Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1905-04-13
SOME ODD BELIEFS AND
FANCIES OF SAILORMEN

singing the while. Yet at one time
there was such firm belief in mer-
maids that 1t became imperative to
obtain some proof of their existence.
Nothing really satisfactory and
lasting was obtained-because the
relic invariably broke up on a cold
scientist.
Strange Visits.
In Moore's Life of Byron" 1t is re-
lated that Capt. Kidd told Byron that
the ghost of his brother, then in India,
visited him at sea and lay down In his
bunk, leaving 1t damp with sea water.
Afterwards he found that his brother
was drowned at that exact hour and
night
This is the old Teutonic belief in
Gongers-the ghosts of those drowned
at sea who visit their kindred and an
nounce their own deaths. They always
appear at evening twilight in the
clothes in which they were drowned,
leaving track of water over the floor
and wet covers on the bed. The West
country wives, when their men at
sea in a storm will not, If they can
help 1t, open the door to a knock at
night One never knows what may be
there.
There is queer story related of a
Canadian schooner, with lot of things
in 1t which could be explained, no
doubt, If only we knew everything. One
voyage man fell from her foremost
and was killed. Shortly afterwards an
other hand fell from the same mast,
and died. After which there was a
cabin into which none would re-enter
(for quite private reasons), having
once been in it. The men would not
go aloft in the foremost; they said 1t
was not necessary to have any more
hands up there. There were two al
ready. The ship had luck all the
way in, and the crew left her. Nor
could another be obtained, for the
yarn had gone round the town. Even
tually the mate persuaded a new lot
to ship who had just come off salt
water and were new to the place.
Straddllng over the bulwarks, one Of
them looked aloft. "Hullo," he said,
why have you got a figurehead on
the foretruck?' at must be BILL"
gasped the mate involuntarily. He
was sorry he spoke. The new lot
tumbled ashore at once. And 1t is
fact that yet more accidents hap
pened that voyage, which finished
with the laundering Of the schooner.
The Flying Dutchman.
OF all legends of sea-phantoms, Van
derdecken is the best known. His
ship is double-decker, always to
windward, and is sometimes seen In
fog during clear weather. She is Of
ten under full sail in a gale, and has
been seen sailing under the clouds.
Unusual weather conditions explain
most Of her wonders, as, for example,
the well.known fact that under some
circumstances a clear reflection of
ship may show, while the vessel itself
is hundreds of miles away.
But there is a steamer captain some
where in this world who really has
seen the Flying Dutchman. was
told by the skipper who sailed the an
tique convict ship Success from Aus
tralia to London, for exhibition. that
when in the seas off South Africa one
bright moonlight night, he spied a
steamer bearing down on them. The
skipper said that even to himself his
boat looked like the ghost Of an
ancient wreck. and he wondered what
the steamers watch would think. He
soon found out. The course of the
steamer was deliberately altered, and
she stood of at tangent