Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-08-08
TTELL we l saw it-wi' these eyes
l saw it,"

4 You think you seen it."
Now quit. Ye talk like every
mate or skipper or Consul I've told
this to- Just the same | never git
to the end o the third day out either
way,-I'm in siX-day boat we
know,--but what the nervousness
gifts me, an I'm no good for twelve Z
hours, until know we're past the
spot
"A rock, you say. in the middle
o the Atlantic? Why isn't it known
and charted2"
Because it's awash an visible
Only at the fall o the spring tides
How is it that no one else saw
it but YOU"
Il the only man aloft. She
vas hemp rugged old ballyhoo out
o Quebec an gear was chain through al the time.
l was passin' new seizn the collar o the fore
topmast stay when squinted ahead through the fog.
and there it was black an shiny an nurderous.
about forty feet long. should judge and FIVE feet
out o water, right dead under the bow could see
the lift O. the water where the current pushed a in
and the swirl on t'other side shown it dere-
lict bottom up. No. it rock. Starboard |
yells to the fely at the wheel Starboard! Hard up
Well the skipper was below an the second mate, who
had the deck, was mxn paint under the foe sle SO
the wheel went up an the old wagon paid off fore
the wind Then lost it myself in the fog. an as
couldn't point out anything to the skipper when he
up, called down an cursed for fool.
But it. just the same. big rock halfway across.
and i s1quarely between the lane n. routes
The skipper wasn't above givin' me the ships
position -forty-seven north, thirty-seven twenty
vest. That's between the lanes. an I'll bet the
Naronic is at the base O that rock to say nothin O
the Pacific, the President, and t'others.'
THE wabbly little West-st. horse car had reached
the White Star dock by this and the two men
stepped off. Steamship Sailors knew. had never
seen them before. and have never seen them since;
but their conversation produced marked impress
SION upon me- and could not shake OFT feeling
not of itself remembrance, hoWever-that had
heard something of the kind before. A submerged
rock in mid Atlantic! But it was incredible, and at
Last - ,,,t,l 11a1
But next morning it was back, in company with
another galley yarn. one barely remembered
having heard ten years before from old Confed
crate man-o' war sman who had sailed with Semmes
IL the Alabama The yarn pertained to the pursuit
OF northern merchant ship, and give only the
clusion.
I'VE were gaining fast. he had said, and hoped
bring her to before breakfast for at daylight she
but three miles ahead, every sail drawing
and every detail of spar. canvas and hull showing
clear in the morning light. And then, while we
looked at her, she quickly settled under, not head
first stern first is usual but on an even keel.
They had no time to start brace halyard;
there was not time for her to answer to her Wheel if
it had been shifted She just went down though
something had hooked onto her keel and dragged
her under. never learned her name; but she must
have been bound out of New York, or Boston, for
some French port in the Channel. We picked up one
of her men, but he couldn't tell her name and
only this much to what happened. A ripping,
crashing sound began forward and worked its way
aft, ending at the stern and could only surrlise
that something submerged derelict, perhaps
had scraped the bottom out Of her.
MEMORY is treacherous. In few DAYS had
A'A forgotten this yarn with the other. and might
have recalled it had not assembled to an upper
floor in the lofty Flatiron Building and looked out
of window at the lofter. but unfinished, tower of
the Metropolitan Building across the park. 1t was
damp. dismal day of fog; but at my elevation |
could see clear of it. | above it looking
undulating sea of cloud bank from which the tower
rose massive and mighty. apparently floating
end, like an immense spar buoy at the turn of the
he of ayr York law lon hapa hat
silent gray ocean of fog.
Interesting as it was of itself it was not the spec