The pioneer express. [volume] (Pembina, Dakota [N.D.]) 1883-1928, 1907-01-04
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Two sailors with their dunnage bags
slung over their shoulders followed q
shipping master down q Bangor pier
the other day to 60 ON board an ssold
hooker deep loaded with lumber that
lay waiting for her stores and crew.
Just as the party reached the pier head
q great gray rat was seen to cautiously
and skillfully make his way along the
taut bow hawser from the vessel to the
wharf The first sailor, seeing the rat
leave the vessel and scuttle up the
!. wharf, stopped short in his tracks,
dropped his bag, and declared:
That settles 1T! You don't get me
aboard that hooker"
81 The Swede went along in the rat de-
serted schooner, with what luck Is not
yet known, and ever since that day the
shipping master has been cursing the
jacks who go by signs and telling
stories of vessels that have survived
all sorts Of i'll omens.
''There," said the old man, "was the
case Of the brig Starlight that lost her
second mate. The second mate, he
dreamed the night before she sailed
that he saw himself in his coffin, and
when he came in Gillogly's place next
day to take a parting drink he told of
1t, and we advised him to get another
berth. He said that he guessed it would
be all right in the brig. But it wasn't
She sailed from Bangor to Port Spain
and soon ran into bad weather. While
helping to reef the mainsail the foot
ropes parted under him and that was
the last of poor Jimmy.
'"There was the bark Solferino, as
pretty and sound little vessel as ever
left this port. She sailed on Friday.
drawing thirteen feet, and the cook
killed a black cat the night before she
sailed. This made the men nervous,
and they said so. but the mate took a
handspfke to them, and. being anchored
of with all the boats up and dashed
and the harbor full of floating ice, there
was no chance to leave her. They never
got chance to leave her, for she went
down in a northeastern two days out.
and all hands with her.
Nov, a man Of sense and with the
fear Of God in him, will get clear of
a good deal Of hard luck and stay
on top of water longer than some Of
these smart Johnnies. There was Ned
Hengler, who shipped in the brig Rain
how. a gay, old West India hooker.
Ned, he lived right here in Bangor, and
he had good folks who went to church
regular and KEEP sober. The day be-
fore the brig was to sail Ned acted
kind of dumpish and he couldn't tell
why. Long toward night he shook the
feeling off and started down over the
hill from the Hampden road to the
river with his bag on his back. 1t was
a still, moonlight night, and the tide
would swerve in an hour from the
time Ned started for home. He had
got halfway down the hill and could
hear the tug whistling for the vessels
to get out their hawsers-them that
was going in the tow.
Gall at once he felt soft touch on
his arm, and he turned round. There
IN the moonlight stood his old mother,
as had been in her grave eight years,
and she looked as natural, Ned said,
as she used to when she stood at the
door waving him goodby, when, as a
young fellow, he went away on his
first trips. She looked kind of sad and
coaxing at him and gently led him
back over the hill, moving so softly
at shadder, and at the top of the
hill she pointed to home. Then she
faded out Of sight like puff Of smoke.
Ned stood there a minute or two, not
able to stir out of his tracks. Then he
picked up his bag from where he had
dropped it and started home. 1t was
the middle Of August, but he felt cold
and shivery. The Rainbow sailed
without him and she was never heard
from again. (Me.) Cor. Phila-
delphia Record.