A GHOST ON A WHALESHIP.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4603, 21 December 1875, Page 6 (Supplement)

A GHOST ON A WHALESHIP.

(From the Berkshire Eagle.) In the war with Britain of 1812, Nantucket suffered severely in loss of ships by British cruisers, and it was in her behalf, as well as the adjacent ports, that the brave Capt. Porter, of the frigate Essex, was sent to the Pacific seas, and he did good service both in protecting our own whalers and annoying the enemy. The ships from Nantucket would have stood a far better chance, especially with the English whaleships, who often made them prizes, if their quaker owners had allowed them to go armed, and various were the expedients resorted to by their commanders to counteract such unwise policy. The good ship Hannah, nearly new, and owned by John and James Cary, left Nantucket commanded by Paul Swift, an excellent seaman and experienced whaler, and joining the fleet which was going down the coast of South America under convoy of the American sloop of war Peacock as far as the neighborhood of La Plata. They there separated, and each shaped his course for the Pacific fishing grounds as best he might. After rounding the Horn, Captain Swift touched at Valparaiso, and there saw several English whaleships, captured by Capt. Porter of the U.S. frigate Essex, laid up to be sold or brought to the U.S. when opportunity offered, and observing them all more or less armed, he obtained from Porter’s agent the loan of two ' Sues, and with the addition of some wooden or quaker guns for show, he put to sea feeling more comfortable in mind than when he left Nantucket. After being out about two days he fell in with the English whaler Gertrude armed with four six pounders. Swift was to windward, and showed fight immediately, giving the Gertrude a shot across her bows ; to his great surprise she gave herself up at once, without even firing a gun, and the Captain came on board the Hannah bringing his papers, and the crew seemed more glad than sorry to be taken, and all they seemed to care for was to escape from on board their own ship, not even giving a passing regret when they discovered the Quaker guns of their antagonist, • Captain Swift and his mate, Mr. Hussey, could not understand it, and suspecting some treachery, would receive only half the crew on board the Hannah ; they could not account for their easy victory over the English, usually bo belli"-rent; but Swift determined to face the danger whatever it might be, and keeping his men under arms in case of surprise, sent Hussey with an armed boat’s crew to take possession of the Gertrude. He found her a well built ship in good condition, and“|nearly half.loaded with oil, and observing the eagerness of the crew to get on board the Hannah, he divided them, and after securing all of the arms on board, told one half to" remain where they were, quietly, or he would put them all in irons, sent part of them to the Hannah, and proceeded to make himself master of the ship. The Englishmen were confined for the present in the forecastle, and as the Americans mingled with them they learned to their astonishment that the ship was haunted, and the captain was on the way to Valparaiso to land what cargo she had and abandon her. This was a damper to the victors, for superstition is proverbial among sailors ; but Hussey, who was a courageous man, after consulting Captain Swift, determined to find the kink in it, if kink there was, before 'abandoning so fine a prize. Accordingly he picked about twenty stalwart fellows “with no nonsense about them,” who promised to stand by him, come wiiat would, and took them aboard the Gertrude. And Swift, having transferred ene of her guns to the Hannah to make her armament equal, they determined to finish loading her with oil, and, if possible, take her into Nantucket, and for her greater safety it was agreed, in a few days, if all was right, to part company, and each one do the best for themselves they could. The account the English sailors gave of the

ship was, that in their first encounter with the whales they singled out a splendid spermaceti, a monster in size, and as it appeared in temper After giving him the harpoon he dived down, and they payed out the line and followed to the place where they supposed he would rise. He came up, a vast black object, spouting blood and water in torrents, and catching sight of the boat turned in his pain and rage upon it, and crushed the bows and harpooner both at one fell sweep of his tremendous jaws. The harpooner was in the act of throwing a lance, and couldn’t recover himself quick enough to retreat to the stern. The other boats coming up saved the crew, who were by this time in the water swimming for life, and they succeeded iu planting four or five more lances iu him, and diverting his pursuit from any one of them, till at length he turned his mighty back under and died. The loss of the best harpooner, who was a brave fellow, naturally threw a damper over the whole crew, aud before they had done . trying out the oil from the murderous whale, they began to hear the groans of their dead comrade about the ship. Sometimes they seemed to come from the air above their heads, sometimes from beueath the deck, aud then again close to the forecastle, aud they were heard oven iu the captain’s cabin. When a gale came ou, they were silent as if he was waiting for them to join him in the world of spirits, aud at its subsidence they commenced again in even srreater agony, and continued every night, and all the night, until they could scarcely bear it. Iu vain they attacked the whales with the greatest fury to avenge his death, nothing seemed to appease his unquiet ghost until the men gave up iu despair, arid were going to Valparaiso to abandon the ship when they fell in with Captain Swift. Mr.’ Hussey, who was now captain of the Gertrude, hardly knew what to make of the story, for being a true sailor, he was not above an ingrained tinge of superstition ; but he determined to have an interview with the ghost himself, instead of avoiding him, and couvir.ce him that as the ship had changed hands, he might as well accommodate himself to the circumstance and be quiet, as his comrades had done all for him that he could reasonably expect. So when the ship was made sung for the night, and the men had turned iu after the first watch was set, Captain Hussey was pacing the deck and considering whether he himself should not go below, as nothing unusual had happened so far ; just as he was placing his foot on the companion ladder, he heard, distinctly, and it seemed just at his elbow, a long, low sigh ; he paused several minutes but heard nothing more, when just as he was about to descend again fie heard it far more distinctly, appearing to proceed from the deck beneath his feet. Just theu one of the men came up hurriedly saying, “ D’ye hear that, cap’n, the poor fellow is here sure enough. I was lying along the gun yonder, aud he groaned so close to my ear that I felt the breath of him across my cheek.” Hussey turned and went to the gun and looked all romd it, then listening a few moments he heard distinctly and apparently from under the gun, a long sobbing moan of great agony. “My God, Bill,” said one of the men, “ but he do suffer awful.” “ Get the lanterns,” said the captaiu ; “ we must find him and get him out of his misery.” Hussey ran down into the cabin for his pistols, and when there he heard it _ again—a voice of most dire distress, proceeding apparently from behind a pai’tition beside the cabiu door. It seemed of such strength, so distinct and life-like, and expressing such extremity of agony, that the thought engrossed Capt. Hussey's mind that some one was confined in the hold and was dying of starvation. “ Lights here !” shouted he ; “ follow me into the hold ; lam in his wake. It isn’t a dead man ; it’s a living one.” They rushed down the stairs, and seizing a lantern from one of them Hussey led the way, examining the storage on either side, but finding nothing amiss, and yet the groans grew louder and more intense as they advanced till it seemed as if a Goliah was in the last throes of his dying agony. Many of the men were as pale as death, but the determined courage of Hussey inspired them to follow him, aud face it whatever it was. They passed through a low wide door, where empty casks were kept, aud as Hussey flashed his lantern round they caught sight of a gigantic arm aud handstretched up from among the empty casks ; here the sound filled every space, but had lost much of the human intensity of its tone. They hastened to the prostrate figure, half expecting to find a giant chained to the floor ; they found a colossal body it is true, hut it proved to have once been the figure head of the ship’s bows. They raised their lanterns and looked, the voice was there without a doubt. But what caused it ? The ship was rolling slowly on the long swells, and Hussey saw as she inclined, that a cask which was loosened rolled suddenly over, and at the same time the long deep sound was seemingly emitted from it, and so it proved upon examination. In removing other casks to fill with oil, this one had become loosened, arid the bung being out, at every roll of the ship the air rushing across the aperture, made the dismal sound much like blowing across the open nozzle of a bottle, only fifty times louder aud more intense. In a storm, the noise of the rushing wind and water made it unheard; aud in the daytime, the cleaning and working of the ship. The bung of the cask was replaced and the cask itself secured, and the ghost of the unfortunate harpooner ceased to trouble the ship further. Suffice it to say that they loaded the Gertrude with oil without other accident, and Captain Hussey brought her home by various devices, through seas swarming with the enemy’s ships, escaping sometimes by stratagem, and sometimes by speed, and landing safe at Nantucket sold the cargo at an immense profit, on account of the rarity of pur whalers reaching our own ports. Captain Hussey sailed iu the Gertrude for fifteen years with unvarying success until lie came to look upon it as a lucky thing to have a ghost ab card.