The Haunted Sloop

At one time, not so remóte but that the ruemory of it still lives in theminds of some of the older river meu of New Vork, there were a great many sloops ingaged in trading on the Hndson river betweeu New York and various poiuts on the river, and among these was one that will probably be remembered long after the others are forgotten. The Martin Wynkoop was designed to be one of the swiftest of the river fleet, and her builder put into her conEtruotion only the very best material that could be procnred, while hor designer, Captain Peter Van Corlear, had modeled her with such care that when she was finished she Was indeed a thing oí beauty, but the zeal of her commander was responsible for the tragedy which blighted the marriage of the Wynkoop to the Hudsou andseemed toput an evil spell upon her which followed her throughout her brief career. Ou the day set for the launching of the sloop the captain was here, there, everywhere, issuing orders and guarding against anything that might occur to mar the beauty of his beloved craft. He had kept her name a profound secret, intending to proclaim it as he left the stocks, and had provided a magnum of ; champagne with which to baptize her as she flew to the embrace of her bridegroom, but unfortunately for the captain fate had deciied that he was not to ry out his plans, for by some mischauoe the sloop started from her resting place aud slid into the water before the preparations were completed, seeming to choose a moment, too, when her uoble commander was directly in the way, and to the horror of the bystanders he was caught between the vessel and the i stocks and crushed to death. He was not instantly killed, but lived only long êïiough to whisper to his mate, ' 'The sloop - Martin Wynkoop, " thereby signifying hisdesire to havethat name applied to her, and so she was duly christened. Captain Morris Bleeker succeeded the ill fated Van Corlear and fitted the sloop out for her first voyago. When she was ready to sail, she was a craft that would have caught the eye of auy inau, for she was as buoyant as a cork and graceful as a swan upon the water. Her quarter deck, like the poop of a manof-war, stood high above the main deck, and her immpnsp. m;iiii hnnm pvtrpnrlori far and clear beyond hor stern. At last she was finished, and Captain Blecker took in a cargo for Poughkeepsie, lcaving Kew York in the aftcrnnon and continuing under way till night, v?hen he anohored behind Clermont point, uot caring to ci'oss the Tappan Zee that night. A bout midnight the captain was aroused by the steady clank, clink, clank of the windlass, asif someonewere getting the anchor. Augry and amazed at this apparent breach of discipline, he sprang trom his bunk and ran on deck, to fiud the crew coming aft in a body. "What is the meaning of this - mutiny?" he roared. And he backed up against the poop bulkhead, detevinined to fight to the last. "No, sir, " answered one of the men, his teeth chattering as he spoke, while his companions crowded about him, palo and filent. "It's ghostsl" "Ghosts?" repeated the captain angrily. " What do you mean?" "Why, sir, we heerd the windlasa goin like some un was gettin the anchor, and when we runs on deck to see what the matter was there was nobody there, and the windlass hadn't been touched. " The captain had recovered his wits by this time and saw that he must do something to quiet the frighteued men. "Is that all?" he.=aid lightly. " Why, that was some vessel around the poiut heaving short, and the sound caiue aoros3 the water. It was not aboard of us. Go below and turn in, and 111 look out for the vessel." The men, seeing that the captain was üot frightened, went below' together, leaving him on deck aloue. Scarcely had they got into the forecastle wheu there broke on their ears the sound of the chain rattling and snapping aa it paid out through the hawse pipe, as if the whole cable were coming out of the chaiu locker. üp Btarted all hands again, and the captain rau swiftly forward to iind that nothing had been disturbed and the vessel swung to her moorings just as she had when they anchored her. There was no more sleep for the crew of the Wynkoop that night, for no soouer did they leave the deck than the anchor was apparently either hove up or let go, and the noise only stopped when the first gray streaks of dawn appeared over the eastern shore. The men were in a state of exeiternent bordering on ïnutiny, but as they could not leave the vessel till she arrived in port they got the anchor and made sail. That day will live in the memory of the unfortunate rnariners on the Wynkoop as the stormiest of their lives. Three times did the captain attempt to weather the headlaud at the base of Hook mountaiu, only to be blown to leeward by the gale and swept around the loot of the cliff. The sloop acted as if the were possessed of some diabolical spirit, for when running along closo hauled on a tack, witheverything drawing as taut as a bowstring and the helm hard up, she would go about so suddeniy as to throw everybody to the deck, and the man at the tiller several timos nai1rowly escapee! being brained by ttie heavy boom as it swept across the deck. At last they weathered the point, and from that time made good weather to Poughkeepsie, where the crew deserted to a man, all of them declaring that they would rather go to the peniteiitiary thau to make anotlier trip in such a craft. Captain Bleeker managed to scrape togetber a scrub crew, with which he mudo the return trip to New York, makiug gcod time and having no trouble. On the next trip up he carried a crew of old river men, each of whom swore that he was ' 'not afraid of the devil himself. " This voyage was a great deal worse thau the last. All day did they tack and ratch about the point, losing on one tack all that they had gained on the previous one, until about dusk, when the wind increased to a gale and the captain, finding that he could not hope to weather the point that night,put her about and ran before the wind, intending to anchor behind the shelter of the hills till morning. As she scudded alongata terrificrate, yawing and sheering as the seas caught her under the stern, the maiu boom suddenly gybed. The captain was at the tiller when this occurrcd, and as the boom swung across the deck a bight of the main sheet feil about his neck, and when the sheet tautencd it cut the head off the unfortunate man and threw it far out of sight into the heaviug waters of the river, while the crew stood pale and horror stricken at the grewsome sight. Almost instantly the gale erated. and the sloop was sailed back to New York without further difflculty. It was several rnonths before a man oould be fouud to take coinmand of the haunted vessel, for ín additiou to the other tales that were circulated about her it was rumored that the headless ghost of Captain Bleeker could be seen every uight standing on the quartor deck, grasping the tiller in nis phantom bands. At last a man came forward and offered to take the position, and thongh he was a stranger to everybody on the river bis offer was accepted, for he seemed to understand his busiiiess thoroughly. This man called himself Rndolph Sturdevant. He was a tall, dark, mysterious sort of a person, with a satnrnine cast of conntenanoe, and was terribly profane in his speech. Indeed, his blasphemy shocked the wharf rats about the Washington market, and that was no easier task in those days than it is now. Captain Sturdevant bronglit his own crew with hini, and it was well he did, for there was not a rnan in New York who would have shipped in the Wynkoop for love or money. The day which Captain Sturdevant appointed to sail froru New York was the 13th of September, and to mako niatters worse it was on Priday. It was one of those autumn days when the air seems full of vague tbreateuing.s, when the glass falla apace and the prudent mariner seeks a good harbor lor his craft. The loungers about the wharf tried to dissuade the captain f rom his purpose, telling him of the experience of her forrner commander and urging as a reason, apart from other tious, that it was Friday and the thirteenth of the month, which made it little less than suicide to ]eavo port in such a vessel as the SVynkoop ; but the captain laughed at their fears and swore with terrible, blood curdling oaths thafc he would put the sloop around the headland of Hook niountain thatnight or ho would laüd her in hades. And so he started on hisvoyage. Old river men say that Dever before within the memory of the oldest of them had such a fearful night visited the Hudson river as that memorable 13th of September. The upbound fleet anchored at nightfall behind the sheltering hills near Nyack, and the crews 'of the different vessels assemblerl on deck to wutch the Wynkoop as she laboriously tacked and filled across the tempestuous Tappan Zee. Night carne on, and still in the inky blackness she crept aloug amid the buffetiüg wind and waves. The thunder roared and reverberated among the hills and echoed and re-echoed from the sides of Anthony's Nose and Hook mountain and then went grumbling away across the lowlands on the other side of the river, while the vivid lightning ever and anon played about the toiling sloop as she moved wearily on. The night wore on, and the watchers grew weary at their posts, but stil! the flashes showed the Wynkoop now on port and now on starboard tack, yet never nearer the headland. Just at midnight there carne a flash of lightning which illuminated the heavens like the noonday sun, and at the same instaat the thuuder boomed as if the universa had split in twain. In that blinding flash of light they saw the Wynkoop standing out bold and clear against the dark background of the easteru shore, and outlinedfull totheirgaze was the foriu of Captain Sturdevant standing on the quarter deck, his head thrown back and hi3 cliuched fist extended upward toward the sky as if he were defying the powers of heaven. The air seerned to glow with a bluish luminosity, and a strong odor of brimstone greeted the nostrils of the amazed watchers, while a wild and thrilling shriek carne across the water, soundiug loud and olear above the roar of the tempost. When another flash of lightning came, the sloop had vanished, and never to this day has a vestige of either vessel or crew been seen. No one knew where Captain Sturdevant and his crew came from, but it became a matter of grave discussiou arnong the river men, the general opinión being that they were ageuts of the foul fiend. It is currently belioved on the river that on every 13th of September a ghostly oraft euveloped in a mist of bluish flame may be seen beating across the Tappau Zee and that at midnight she disappears beneath the waters of the Hudson, while a blood chilling shriek wakes the echoes of the headland - Charles F. Nash, ü. S. R. C. 8., in Short Stories.