Ensign Merrill — page 75: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

~ an’ ene en have spun his yor is not known, gt i att nat = ag : ~ + a sit: > = ’ ce yin wners dq IT iG x - tuming ns sees “But: you hid eerie ie j . cee 1s ; in that direction during your watch; there is no telling! - what neighbors we may have in thieds seas. What do. : you think of the weather?”’ a The experienced seaman squinted aloft and to und : ward, then sniffed the breeze for a moment before ro- plying. Shaking his head slowly, he said: ‘‘Looks kinder typhoonish, don’t it? Still it might blow over. You can’t allus cal’late in these latitudes what the wind’s a-going to bring. I was out here once in a ’Merican full-rigger called the Flying Seud. You’ve no doubt hearn tell of her. She’s the clipper what made the fastest time from Hongkong to ’Frisco afterward. Captain Gressy was her skipper, an’ he beat anything I ever saw fur carryin’ sail. Lor’ bless” you! I honestly believe that man ’ud set stun’ sails in a gale jest as soon as not. The vi’ge lm a-speaking of, we left Woosung jest about this time o’ year, an’_ the first night out it commenced to blow a leetleat first, an’ then all of a sudden a typhoon struck us on the quarter. Say! Ive been in some tall weather, but I never seed the beat of that. Seas? My stars! the name don’t mean nothing. I swear that in Bidens! minutes they reached higher’n that main truck. Big mountains with white crests to ’em that would blow off an’ hit youaslap as would knock the breath out 0” ye every time. An’ the wind; why it jest roared, an’ howled, an’ blew till the deck was ghaved as clean as a baby’s bake: Galley, deck-houses, scuttle-butts, an’ all flew to lee’ard as if they had wings. It didn’t last more than five hours, but in them five hours I lived a . Seah I tell you. We had to put back to Shanghai, | 9? How much longer the garrulous third officer would Va rt ¢ ‘ "7 : YT, . “4 * 4 ’ et ne ‘a aa 24 LY Rigas on Sa om ic ebooks. com ey ) Sree tine “i. Meo, be, -aeaet