When the panic had, to a certain degree, subsided, and they perceived that the water did not increase, all hands applied to the pumps, and by eight o’clock in the morning the vessel was free.  Still the unaccountable circumstance weighed heavy on the minds of the seamen, who walked the deck without speaking to each other, or paying any attention to the ship’s course; and as no one took the command, no one was ordered to the helm.

For my own part, I thought it a judgment upon them for their cruelty; and, expecting that worse would happen, I had made up my mind to my fate.  I thought of Marie, and hoping for pardon yet fearing the worst, I vowed, if I escaped, that I would amend my life.

At night we again retired to our hammocks, but no one slept, so afraid were we of a second visitation.  The bell was not struck by the men, but it struck itself, louder than I ever heard it before; and again the dreadful voice was heard, “All hands ahoy!” again the water rushed in, and again we ran on deck.  As before, it mounted as high as the orlop beams; it then stopped, and was pumped out again by eight o’clock on the ensuing morning.

For a month, during which time we never saw land, for we had lost all reckoning, and no one cared to steer—­the same dreadful visitation took place.  Habit had to a degree hardened the men; they now swore and got drunk as before, and even made a jest of the boatswain of the middle watch, as they called him, but at the same time they were worn out with constant fatigue; and one night they declared that they would pump no longer.  The water remained in the vessel all that day, and we retired to our hammocks as usual; when at midnight, the same voice was again heard at the hatchway, not followed by the rush of water, but by a shriek of “Tumble up there, tumble up!”

We all started at the summons, and hastened on deck; there was something that impelled us in spite of ourselves.  Never shall I forget the horrid sight which presented itself:  stretched in a row on the deck of the vessel lay the fifteen bloody corpses of my shipmates who had been murdered.  We stood aghast; the hair rose straight up from our heads, as we viewed the supernatural reappearances.  After a pause of about five minutes, during which we never spoke or even moved, one of the corpses cried out in a sepulchral voice, “Come, every man his bird!” and held up its arms as it lay.

The man, whose office it had been to take the living body to the gangway, and after killing it to throw it overboard, advanced towards it; he was evidently impelled by a supernatural power, for never shall I forget the look of horror, the faint scream of agony, which escaped him as he obeyed the summons.  Like the trembling bird fascinated by the snake, he fell into the arms of the dead body; which grasping him tight, rolled over and over in convolutions like a serpent, until it gained the break of the gangway, and then tumbled into the sea with its murderer entwined in its embraces.  A flash of lightning succeeded, which blinded us for several minutes; and when we recovered our vision, the remainder of the bodies had disappeared.