The Cairo bulletin., 1910-02-16

La T CT III s.--AVE2S.
was first mate Of tae Mary Good
win of Philadelphia when the stang
est thing in all my seafaging life hap
pened. We were on the banks of
Newfoundland, the home of the fog
king, and the mist had come down on
us thicker than | had ever seen it. 1t
lasted SO long without Lifting that tie
captain lost all traces OF reckoning.
We were off Halifax, Cape Race or
Cape Breton, we didnt know which.
Finally he concluded to drop an an
Choir and wait
There Yves a considerable swell roll
ing beneath us. but of course no wind.
That would have blown away'the fog.
One night the watch heard he sound
Of a distant bell For an hour it
tolled family, then very slowly be-
came more distinct. 1t WAS evident
ly coming toward us. It must be
drifting. for there was no wind to
of steam AT last the bell tolled dis
Gil sails, and we could hear no SOUND
mally within a cables length of us.
We began to be anxious and rang
our own bell to lei the stranger know
that we were in her course. There
was little chance of her crew being
able to turn her. for there was no
wind, but they might anchor, She
was coming SO slowly as not TO hurt
us much from foniing except for the
waves. Ii we Should be rolled to-
gether in the trough Of the sea or one
should be let down on the other,
there might be terrible crash.
Our SIGNAL excited no reply, except
the tolling Of the bell, which coniinu-
ed constantly, Fearing those on the
approaching vessel had not heard us,
we fired a gun. But this elected moth
ing. Presently we could near the
bell tolling right beside us and now
and then something black would APP
pear not twenty feet from us, hover
there for few minutes, then disap-
pear Once 1t came near enough for
us to distinguish the side of a ship.
We were on terrible strain for
awhile, fearing that we would clash
with the stranger; then we caught
glimpse of her stern under our bow
spirit. She had evidently passed us.
At eight bells the next morning the
fog lifted. There was no sign of land,
but on our starboard quarter was
barkentine without sails. her foremost
gone, rolling with the waves. A wind
sprang up, and raising sail, we made
toward her. When we came near her
the captain sent boats crew to in
vestigate
We found a derelict that had evil
IDENTIFY been floating long while. The
only thing aboard that had ever had
life in it was the body of a woman,
and we had TO staye in the door Of
the captains cabin to find that. 1t
was lying In a berth, and, notwith-
standing the many tossings the vessel
had received. it had not rolled out.
We looked on the log book for the
last entry II was dated is months
agone, November 10, 1854
We read the entry and went back
further for an explanation. No part
of the log made mention of anything
unusual transpiring aboard. Never
theless we traced what must have
been something of the story. A
bundle of love letters from a woman
to the captain the last dated not
long before the log began, told us that
he and his wife must have made the
voyage a wedding trip. The last OBJ
servation showed latitude 23 degrees
Is minutes north, longitude 1920 east,
Or about. SOC miles south OF the Can
AIRY Islands and off the coast Of Az
RIGA. The ships boats were gone,
which led us to believe that everyone
on board except the woman had left
the vessel and made for the land
The period, 1854, was when the
slavers were running the last car
goes of negroes from the African
coast TO the United States. In the fore
castle we found a scrap Of paper on
which was written. 1.-THE old man
won't consent; do the job We in
terpreted this to mean that the men
wished to force the captain to take
the crew ashore to secure cargo OF
slaves. He declined, and they were
to kill him. All this accounts for the
captains wife being locked in his
cabin. The port anchor was gone.
This indicated that the ship was at
anchor when the crew left her. We
found no evidence to show whether
the captain was killed or went with
them. The cable had evidently part
ed and was blown offshore. Probably
while the men were ashore after ne
IAN.