Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 93, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 April 1913 — BANSHEE PERIL OF OIL SHIP [ARTICLE]

BANSHEE PERIL OF OIL SHIP

Bteamer Schuylkill Lands at New York From Yokohama With a Weird Yarn. . _Ne w York. —The Standard Oil company’s tank ship Schuylkill, which arrived from Yokohama recently, not only narrowly escaped foundering in a typhoon in the China sea, in which one of the Chinese crew was lost overboard, but also was threatened with a mutiny because the? remainder of the men persisted in thinking they were pusued by the dreaded "banshee" of that religion. A weird whistle, that seemed to pursue the ship, added to their fears. Joss sticks were burned and prayer papers thrown overbbard in vain. ’ Finally, In the hope of propitiating the spirit, they seized upon a crow dog belonging to the first mate and threw it over the side. The whistling ceased, but when First Mate Fitzgibbons heard the fate of his dog there was more trouble. He found the Chinamen praying before an idol in the forecastle. Throwing the idol through a porthole, he pummeled the superstition out of his crew and there was no further talk of Chinese banshees. The strange whistling was made by the famous whistling fish of the China sea, according to Fitzgibbons, and the feast on dog propitiated them.