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“This is True Liberty, when Free Born Men, having to advise the Public, may speak free.” —Evriripss,

DAILY EXAMINER

ten oe

Single Copies two cents,

1898.

NO 57

THE NEMO'S GHOST.

LEWIS,

DY CHARLES B

Would you bel » that so late as the year 1882 a fine clipper ship had to be sold jor , song and converted into a coal bargs because of a ghost aboard which gave her a bad nan Such was the case.

The Nemo was a Clyde built ship and was launched in 1870. She was built for and owned by Perry Joslyn of Liverpool, who was the owner of six other shi; s, all yoyaging to India or Australia. As a rule, ¢wo or three men are killed and as many more badly injured in the building and

rigging of aship, but in the case of the |

Nemo no man met with the scratch of a finger. The launch was the fairest of a score of ships from the same yard, and when fully rigged and ready for her maiden yoyage the new creation was said to be the handsomest vessel hailing from the great port. A valuable cargo was ready fcr her, and the owner had the luck to secure a skipper in the person of Captain Halpin,

who had commanded half a dozen different |

ships and never met with a serious acci- dent.

We got to sea one day in a way to please all hands, and inside of 24 hours we found the craft to be a witch for sailing. When she got settled down to her pace, she show- ed the speed of asteamer and carried fa- yorable winds for the first seven days out. Then, one night at 10 o'clock, the breeze died away until the Nemo lost steerage- way, and it was at 11 v’clock that the ghost was first heard of. A man named Charles Jones was on watch on the bows atthat hour. He was a sober, dignified man and the best seaman of the crew. As third maty of the ship I had the watch at that time, while the captain and the other mates were asleep and seven or eight men were jounging about on the fore and main decks. Of a sudden Jones screamed out and came running aft in astate of great excitement. He was in such a state of alarm that it wae five minutes before he could relate his story. He was pacing to and fro, be said, keeping a bright lookout and not thinking of anything in particu: lar when he suddenly found something walking beside him, He heard no step or sound, but a ‘‘something”’ stood shoulder to shoulder with him. It wasn’t exactly a@ man, nor yet was it a shadow. The gail- or felt its breath on bis cheek and turned to seize it, but the ‘‘something’’ laughed athim and glided away. Iwas greatly provoked with the man end charged him with having slept on his post, though | knew that I did him injustice in this. It was a cloudy night, with the moon break- ing through now and then, and I contend- ed that bis ‘‘something’’ was but a shadow and ordered him back to his post. Noth- ing turther happened that night, and the next morning tig captain called the old man «it and gave him to understand that if ho saw or felt any more ghostly visitors it woul be bad for him. The crew would talk t).o matter over and side with Jones, but thus anything further would be seen of the ‘‘sometbing’™’ no man believed.

Four nights later and two hours after midnight, while the ship was making a good eight knots per hour and everything was going smoothly, as the first mate had the deck, the entiro ship was aroused by something which happened in the deck house. ‘there were eight or nine men sleeping there, and a man from the watch on deck went in to his chest to get a plug of tobacco The etush lamp had been turned down, so that the place was but dimly lighted. The man was bending over his chest when socicthing seized bimina clammy embrace ond forced hii to the floor. He thought it was one of the crew playing him a trick, but he scrambled up to find them all in their bunks and to see a shadow glide away. The sailor set up a shout, the watch below turned out, and presently everybody was on deck, and ex- citement reigned fore and aft. In return for his story the sailor got a dose of rope’s end, though after flogging he still main- tained that he been hugged by a ghost. On the quarter dcck we explained it away by saying that the man was nervous, but every man forward believed his statements and was satisfied that the ship was beunt- ed. We thought it the best policy to treat the affair with eomtemyrt, and, although we coula not help Lut notice how the men hung together in puirs aiter night bad come, we gave the matter no attention

VYhen ten days had gone by and nothing more had turned up, we looked upon the «host asa good joke, and the two men who bad seen it were the butt of ridicule At 1 o'clock of a cortain morning, the breeze being smaé@! and the night without & moun, though tairly light, the first mate stood looking to windward over the port quarter at what he believed wasasail. His Watch were all wide awake, and he could hear the footsteps of the man on lookout as he paced to and fro. The man had been standing still for perhaps five minutes when he felt a band laid on bis arm, an icy breath on his cheek, and as he wheeleé about there was the sound of low laughter ‘Yo his surprise and consternation no one Was visible. His impression as he turned

Was that one of the other officers had soft- ly an proached him to test bis nerve. he man at the helm was nearest to him, but he cculd not be suspected of having left his post to play a trick on his officer. In fact, no sailor aboard would have dared to take such a liberty. For a few seconds the mate: Was as sure that he had a human be- ing to deal with as that he lived, but w hen w found nothing before him and yet heard the nocking laughter, as if some one were tuoving away, his flesh began to creep. Going back to the binnacle, he said to the man at the wheel:

‘Williams, have you seen or heard any- thin g queer?" “Can I speak out, sir?’’ asked the map, ho betenyad argitemont in hia voice. .

¥

CHARLOTTETOWN P. E. ISLAND, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 9,

serate Read. room

ellie -the pa

10

NOTICE JEBTORS

*

The debsors of “Mckay Wool-t len Company” are hereby noti- fied tomake immediate pay- ment of their respective debts at the office of tne Company,

in Charlottetown; at which place due acqvitiances can be given. Debtors failing to act

on this notice will be sued, without resoect to persons, after the expiration of one week from Cate

—— o-acentnen nea

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For the Spring season with a complete stock of all lines of s‘ootwear.

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tA mez: & Vivarren

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vo _RENNEL & CHANDLER

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—— eee

VTEBCOLONIAL COAL MINING CO. Lt

(Drummond Colliery) Westville, N.S.

~~

The undersigned has been appointed agent of the above

Company for P. E. Island? All orders for Coal will be issued and payment therefon

received at my office. te as Prices and further information furnished on application.

FRED. W. HYNDMAN

| | i } i }

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MISS . LEFURGEY

(Graduate of the Emerson College of Oratory, Boston).

Will be at home to a limited number of pupils in physical culture anu oratory.

Apply to Miss Lefurgey at L. J. Sentnez’s, Weymouth Street.

Prowse Bros. .-

Have notified u2 to move oid stand, till they bnild brick Store:

We will on the lst of April move to Great George Screet, opposite Jb

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Bnipty bottles wanted, cheapest cash pice paid for ali Kiud of empty hoitles. JOBNP, JOY,

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LEGAL CARD. WARBURTON & McKINNGN

Barristers, Attorney’s, Notarys Public.

Commissioners for State of Massachusetts ac., & C,

OFFICES—=2, Cameron Block, Charlotietown Brennan Building, Summersice 1 Kent Street, Georgetown,

A. B. Warsrvrron, B, A., D,C. L, @ @.

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CHARLOTTETOWN Business College

———— ANP meme

Writing Academy

Let the search!igbt of practice illuminate the dark places of Theory. THORUUGHLY Progressive Practica! Institution, in which young men and women are not only taught Buok keeping Gu allits applications to commerce) both by angie and double entry, but are trained how todo business, py actual business transact- ions. ‘The students act as buyers, sellers, traders, benkers, book-keepers and account- anis,in actual business operations, and the eurrency issued by the ‘‘ollege Bank and the mdse issued from the Emj;orium, are used in boua fide business transactions, just the same asin mereantile aud banking « Ouses. book-keeping in itself may be learned at home, but a kuowledge of how to transact business, cannot be thus acquired, That our course system of training is eminently pract- jeal write for testimonials trom business men, and from students who aie now hold- img lucrauve and responsible positions. SUBJECTS:

Book-keeping by single and double entry ——. aud practical.) Actual Business

ractice, Business Penmanship, Business (Correspondence, Commercial Arithmetic, Commercial Law, Raiiroading, Steamboat- ing, Banking, (actuai practiceiu the College Bank,) Typewriting, Shorthand and Naviga- tion.

FACULTY:

L. B Miller, Principal, Teacher of Book- keeping, Arithmetic, Business Practice. Business Correspondence, Typewriting ard Navigation,

J. W. Coulson, (Vice Principal,) Teacher of Railroading, Steamboating, Ranking, Ac- pounting and Actual Business Practice.

J. Harry Wiliiams, Teacher of Busines Penmanship.

wm. Moran (licensed), Teacher of Short- hand.

George 8 Inman Esq, (Law Firm Mc- Donaia & Inman) Lecturer on Commercial

Law. For circulars and full information, write or

lo epply L. 8, MILLER: Principal, All Suterested sre eordially invited to call oo college and ipspect our system of , and work i: general.

|, A crew was at last secured by paying extra

‘Yes, of course. ~ Wiat did you seo?’ » 9 “‘T seen eunthin like a shadder beside you, sir, and I heard # laugh that never

come from the throat of a human being. 4 It’s a ghost, sir, and this is a doomed <s ship!”’ 4

The mate pochpoohes and bulldozed to make light of the affair, as it was politio to do, but though the man was reduced to silence it was evitent that he was fully

satisfied that a spook was aboard. Nex® os morping the mate related his experience to s the cabin, and as he was a man whose "4 ‘ word could not be questioned no one a

+

brought ridicule to bear. On re taking it as an accepted fact that a gb had been felt, if not seen, by three differ- ent persons, we began fishing for some natural and plausible reason to account for the thing. Were the men depressed in spirit? Had they overeaten? Did each one sleep for the moment? Was the icy breath a sudden puff of wind and was the laugh- ter the creaking of bulkheads as the ship lifted or fell? We argued it out that it muss be something of the sort, but the men for- ward had thelr own ideas and were very much cowed and putout. However, az in the previous instances, the passage of time worked something of a cure.. We were bound for Australia, and we had stretched away into the Indian ocean and weeks had gone by before we got another scare. This time it came to the captain himself. At 10 o’clock at night he sat reading in his cabin when a chill suddenly, passed over him and he felt two ice cold hands on his neck. It was as if a strong man had put his thumbs together on the back of the neck and clutched the throat with his fingers. Captain Halpin started up and shook his assailant off and turned to strike him. His idea was that the crew had mutinied and one of the men had atolen in to seize him. No person was there, but as if in answer to the captain’s oath of astonishment there was the same low, cynical laughter heard by the cthers. His stateroom door was standing open and had been for two hours, but the laugh- ter died away in that direction and the door closed. The captain came on deck and called me and whispered that a man bad passed into his stateroom. Together we entered and made search, and, of course, found nothing. No man could have been more upset. His experience had been even more trying than the others, and all his argument had been torr to shreds. Something had gripped him, though no marks were left to prove it. Some one or something had glaughed, though the captain was all al in his cabin. I promised Captain Halpin not to say a word even to my brother officers, and he certainly did not mention the matter, but somehow the particulars of the incident leaked out in a day or two, and during the remainder of the voyage, though the ghost did not appear again, it was the hardest kind of work to maintain discipline. When we reached Sydney at last, every man of the crew cut and ran, and such queer stories were put in circulation that the Nemo had hard work to ship a crew for the return voyage. A broken leg sent me to the hospital, and she sailed without me, but I kept myself posted as to the ghost. Midway between Australia and the Cape the first mate had his throat elutch- ed by cold and unseen bands as he lay in his bunk one evening, and two nights later the same thing happened to a man in the deckhouse. While discipline was up- set and things in a bad state the trouble would have passed away if the ghost bad not played his pranks on the man at the wheel afew nights subsequently. Kvery man forward then declared his determina- tion to quit the ship, and they had pro- visioned two boats and were about to lower + them when a man-of-war hove in sight. A signal of distress brought her along, and you can judge how the minds of the : men were affected when I say that they preferred going aboard of the man-of-war in irons to returning to duty. Enough men were spared to work the ship home, and though the ghost remained quiet there Was an uncanny feeling with all. For four weeks after loading for India the Ne:so could not ship aman. The ghost business had got into the newspapers, and the sto- i.cs were circulated in the taverns, and though men would have taken theirchances in a ieaky ship they fought clear of spooks.

wages, but after the Nemo had been cut 17 days the ghost laid its cold hands on one of the men, and the entire crew, led by the third) mate, abandoned the ship at sea. The captain and the two mates stood by ber and eventually got ber into a port, but her reputation was blasted forever. The case was laid before ajl sorts of men, and scoffers and believers alike visited the ship in search of aclew. Plenty of deductions and conclusions were arrived at, but they satisfied only a certain few. After many months the Nemo loaded at Liverpool for a South American port, and her crew waa composed entirely of Germans fresh from a China voyage. Not one had ever heard of her troubles, but they were fated to find out for themselves. A week after sailing the ghost appeared as lively as ever, and again the crew put off and left ber in charge of her officers. She was a dcomed ship, and her owner did the wisest thing possible by selling her atthe best price he j could get. Asa coal barge she was never troubled again by the ghost, though why it shouldn’t have continued aboard no one can tell. You can form your own theories and draw your own conclueions of the whole affair. I bothered with it for several years, hoping to get at sore satisfactory elucidation, but it remainga mystery still. If there had been no ghost, the ship would not have been twice abandoned and finally sold for a fifth of her cost, and that such tia was the case there are a hundred pewspa- per articles to prove. Indeed the bulk is in commission today, and is always pointed out es the “ghost ship.”

Plage