KELLY’S MIRACULOUS ESCAPE,

Western Star, Issue 1387, 7 September 1889, Page 1 (Supplement)

KELLY’S MIRACULOUS ESCAPE,

John Kelly a stoker on board the steamship George W. Clyde, is the hero'of a wonderful tale. The George W". Clyde started from San Domingo city and touched Porto Plato and Capa Hayti. These places have very pleasant repute among mariners, for the simple reason that rum is as cheap there as peanuts are in Italy. For to 2 cents a man can get a nice “ little jag ” on, and the tars generally take advantage of this fact and leave the place in good spirits. The crew of the Clyde was not an exception to old custom, and John Kelly, it is said was considerably more than half seas over when the ship sailed. Suddenly, to the horror of many of the passengers who stood on deck watching the calm sea, the groggy seaman jumped overboard. There was a a panic. The passengers crowded to the side of the ship, and one of them in his anxious efforts to save the stoker’s life, threw a chair after him. It was a plain wooden chair, about two feet high with a wide and comfortable seat. Kelly grasped this and managed to get into a comfortable floating position.

In the meantime the crew on board were making ready to pass the line out when a cry of horror came from the pas

engers—“A shark! A shark!” and he back of a huge shark was seen in the water close to the stoker. The sense of danger sobered the poor wretch better than the bath in the warm sea had done He awoke to the terrible situation to which he seemed doomed, while the passengers kept on screaming. The shark had dissappeared and the next moment his fearful throat would stick up from underneath, ready to swallow its of human flesh. This the stoker knew, and he hastily swam five or six feet to one side. The nest moment the widely opened jaws of the shark stuck out of the water. Then Kelly rose to the occasion. He grabbed the chair and threw it into the abyss of death that was yawning beside him. The shark seemed puzzled. This was a morsel he had never tasted before. He wrangled with the fleshless bones with surprise and disgust. In the meantime while the monster was shaking and worrying the chair, his hideous eyes blazing with anger, Kelly was brought on board with little difficulty as sober as possiole. The passengers surrounded the stoker, warmly congratulating him on his miraculous escape, The shark did not follow the George W. Clyde as is the custom of sharks. His appetite was gone.