The St. Mary banner. (Franklin, Parish of St. Mary, La.) 1889-1931, 1914-03-14

had run down a ship in fog. Tho
| ship had gone down with all on board
before anything could be done to save
them, and this man had seen the last
of her crew leaning over the side and
cursing at him horribly, just before
| he was sucked into the water.
"'He promised to find me out and
to do for me wherever l should go,
said the shuddering wretch, and he'll
do 1t, too. look for him every night
and know he'll get me before long.
Il warned him to keep quiet about
his fears and not mention his story to
Captain Stebbins nor to any of the
crew, for as luck would have it. with
such captain, we had on board about
as superstitious lot as l have ever
seen. Italians most Of them, and SO
bound to tell their stories of appari-
tons that the captain had already
caught one OF them at it and had him
logged as an example to the others.
my man didn't look any more con-
tented as the days passed and I
caught him more than once whisper
ing with some of the Italians. I asked
him what they were talking about and
at first he mumbled that 1t was moth
ing, but at last he admitted that the
sailors had several Of them seen
strange sights during the night watch.
They all decided that again and again
they had seen figure with wildly
waving arms appear from the dark.
ness. The man was always cursing
horribly, but he was gone in second
and they could not tell exactly what
he said.
II tried to comfort Gould with the
idea that since the man had not ap-
peared to him there was no reason
that he should regard the apparition
as that of the man he had run down,
but he would not let this ease his
mind in the slightest. 1t was just
the night after our conversation when
he was on watch that the climax OF
the thing came.
Il heard a terrific scream from the
bridge, and so did everybody else on
board. l was the first up there, but
the poor fellow, who was whittier than
any human being I have ever seen,
could not tell me what had happened
before Captain Stebbins had run up
on the bridge and was shaking him,
declaring that he had relapse Of the
fever. which we-all knew he had SUI
fered after coming OF the voyage
when he had run down vessel.
"The fellow had been too much
startled, however, this time to be
managed even by Captain Stebbins.
ct did see him. he declared, and
he was cursing and waving his arms
at me Just as he did when he went
down. The ship came up Just like
it did before out OF the fog. There
It was all of a sudden great gray
thing, and there was he waving his
arms and screaming curses at me.
And then we kept right On. running
straight through the ship
THAT was all of 1t, and SO far as
know he never saw the apparition
again and he had no more hard times
than fall to the lot of most sailors.
But here was the remarkable part of
the thing. II he had been the only
one to know that anything strange
had happened. then you might think
It just the Pigment of a brain over
wrought with fever. But 1t wasn't
only his scream that brought captain
and crew running to his side. Just at
the time when he saw the phantom
ship and as our own vessel went
through 1t, every man on board felt
a peculiar sensation. It was some
thing like an earthquake and some
thing like the shock that might come
from running vessel down."
1t was on board the Marienne Not
tebohm, freighter sailing between