GHOST STORIES.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume 13, Issue 1013, 12 January 1869, Page 3

GHOST STORIES.

By Old Boomerang, [From the " Sydney Mail."] CHAPTER II .— [CONCLUSION] . " Let go top-gallant halliards ! Brace up tlie spanker! hard up with the helm!" were orders issued in rapid succession, by the chief mate. Ka had been carefully watching the threatening clouds to windward, but thought they merely betokened a heavy squall, similar to others that had passed over the ship that night, until a strong squall of wind came hissing over the dark waters, accompanied by a torrent of rain and thunder and lightning. In obedience to the orders of the mate, the crew moved about the decks with unusual activity; but took care to keep together as much as practicable, and half-a-dozen hands could be seen performing a duty which one or two might have done with ease. Too many hands are sometimes' worse than too few at a job on shipboard, and it is common enough to see a crowd of amateurs in a passenger ship, pulling one against another on a rope when volunteering their services to put ship about, or what not. It was partly owing to there being too many men at one post, but perhaps more on account of their peculiar excitement, that in squaring away before the squall the main tack got adrift, and the mainsail began to flap about in a way which threatened to shake the mast j out of the ship. The noise awoke the captain who hastened on deck, just as the mate was about to call him. It was some time before the mainsail could be mastered, for the weather clew-garnet was foul ; at length the sail was hauled up, but not before it had split, and at the same time made the captain swear. " Take a couple of reefs in the topsails, Mr. Bunt," said the captain. •• The weather looks dirty." " Ay, ay, sir I All hands reef topsail," shouted the mate. " Look alive there lads ! Let go tho halliards, and haul out your reef- tackles." Those orders were promptly obeyed, and on ordinary occasions tho crew would have been scrambling up to the yards, but there they stood on the deck gazing at the flapping sails, and not a man offered to move upwards. " Bless those fellows ! what are they about P" asked tfhe captain, at the same time ho belched out a volley of expletives, for whi ch — as has been before remarked—he was rather notorious. "Up you go, you lazy snobs, and take two reefs in the topsails, or I'll shoot every mother's son of you." " Fire away, sir, if you like," grumbled the boatswain. "but I'll be shot into shreds afore I'll go aloft, till I know who is up there now." "Clap the irons on that mutinous rascal !" roared tho captain. But no one stirred to execute that order either; whereupon he gr<ew furious and loudly abused the chief mate, who angrily retorted, and a^ fight, would probably have ensued, had" not the second and third mates interposed between the belligerents. " Beg pardon, Captain Chinks," said the sail maker, humbly approaching the skipper, who was pacing to and fro under the break of the poop, like a caged tiger. ",|Lx your pardon, ,sir, but none of us mciin to inutinj', not in -the least. We believe tho devj 1 is up aloft, and we are afraid to face him in the dark. "We'll go on to the yards .as soon as it is daylight, whatever is up th ere ; but it ain't reasonable to ax men to go up now, and mayhap be horned overboard afore they know it, or be flown away with holus bolus. Besides, sir" — the rest of the sailmaker's humble speech was drowned in the raving of the intimated captain, whose voice was heard above the noisy elements, saying all sorts of unlawful things. Finding, however, that his crew were as immovable as wooden images, Captain Chinks went into his cabin, loudly cursing all hnuds on board, including the mysterious hand up aloft. There was no- altcrn?itive but to run the ship before the wind, with the topsails on the caps, till break of clay, although it was sailing ni'ae points off her course. All hands kept the deck, and tho three officers paced the- poop in low- toned conversation respecting -the exciting ovonts of the night, while the captain lay in his cot, sleeping off the exhaustive effects of his wrath.

Kever, perhaps, was daylight more eagerly waited for on board of the Jamio Johnson, than it was on that occasion ; and when the first grej streaks of morning

appeared, all eyes were anxiously turned upwards to the fore-ro3 7 al-yard. There was the yard across, with iho sail snugly furJed, but no person was to be seen on it. The weather had cleared up a bifc, so the topsails were hoisted again and the ship brought up to her course. By the time that work was accomplished the sun had risen, and the courage of the crew had risen too, for they unanimously expressed their willingness to go aloft either singly or collectively. " You shin up to the royal yard, Grummet," said the chief mate. " Give it a good overhauling, and see if there are any strange paw marks about it ; but take care you don't trust the foot-rope ; for if old Nick has actually been on it with his redhot hoofs, it will be pretty well singed through." Away went Mr. Grummet up aloft, anxiously watched by all hands on deck. In about twenty minutes he descended to the quarter deck again, and reported that there was nothing to evidence the diabolic nature of the person who had handed the sail. There was not so much as the scratch of a hoof to be seen on the foot-rope, nor was there anything to be smelt, save the common scent of the stockholm tar and slush. In his opinion it was not the devil who had done that sail up so snugly, and most likely it was the rollicking ghost of some unlucky A. A. (able seaman), for the sail was furled up quite shipshape, and Bristol fashion." The crow were piped to breakfast, and a general discussion then took place on Mr. (xruinmet's hypothesis ; but not a single man Jack could show a tangible reason why any dead sailor's ghost should furl a royal on board the Jamie Johnson, for the mere fun of the thing ; and the unanimous opinion was that the ghost was a fool for doing it without pay, or thanks either. Mr. Grummet meanwhile took his report, to the captain, who was just thinking about turning out of his cot. He listened to what the. second mate had to say and then brusquely remarked, " that he did not believe it was either a ghost or a devil who had hauled the sail, a ghost couldn't do it, and the devil wouldn't do it, for nobody had ever heard of his doing a good turn for a sailor ; at any rate it would not be good for the health of midnight prowlers, whoever they were, if he caught any of them in his ship." He further said " that if ho heard a man on board utter a single word more about last night's sheavo he would stop his grog for a month." Nothing interesting occurred for the remainder of the voyage, except that the captain had a short swearing fit every fine evening at sundown ; for he was obliged to order the roj^als to be furled, because every man in the ship obstinately refused to go an inch higher than the top-gallant yards, after dark. It was still more annoying to the captain as they had a fine weather passage home from the Line, and might have carried skysails all the way. The ship at length arrived at London Docks ; and three days afterwards a highly sensational story of the Jamie. Johnson's ghost, appeared in a popular paper, and was probably copied into scores of other newspapers, for a genuine ghost tale of an awfully thrilling kind is as relishable to a [ certain class of readers, as a detailed account of a good fire, a wholesale robbery, or a shocking murder. All the men were paid ofi in due courso, and they appeared as glad to get away as if the ship were on fire. It is probable that the good ship Jamie Johnson would have rotted in dock, before another crew could have been found to take her to sea, had not the mystery of the stranger on the royal-yard been satisfactorily cleared up. The following is an explanation of the matter, which had caused so much excitement and loss of time on the voyage. A young man (who had shipped in Sydney as an ordinary seaman), just before he took a final leave of the ship, with the rest of the crew, stepped up to the chief mate, on the quarter-deck, and touching his cap respectfully, said " I want to speak a few words to you, sir, if you please." " Well, say what you have got to say and bear a hand about it, for I am going on shore," replied the mate. "You remember the night tho foreroyal was furled, sir? " " Yes, to be sure I do, but I don't want to hear any more about that affair; so you can walk off as soon as you like. I suppose it was you who told the yarn to those confounded beggars who put it in the newspapers, and everlastingly damaged the ship for carrying passengers, or getting a crew either." " Beg your pardon, sir, I never said a word to the newspaper coves. I think it was the boatswain who told them. But I'm going to explain all about the thing, sir, if you will let me speak." " What do you mean P" " This is it, sir. It was I who furled the sail that night, when you thought a ghost did it." "Don't tell me any of your yarns. Didn't I see you lying on a sea chest, snoring your head off, when I went into the forecastle to muster the watch ?" " Yes you did, sir ; but I was only gammoning to be asleep, for I had slipped down on the chest just a minute before you came into the forecastle. I saw you counting the hands who were sleeping in their bunks, and I heard you whisper "mercy 'pon us! the devil is come aboard," as you were going up the scuttle." The mate began to look less sceptical of the man's statement, and told him "to go on with his yarn, but to cut it short." " I'll tell you all about it, sir, and every word of it is true. I was lying on deck that night just abaft the windlass, for it was very warm down below. I was half asleep, when I was roused up by your order to clew up the fore-royal. 1" forgot that it was my -watch below, just for tho minute, and thinking I might get a bit of rope's cud lor napping I ran up the rigging, before tho hands on deck had let go the halliards. I recollected myself by the time I got up to the cross-trees ; but I thought as I was up there I might as well furl up the sail, and perhaps one of the hands in the starboard watch would do as much for me some timo. When the bunt aud clews were hauled up, I handed the sail as quickly as I could. I had just made fast the end of the gasket, when I heard you sing out, 'hoy, aloft there !' so I whipped off the yard, and came down to the deck by the top-gallant-backstay. I thought if I said anything about it, tho chaps in my watch would think I was cracked in tho brain, for doing an extra job like that without being forced to do it, so I got down below quietly, and coiled up on my sea chest, just a minuto or two before you came down, sir. I was going to tell you about it the next day, sir ; but there was such a hullabaloo in the ship, that I was afraid to open my mouth ; for I know I should get pepper from the captnin, and perhaps be hammered flat by some of the hands below, for scaring them all ; so I never said a single word about it till this minute ; and that's all I've got to say now, sir." " Confound your mischievous carcase ! It was you who caused all that rumpus, was it ? I wish I had known it before, and I would have marked the date on your back, .so that you would remember it for a good many voyagos to come. I've a good mind to tie you up to tho rnizen rigging, and give you a couple of dozen now." The young mail did not reply to that

throat, but his placid look showed thnt he had no dread of a rope's end just then, /or ho was in a British port, almost within huil of a British magistrate, aud he was confident that the laws of the land would protect him. But at the same time he felt a sort of tingling consciousness that had he made his disclosure a few weeks earlier, all his rights, and privileges as a British subject would not have sared him from a full nautical allowance of stripes from the officers of the Jamie Johnson, and a supplementary contribution of kicks and cuffs from the crew, for keeping them in dread of the devil every night for nearly two months.