The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1907-05-16
JONAH !!
A TRUE SEA YARN.

far as | have been able to trace during
many wanderings over the fields of
ocean, is that Of Jonah, and only once
have 1 seen it, so far as the outer
senses are concerned, proved to the
letter. 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 wher-
ever he goes, especially on board snip
and this is the story of such a man dur
iEg the period that | was shipmate
| with him.
| Two vessels of the famous Blackwell
line left Melbourne loaded with wool
about thirty years ago. One was the
Lincolnshire, 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 be-
fore Bill, stranger to all of us, rs 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 novice held
fatal gift OF prophecy.
| XNa Lost tho Sopnorc hire Tho r. rct
night out, and Bill said as she faded
away 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 a
spring morning off the coast of Eng
land, and not much colder. The sea
was smooth; we had fair wind, and
| there were only few white tleecy
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 | came
on deck at seven bells T.30) that morn
ing l saw Bill standing on the fore
castle head.
81 guess We'll 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 hands were hard at work short
ening sail. Square masses of fog, each
distinct from the other, and known as
"Cape Horn blankets" were looming
up round the southeastern horizon.
That afternoon the tempest burst on
| NhQn 90 fupotv dave uf
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 good southwest
er and for days and days more we tore
away northWard under every stitch we
could carry, and certain daring spirits
ventured the opinion that we should
have good voyage home.
ct 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
wind kept dropping and shifting and
came night and silence; night so black
that it could not have looked blacker to
blind man, and silence made if pos
sible, more intense by the occasional
flap of a sail, or the clack of rope
against mast or the standing rigging
and SO for hours we waited for the
hammer of fate to strike us, the Lin
coInshire 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 III 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 gentle sigh
in the distance, rising to a hiss.
"All hands lie down and hold onr
came a sharp order from the quarter
deck, but most of us had obeyed before
it was uttered. We knew what that
sound meant, and down we went, hang
ing on to the first solid thing that came
|
scream deepened into roar, the firma
ment split from The horizon, as though
the sword of the Archangel had cloveneC
it through. Then came a crash of thund
er like the trump of God, and then the
heavens and the sea seemed to come
together, and for the next few min
utes, which seemed like hours, we were
fighting and struggling and gasping fol
breath with roar of wind in our ears
and a choking of water in our mouths
> The sails went out of the bolt rope!
like so many rags of cotton, and thu
stanch frigate- built ship heeled over a!
though a squall had struck her unde
: full sail. For certain uncounted sec
onds we hung between time and eter
nifty, and then the blast passed. Sht
righted, and the water flowed off he
decks through the swilling scuppers
and man who was holding on to tn,
: main fife rail near to me said as he go
up and shook himself
"Well, if chat amt the end Of Bill, il
- we'll ought to be-"
But it wasn't. Bills end was many
.. days off yet.
, The pampero went as it had come
out of silence and darkness back into
silence and darkness again. The mer
curry in the barometer rose to its nor
, NAL level and the newt midday cow tht