STRANGE STORIES OF THE SEA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13692, 7 March 1908, Page 5 (Supplement)

STRANGE STORIES OF THE SEA.

Thkek is no man more sensitive to ridicule than the sailor. He detests the merest suspicion of being laughed at, and, while among themselves in the fo'c'sle sailors yarn endlessly, it is most difficult for the landsman to get a seaman to talk freely. Even then, one doubtful look or word of disbelief and he shuts up, close as the proverbial oyster. The consequences is that we on land never . hear of many of the strange things that happen at sea. For instance, you will hardly ever get a sailor to mention the seaserpent. While those who have gone most deeply into the subject have little doubt about the existence of still unclassified sea monsters, the sailor, knowing with what ridicule the press greets any mention of these creatures, no longer reports their appearance. And the. same or even greater reticence is observed with regard to the seeing of phantom ships and other ghosts at sea.

To lake one instance, the mystery of the well-known phantom ship of Cape Horn has recently been elucidated. Over and over again vessels on their way from Europe to Western America via Cape Horn have been startled by the sight of a large ship with decks awash drifting in an almost impossible position beneath the giant cliffs of the Straits of Lcmaire. At night or in storm this barque, with her towering white sails, bus the. strangest appearance. The Crown of Italy, attempting to go to the aid of the supposed derelict, ran upon a reef and was wrecked, and a similar fate has befallen several other vessels.. Last year, at the request of the United States,, the Argentine Government sent a steamer to make researches. If was found that the supposed phantom whs nothing but a rock—a rock which, by some strange freak of Nature, was white instead of black like those surrounding it. and bore the most startling likeness tea ship with sails set and deck just level with the waves. Another strangely-shaped rock off St. Helena, whitened with sea birds, bears so exact a. resemblance to a full-rigged ship that the oldest and most experienced seamen have been deceived.