I'm the Third Mate of the _Sangier_, the vessel that picked up Jessop,
you know; and he's asked us to write a short note of what we saw from
our side, and sign it. The Old Man's set me on the job, as he says I can
put it better than he can.
Well, it was in the first dog-watch that we came up with her, the
_Mortzestus_ I mean; but it was in the second dog-watch that it
happened. The Mate and I were on the poop watching her. You see, we'd
signalled her, and she'd not taken any notice, and that seemed queer, as
we couldn't have been more than three or four hundred yards off her port
beam, and it was a fine evening; so that we could almost have had a
tea-fight, if they'd seemed a pleasant crowd. As it was, we called them
a set of sulky swine, and left it at that, though we still kept our
hoist up.
All the same, you know, we watched her a lot; and I remember even then I
thought it queer how quiet she was. We couldn't even hear her bell go
and I spoke to the Mate about it, and he said he'd been noticing the
same thing.
Then, about six bells they shortened her right down to top-sails; and I
can tell you that made us stare more than ever, as anyone can imagine.
And I remember we noticed then especially that we couldn't hear a single
sound from her even when the haul yards were let go; and, you know,
without the glass, I saw their Old Man singing out something; but we
didn't get a sound of it and we _should_ have been able to hear every
word.
Then, just before eight bells, the thing Jessop's told us about
happened. Both the Mate and the Old Man said they could see men going up
her side a bit indistinct, you know, because it was getting dusk; but
the Second Mate and I half thought we did and half thought we didn't;
but there was something queer; we all knew that; and it looked like a
sort of moving mist along her side. I know I felt pretty funny; but it
wasn't the sort of thing, of course, to be too sure and serious about
until you _were_ sure.
After the Mate and the Captain had said they saw the men boarding her,
we began to hear sounds from her; very queer at first and rather like a
phonograph makes when it's getting up speed. Then the sounds came
properly from her, and we heard them shouting and yelling; and, you
know, I don't know even now just what I really thought. I was all so
queer and mixed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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