.
1t would take many pages to tell the
story Of that fight for life and the hope
of home, but in the end we got a
slant of wind, and, true enough, we
saw Staten island again This time
we got round and caught the COCA
Southwestern, and for days and days
more we tore away northward under
every stitch we could carry, and GER
tain daring spirits ventured the opin-
ion that we should have good voyage
home.
ut amt over yet, sonny" said Bill.
There may be some of us won't see
the end Of it,
1t was only few days after this
that sudden and unexpected order
came to shorten sail. All hands were
on deck and we stripped her, until
the big ship was under bare poles with
only three fore and alters set. Then
the spanker was brailed up and
furled, and still the wind kept drop
ping and shifting and putting from
different places, and then came night
and silence-night so black that it
could not have looked blacker to a
blind man, and silence made, if pos
sible, more intense by the occasional
flap of sail, or the ciack of a rope
against a mast or the standing rig
ging-and so for hours we waited for
the hammer Of fate to strike us, the
Lincolnshire swinging lazily to port
and starboard, no doubt wondering. if |
ships have souls, as some used to say
they have, why she had thus been
stripped of her wings, and stopped in
the midst of her splendid course.
And then upon the silence there
stole a sound which no man who has
once heard it can ever forget-a gen.
tie sigh in the distance rising to a
hiss.
"All hands lie down and hold on"
came a sharp order from the quarter !,
deck, but most of us had obeyed be-
fore it was uttered. We knew what /,
that sound meant, and down we went, |
hanging on to the first solid thing that |
came to hand. The hiss rose to |
scream, the scream deepened into a |
roar, the armament split from hori-
zon, as though the sword of the Arch |
angel had clovened it through. Then |
came crash of thunder like the |
trump of God, and then the heavens |
and the sea seemed to come together, |
and for the next few minutes, which |
seemed like hours, we were fighting |
and struggling and gasping for bretah |
with roar of wind in our ears and |
a choking of water in our mouths. The |
sails went out of the bolt ropes like |
SO many rags CT cotton, and the stanch |
ship heelcd over as
though squall had struck her under |
full sail. For certain uncounted Sec
onds we hung between time and eter-
nifty, and then the blast passed. 6he |
righted. and the water flowed of her |
decks through the swilling scuppars
and man who was holding on the |
main fife rail near to me said, as he
got up and shook himself.