HAUNTED SCOTTISH SHIP.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIV, Issue 230, 26 September 1903, Page 5 (Supplement)

HAUNTED SCOTTISH SHIP.

TRAGIC TRIP OF THE INVEHiIAIIAG,

Strange things happen on the haunted barque Invermarag, of Scotland. This at any rate is the tale that comes from America. She has arrived, says a New York writer, after a smart passage from Caleta P.uena, at Beard's Stores, Erie Basin. She is literally haunted, if nof with actual wraiths and ghoets then with moinories that will never be separated from her as long as the ship ripples the green. Strong battens on the door of the carpenter's berth are not the only reminder of the tragic story of her passage from Newcastle, N.S.W.. to San Francisco. The captain took from Newcast'e two passengers, a man and a woman. The crew, with the exception of the mate, did not at fltet form a high opinion of Dr. and Mrs Armitage, as they gave tnelr names. The captain too conceived a prejudice against Dr. Armitage. During his wife's i'lness the captain, who had been drinking heavily, became a madman. lie was seized by his crew, who put Mate Wll'iam Anderson In charge, and wae imprisoned in the carpenter's berth. The captain's new-born baby died. The mother requested that the body be taken to port, but it was buried orer the side. Several times the maaiac skipper broke from his prison. The crew took to let him see his young wife die. The ship was then only two weeks from Baa Francisco, and the body of the woman, in order that It might be buried ashore, was packed in salt. DOCTOR AND WIPE ELOPERS. In the harbour of San Francisco the police boat was waiting for the doctor, who, according to the cables, had been & medical etudont in Australia, the son of a wealthy tobacconist of Melbourne. His name was not Armitage, and he had deserted his wife and children to elope with the woman who accompanied him. The passengers could not be held. Captain and crew preferred charges against each other before the British ConsuL Light punishment was administered to both captain and men, the former Losing hit command, A WOMAN IN GREY. On h«r next voyage, as the barque wae heading np the Brazilian coast, and off Cape St. Eoqne, for New York, the carpenter, whose name was Bain, saw a woman in grey walking across the ballast from starboard to port between the after hatch and the mizzen tuaet. Bain was at work In the hold, and although he was so scared that he says his heart stopped beating, fear of ridicule kept him silent. In a few seconds the vision banished. Captain Molyneux, vow In command of the barque, has also seen this apparition. STRANGE SAILOR ALOFT. When on that same voyage the Invermarag had worked up to the latitude of Hatteras, the mate, Mr Fife, saw tne figure of a man on the main-topgallant yard at four belle of the first watch. The mate ordered a man aloft to Investigate, but he, as well .ac every other man, refused to obey. The skinny, uncanny figure of the stranger climbed the rigging from the main-topgallant to the royal yard, while all the crew—the other watch having bees called—looked on. A smart shower of belaying pins rattled upon the deck. The main-royal man was seen no more. The crew were mustered— there were 23 all told—and not a soul was missing. A-sailor apprentice, E. Llnaseu, told of other weird sights and occurrences. While the barque lay at Port Acosta loading grain a Maltese able seaman, Antonio Fusco by name, was detailed as night watchman. One midnight the skylight above the galley mysteriously shifted. Fusco replaced It, but in a few minutes it bad shifted, again. To one side of the house were lashed two breattere of freeh water. Taking the galley poker In his band, Fusco jumped from the breakers, to the top of the galley, and, an he did so, a man jumped from the fore part of the top and ran forward. Fusco called to him to stop, but the unknown ran under the fo'c'sle head. The watchman dared not follow, but went into the fo'c'sle and called some of the men. They swore at him, and rolled over to DOG, CAT, AND LOST POULTRY. On the next night the same thing happened again. Fusco, after the man had disappeared benoath the fo'c'sle head, retreated into the galley and a dog walked along one side of the fo'c'sle head. There was at that time no'dog of flesh and blood aboard the barque, and so it must have been a ghost dog. Fusco furthermore eald on the next morning that after the dog ghost disappeared a cat jumped' from the main hatch to the main yard. It was a strange coincidence that on every aig-ht the Ma ltea* saw ghosts one or more of Captain Molyneux's chickens disappeared from the coop just abaft the after hatch. Linssen says that rats on the Invermarag are so tame that a sailor was In the. habit of taking them up iv his hands. One night a rat bit this sailor >n four places on the hand. The sailor lashed the rat to a tiny raft and cast him adrift.