Jasper County Democrat, Volume 19, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 June 1916 — MYSTERY OF THE GOLF OF MEXICO [ARTICLE]

MYSTERY OF THE GOLF OF MEXICO

Legend of the Last Voyage of a Pirate Ship.

The pirates that Infested the gulf of Mexico during the early years of the Spanish occupation of Central America disappeared gradually, reappeared occasionally and vanished, the last showing up during the early part of the nineteenth century. One moonlight night she sailed out of Puerto Cabello, in Honduras, where she had been lying at anchor during a storm, and made for open waters. ••What is that black hulk out there?* said the man at the wheel to the captain, “and how does she find anchorage in such deep water?” “She's not anchored,” said the cap tain. “She’s lying to." “No, she’s moving. Her yards are squared toward us, but she has altered her course, and I can see her sails. How can those few patches of canvas move so large a vessel, I wonder?” “All the better for us,” replied the captain. “A hulk of a merchantman with such rags will be easily overhauled. Head to the north.” Whether the merchantman espied the pirate and proposed to get away from her or no, she turned and moved in the same direction as the latter. Notwithstanding her meager show of canvas, she did not seem to lose much interval. “How does she keep that pace?” inquired the captain of one of his principal men who came up to ask about the stranger.

“She’s a queer one,” replied the other musingly. The captain called the crew on deck and ordered them to prepare for action. The guns were run out, ammunition was brought up, and a reserve supply of cutlasses was dumped at the foot of the mainmast. Then the grappling irons were fixed in place, and the crew stood ready. Presently it began to be apparent to the pirates that they were gaining on the vessel. Notwithstanding that she was under the same sail as before, she was scarcely moving. Then of a sudden her sails were furled, but, wonderful to relate, she resumed her former speed. The captain, the wheelman and half a dozen of the crew who had come up to ask questions about the singular craft all looked at one another in astonishment “That’s no real ship!” exclaimed one with blanched cheeks. “She is a phantom!"

“Shut up!” cried the captain. “She’s a ship, a real ship, and we’ll be aboard of ber within an hour. The first man who talks about a phantom will feel the edge of my cutlass!” This quieted the crew temporarily, though several crossed themselves. Their captain was no more enlightened than themselves, though made of sterner stuff. The breeze freshened, and it was apparent to the pirates that with the difference of sail area they must soon catch the stranger unless, indeed, she were a veritable phantom. Nevertheless at 2 o’clock in the morning. when the moon had passed the horizon, the pirate was as far astern as ever. The mysterious vessel moved on like a jack-o’-lantern, and the pirates began to believe that she was under the protection of a dark mist that hung over her. Several times this mist disappeared. and the pursuers always noticed that at such times the stranger’s pace was either abated or she ceased to move entirely. After one of these changes of gait the pirates found themselves sailing half a mile behind her and on parallel lines a quarter of a mile apart. “Send a shot,” said the captain. The gunners got a gun ready on the forecastle, but there seemed to be some delay. The captain went forward and found the men shivering beside the gun. “What’s the matter?” he thundered. “Maybe she’s protection of the blessed saints,” whimi>ered one of the men. “It would be impious to fire. Look, there's something white in the water amidships! She moves again. Santa Maria! The sea monsters are bearing her forward!” Every man fell on his knees. Suddenly the vessel, notwithstanding the direction of the wind, sheered around and stood on a course that would take her directly across the pirate's bow. The captain still kept on his feet in the midst of his kneeling men and watched her with open mouth and staring eyes. On went his vessel and on wer the stranger, passing his course an eighth of a mile ahead. Presently his fighting nature overcome his superstition, and, seizing an iron that was heating in a brazier, he applied It to the vent of the gun. The sailors covered their eyes with their hands as the gun boomed. When they looked again the vessel had passed their course, and at the moment there was a flash, and the light of Tophet flared through a square opening in her side, glaring on the figure of Satan, who was thrusting a huge poker into the place from whence the light was emitted. Not only the crew, but the captain, fell on their faces on the deck, not daring to look up. When they did the devil’s packet, as they called the vessel, was skipping away from them, pouring a black cloud from a huge chimney amidships. The pirates steered for land, deserted their vessel and forever abandoned their nefarious calling. The devil’s packet was the first steamer ever seen in the gulf of Mexico.