GHOSTS ON THE MAIN.

Auckland Star, Volume XLV, Issue 152, 27 June 1914, Page 19

GHOSTS ON THE MAIN.

MODEKH " FLYING DUTCHMAN."

BOUNDS SEAMEN OF PHANTOM SHIPS THAT HAUNTED THE SEA. Phantoms of the deep—strange shapes that come in the darkness of missions of terror and death—these are among the visions that haunt the brain at every old sailor man. It is when the few remaining sailing vessels come into port from their long voyages that these tales are usually forthcoming. The barque Annie ,\L Reid is the last vessel to bring in a talc ol" mystery. "We were standing by the mizzen topsail halliards when the shackle broke and the yards crashed down," said the sailor who told the story when the Annie. M. Heid put into Erie Basin. "Wo came up into the wind and hove to. and it was at that moment that we Ban' the strange trader—at least we thought it was a trader, probably to the Western Islands. oIT which we were. We j signalled for help lor we did not knew j how we were coming out of the squall, i The strange steamship—a tramp we took j her to bc —was not more than an eighth ] of a mile away, but she made no reply | whatever, and kept right on her course. If there had been anybody alive on the tramp he certainly would have seen ns. as then- was no fog to interfere. There are only two things to think of, cither every soul on board wa.-t dead nr we liad seen one of iiio.se phantom ships they til! about. It couldn't have been a warning of death, however, for we came out of it all right."

A ship that sails by in the moonlight and dois not answer when spoken, nor show any light or sign nf life on board. is an even stranger apparition of tho deep than those many phantom vessels ■which have loomed upon the si<rht of sailor mpii from out the fog or darkness. The crew of the llongirit, out of Liverpool, Captain Thearston, of Liverpool, in command, once saw such a spectre. Captain J, C. Norton, who was lirst officer of the barque Hpngist, when the phantom ship passed ],e r by, tells the Story of the weird vision: — "It was in the Indian Ocean that we saw her—the ship that 1 luvo never forgotten." said Captain Norton. "We were out of Calcutta, bound for New York, and although there was a haze the moon shone and the haze was so slight that we could see perfectly well across the water. The haze was just enough to make a nice, pretty silvery veil that made everything look sort of mysterious and interesting without closing us iv at all. TIIK PHANTOM SHIP'S WARNING. "There were no lights on the vessel, and wr couldn't see a soul on board. We spoke to her, but she didn't answer. She passed right tinder our stern about a biscuit's toss away, and we thought she was goinj to foul us. Slie was so near that we could feel the wind of her siiil; as she passed, but not a sign did she make to all our signalling—just sailed away into the hazy moonlight. Next day we had a terrible gale, one of the worst that I remember while I was at sea. and everybody thought the phantom ship had come, to p'tve us warning. Why ■we should have been favoured I don't know; but, of course, there is always a reason why those ships are seen by one vessel and not by others. Sometimes they mean harm for everybody on board, nnd sometimes they come simply to give a friendly warning. There was one man on board who believed that our phantom chip came to warn us of the gale because, her captain had been a friend of our own captain, and when his ship went down -with all on board he confined to haunt the sea. Naturally, as he feK friendly, he would show siimsc"f or his ship bpfore a storm. *f can't say I believed all that myself. All that I know was that the phantom ship did come ju-t as I've described it.*" A WEIRD CfPu-INTi APPARITION. One of the most thrilling tales of the fateful appearance of phantom ships is told by a retired lirst mate, who in his youth sailed under Captain John StebIbins on the steel tramp Marietta, bound from Madeira to Brazil. "Captain Stebbins was a bluff, direct, matter-of-fact person." said the mate, "and he had little tolerance for what he declared was merely superstition, so the crew were not apt to speak over loud of their supernatural experience-. '•There was one old fellow nmona them named Could, whom I could not help watching because of the strained and almost hunted look on his face. I made friends with him on purpose to get at the reason for his queer look, and one day when I caught him white and shuddering on the forward deck I got it out of him. ''It seemed that a couple nf years before he had been on the bridge of a pas-cnger vessel running between Kingston and New York when they had run down a ship in a. fog. The ship had gone down with all on board before anything Could be done to save them, and I his man had seen the last of her crew Seaning over the side and cursing at him horribly, just before he was sucked into the water. '"He promised to find mc nut and to do for mc wherever t should go.' said the shuddering wretch, 'and he'li dn it. too. I look for him every night and 1 know he'll get mc before very long.' "I warned him to keep quiet about his fears, for as luck would have it we had on board about as superstitious a lot as 1 have ever seen. Italians, most of them. ".My man didn't look any more contented as the days passed, and T caught him mon- than once whispering with *ome of the kalian*. I asked him what they were about, and at first he mumbled that it was nothing, but at last he admitted that the sailors had several of them seen strange sights during the night watch. They al? decided that again and again they had seen a figure willi wildly waving arms appear from the darkness. The man was always eurs,ing horribly, but he was gone in "a second, and they could not tell exactly What In- said. "It was ju-i the niglit after our con- | relation, when lie was on watch, that j the climax of the thing came. i " We heard a. terrific scream .from the j bridge. I was the f, rft t ~p there, bnt j the poor fellow, who was whiter than any hitman being I bad ever seen, could not ;,■:; mc what had happened 'before. Captain Stebbins 'had rim up on tbe I bridge .in I we., -shaking him. declaring that li e had ,i relapse of fever, which we ' a " knew in- had suffered after coining j •m the ioj age when he had run down. a jessel. 'Ihe follow had been too much' Startled, however, this time to be managed even by Captain fete"r>biiis. •• I did ccc him.' he declared, 'and he was cursin- , and waving ;,;. arms ;lt ni(l )llst M j, r j did -.vnen he went down. The ship came i JJP J'lst like it .id before out. of the fog. j Mere it wa-. tt |] ~■; a sudden, a gTeat I

grey thing, and there was he -waving *h,"s arms, and screaming curses at mc. And then we kept right on, running straight | through the ship.' " That was all of it. and so far as I know he never caw the apparition again, ami he had no more hard times than fail to the lot of most sanlors. .But. here was the remarkable part of the thing. If he had been the only one to know that anything strange hn.d liappened. then you might think it was juet the figment of a brain overwrought with fever. But it 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 it. every man on board felt a peculiar sensation. It was something l'ikc an earthquake, and something like the shock that might come from runninc a vessel down."

: THE WRAITH OF A MrRTJERED SKIPPER. It was on board the Marionne Nottobohm. a freighter sailing between New ■York and Liverpool, that a. spectre appeared with such that for a Sung time, until the vision vanished forever, no member of the crew ever consented to make a second voyage. The Nottehchni was one of the old "Liverpool packet .ships, which carried steerage passengers as well as freight. During one of her previous voyages the captain and several of the crew had bad a terrific struggle, in the course of which the ea.pta.in ha-d been so injured that be died as a result of his wound?. No matter what the sceptical might say. crew after crew which shipped on the Marienne Xottebohm after this tragedy left the ve-sol at the end of the voyayc. swearing that every night a spectral ligure appeared from the pilot house and wandered over the vessel," seeking everywhere apparently for something or soro'ebodv.

There was a terrific storm one night, and the apparition was for once hi a way pretty well forgotten in the more pressing perils of the moment. Suddenly they felt the ship come about so swiftly that they knew something strange must have happened.

••Unusual as it was." •said Captain F. 0. Norton, who tells the story. "We could not stop to find out about it Uiat night, for every .nan wits too hot on his own part of the work to pay much attention tn any other's. "After everything was .all over and we could take time to talk about it the ne\t day. the helmsmen told us that a spectral figure be had at first thought to be the captain, had stood 'beside him. showing luin how to lay his course. It was tiot until the helmsman had handled a charm his daughter had given him that he discovered his visitor was a spirit. The power of the wraith was broken ut that, and the helmsman put about just in time to avoid an uncharted reef the spectre had evidently been guiding him on to. " But the Swede and his Italian mate mnst have seen something of the vis-ion that night, also, for in the morning they looked like dying men, and they could not lie persuaded to ship again for the next voyage. Afterwards we heard that they bad been members of the crew which attacked the former captain of the Marienue. No doubt they believed the murdered captain came back looking for some of his old assailants, and when he found them he sought to drive the vessel on the. reef."