Show fad 0 adventurers CLUB HEADLINES FROM THE LIV LIVES ES OF PEOPLE LIKE YOURSELF 1 the killer ship H HELLO ELLO EVERYBODY ive told you stories about human killers and ive tales about animal killers this is the spun you story of a killer ship carl L of brooklyn N Y told me this happened to him in 1902 when he found himself broke story and it of ajob a job in south africa and signed on a windjammer for out a trip to south america the windjammer was the bark albatross which had just brought a load of corn over from buenos aires and was going back to the same port in ballast there it would pick a load up of wheat and return to east london cape colony that suited carl carls plans so he sailed away one morning at daybreak and six weeks later after an uneventful trip the albatross entered the plata river and docked at buenos aires so far everything had gone smoothly but they had no sooner begun loading grain for the return trip than it became evident that the albatross was none too seaworthy a craft when the sand ballast had been taken out of the hold water began coming in through the seams that bother the ca captain etain any to speak of he just let the ship settle in th the e mud and when the mud got into the seams and closed them up he began loading again many a sailor would have quit that ship then and there but carl wanted to get back to south africa he stayed on for the return trip but the ship was hardly out of the river again before he began to regret it huge swarms of rats had boarded the ship the weather was fair enough at the moment it was late june and the old tub was wallowing along before a fair breeze but it was the rats that bothered carl swarms of them had come aboard while the ship was loading grain and now they were threatening to take over the ship we must have had half the rats in the argentine with us carl says they were everywhere we found them in the pockets of our clothes in our bunks and in short everywhere we looked while we were lying asleep we were awakened by the animals crawling across our faces and we had to lie perfectly still while we felt their cold feet and tails tickling our noses many a time I 1 stepped on one when I 1 got out of my bunk to go on watch the rats were bad enough but as they neared africa things became worse A heavy gale blew up and it quickly increased to hurria heavy gale blew up and quickly mounted to hurricane force cane force the seas mounted until they seemed to be fifty feet high hig h and the old ship with nothing but a 9 storm up was plunging ahead at hall half again her usual speed for a day the ship withstood the buffeting of the gale but that night along about eight bells the carpenter sounded the bilges and reported to the captain that there was four feet of water in the hold the captain ordered all hands to the pumps the crew worked grimly at those pumps because they knew they were working for their lives four feet of water says carl is bad in any ship in a storm it was especially bad in this rotten old tub we had no DO life preservers and the lifeboats were so rotten that they would fall apart if any attempt was made to raise them off their cradles captain asks for mens opinions the men pumped for two hours and the carpenter sounded the bilges again this time there was five feet of water in the bilges in i spite of all the men could do it had gained a foot they kept on pumping but the captain was worried at three in the morning when the crew was so exhausted that hardly a one of them could stand UP lip to the pumps he called them all into his cabin wet and hungry they trooped in and the captain told them bluntly that he know what to do and wanted to get the mens opinions follow land far there were two courses they could distant in the sky they could see the reflection of the cape of good hope light they could keep on pumping and try to the make port or they could run the ship on the rocks giving men en a chance to be washed ashore it if they escaped being killed by wreckage or pulled to their deaths by the undertow there the ship afloat until they reached a chance of keeping boat on port P the men all knew it the chief mate was for piling turned the about the rocks acks him the ship was and the men agreed with work worked ed a as s we and silent crew headed for the shore and we were a crash and tays says carl few hours we aou would id for we knew that in a then chaw what voyage of the albatross ends before the bark barb but suddenly the mate made a discovery her star had been turned toward shore she had been running on when water hoard board tack with the port side deep down in the astern and she they came about the wind and the seas were over the me mate looking lookin g came up on an even keel and now the eaphe in the out of a great gap port ewt coming side saw a stream of water a few roo MO hull bull of 0 the ship at a point which had been submerged troubles A apiece piece of 01 ments before it was the cause of all their and rammed a floating baling timber had struck the side of the ship dole e in the rotten planking rigged a scaffold the he wind w was as dying out by that time the carpenter and nailed led a heavy heay 1010 over the with bags of 0 oakum akum different sa side de filled the hole a is canvas over uwe uit hove to says carl and it was SIX in the ni morning orning feeling that 1 81 again it was air we manned those pumps L sucking low w pumps ms began 0 a ind we e eleven when the happy until til t pumped pa but we ev were arlu and tired we w knew all the we were she was empty london where wn ell days ays after the harbor of 0 east it came wl that we entered wreck rek a as un L town turned out t to view the battered looking forgotten voyage of the be in to bark and thus ended that never i albat A loa tross ross v copyright service |