"It's a mighty
curious thing. I had just come back from a v'y'ge to New Guinea, and
I thinks I'd like a trip to the Banks, not having been fishin' since
I was a boy. I went to Sutro Brothers in Salem and got me a berth on
the _Marlin B._ I marked that every man aboard her, skipper and all,
warn't Salem men, nor yet from Gloucester nor Marblehead. But I
didn't suspicion nothing.
"Tell you, Miss Bostwick, them that goes down to the sea in ships
runs against more than natur's wonders. There's mysteries that ain't
to be explained, scurce to be spoke of. I dunno why we shouldn't
believe in spirits and ghosts and dead men come alive. The Bible's
full of such, ain't it?
"Well, then! And what I tell you is as sure, as sure. I took the
_Marlin B._ out of that harbor, being at the wheel. It was
February, and a nasty snow squall come up and smothered us complete
and proper. That schooner was a hummer; she sailed just so pretty as
this one. She did for a fact. But I felt that tug to sta'bo'd. Do
you know, Miss Bostwick, as I was tellin' Cap'n Tunis, there ain't
never two craft just alike, no more than there is two men."
"Is that so?" she said.
"Ships is almost human. I never did see two so much alike as this
_Seamew_ and the _Marlin B.
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