The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Ghost Ship, by John C. Hutcheson

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

Title: The Ghost Ship
A Mystery of the Sea

Author: John C. Hutcheson

Illustrator: Henry Austin

Release Date: April 15, 2007 [EBook #21087]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GHOST SHIP ***

Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England

The Ghost Ship

by John Conran Hutcheson
________________________________________________________________
This book intentionally veers in and out of the supernatural, as the
title implies. The officers get more and more bewildered as they
work out their position, and yet again encounter the same vessel
going in an impossible direction.

Having warned you of this, I must say that it is a well-written book
about life aboard an ocean-going steamer at about the end of the
nineteenth century.

You will find it worth listening to, or reading, and I recommend it.
N.H.
________________________________________________________________
THE GHOST SHIP

BY JOHN CONRAN HUTCHESON

CHAPTER ONE.

THE STAR OF THE NORTH.

The sun sank below the horizon that evening in a blaze of ruby and gold.

It flooded the whole ocean to the westward, right up to the very zenith,
with a wealth of opalescent light that transformed sea and sky alike
into a living glory, so grand and glorious was the glowing harmony of
kaleidoscopic colouring which lit up the arc of heaven and the wide
waste of water beneath, stretching out and afar beyond ken. Aye, and a
colouring, too, that changed its hue each instant with marvellous
rapidity, tint alternating with tint, and tone melting into tone in
endless succession and variety!

Throughout the day the weather had looked more than threatening. From
an early hour of the morning the wind had been constantly veering and
shifting, showing a strong inclination to back; and now the sea was
getting up and the white horses of Neptune had already begun to gambol
over the crests of the swelling billows, which heaved up and down as
they rolled onward with a heavy moaning sound, like one long, deep-drawn
sigh!

It looked as if the old monarch below, angered by the