BILL HOLLINSWORTH’S GHOST.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume IV, Issue 1044, 10 September 1883, Page 4

BILL HOLLINSWORTH’S GHOST.

It is when spurred on by a young member of the crew, who has related, what he takes to be a remarkable performance, that the champion yarner is at his best. “Why, that ain’t nothin’ ■at all!” he exclaims, as a young sailor •finishes a yarn about a friend of his. that swam the English Channel. “It ainH nothin’ at all; you wouldn’t never' 'think of a-mentionin’ such child’s play as that if you’d a-knowed Bill Hollins■worth.” •

•-■•“Why, what did he do? Tell us! atrout it,” comes from' all part of the ; ifi’i’sle, and the port watch of the Queen! $f jhe Seas gather about their- favorite’; story-teller. - The old salt rolls his quid-from side; to side in his capacious mouth, as if; recalling the particulars *of the story, clears his throat, and begins : “Me an’ this yer Hollinsworth was' shipmates; on a v’y’ge to Liverpool. Bill were the most entertainin’ chap I .ever met. Couldn’t he spin : a yarn !; 'and weren’t he a jovial fellow, an’ a' honest man from keel to truck ! Ye’ve ; -heard me tell how he were discharged from her Britannic Majesty’s sloop-o’-Who’s Afeard—which he joined to> stand in fur the grog-ration—fur ,a-bein’ drunk on the tops. Well, he were : always the same; an’ no misfortune in life couldn’t change his pleasant sun- i shiny ways and make him down to the starn realities of life.. Now, we hadn’t been out more’n fivedays 6k the trip to Liverpool when the; glass(barometer) “ began to fall, an’; we knowed we was a goin’ fur to catch if i’iWe! wasn’t disappi’nted. ■ Alb hands was sent aloft fur to take in the royals.an’to’-gallan’ sails, an’ pretty soon We’ got the order fur to reef the topsails. When pur side went below, I missed ; Bill. ’* Where’s Bill Hollinsworth?” says : Tj ‘I ain’t see him since he were out on the fore-topsail yard with me,’ says the bo’s’n. Well, we looked all over the ship, an’ Bill were nowhere to be found; so we came to the conclusion that lie had fallen overboard, an’ he was set down as havin’ lost the number of his mess. A few days after this, when the storm had passed, we began to hear strange sounds down in the ‘’after-hold, which were chock-a-block with prowisions and wine. ‘ Make less noise for’ard there !’ says the cap’n one evenin’, as he looked down into the: ‘ There ain’t no noise ;h,ere; it’s all aft/'.says the carpenter. Just then ‘ We’re a jolly crew that sail the main i’ came from the after bulkhead- ' ‘ It’s ghosts !’ says the' cook. ‘Ghosts don’t sing as well as that,’ says the cap’ll; Nevertheless the word wits' passed that there was ghosts aboard;-an’ you can give a good guess that; the soupds of singin’ an' dancin’ that, came up out of the hold every night didn’t do nothin’ to contradict it. Then somebody said it was rats; but tats* couldn’t sing ‘A-Rollin’ Home in the Mornin,’ Boys,’ which was a favorite, song of Bill Hollinsworth’s. Well, t>i}e night, when the an’ choruses were agoin’ on at a high rate, the mate came for’ard with the cap’n. Both was pale as ghosts. ‘ There’s someone drunk down in the fb’c’sle,’ says the cap’n. An’ he made a dive all round' in the darkness with a handspike. ‘lt’s cur’ous,’says the cap’n one day, ‘ how all these stores are disappearin’, an’ notfne a-ealin’'of ’em.’ Well, pretty soon ; we got into Liverpool, an’ me an’ my .riiate gob our liberty an’ went ashore. We \yas a strollin’ into a saloon, when I’m- blessed if wc didn’t spp the erhost of Bill Hollinsworth a-leanm’ on the bar an’ a-talkin’ with fhe landlady in a woiceivhich were the wery image, of ‘Bill 1 Me an’ my mate was about to wear around an’ run away, when Bill he sees us, an’ he sings out ‘ Back yer maintopsail and come, alongside!’ * How did yer get here ?’ says I, when I made sure it was really Bill and not his ighost. 1 Swum,’ says he. An’ he never ■•*6uldh’t let on that he got here any other way. Well, the story of Bill’s big swim.po.on got over to Liverpool, an’ he was a great man. Most people believed every word of ic, but most of the chaps aboard!our ship didn’t believe he swum at all, but said he slipped down into the hold where the provisions-were, an’ enj’yed hisself the hull v’y’ge, a-eatin’, a-dnnkin’, a-singin’ and a.dancin’. Such a sight ye never seed as when they broke out the cargo,.. Empty bottles, ham-bones, half-eaten cheeses, an’ cans that had once had fruit an’ wegetable in ’em were thrown around in every direction. The cap’n was like a crazy man, an’ swore he’d get even with Bill or his ghost, or whatever it were that had had like to eat the cargo up. But Bill swore he didn’t know nothin’ at all about it, an’ was took aboard on the return trip. Sing’lar to relate, however, he was really lost overboard in a storm. Some say as how Bill was lost on the last trip, and that it was only his ghost that we see a-talkin’ to the landlady an’ who afterwards shipped for the return v’y’ge.' 5 But, be that as it may, we never again set eyes on to Bill Hollinsworth or his ghost.” —Lippincotfs Monthly,