European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - June 26, 1948, Darmstadt, Hesse                                There s a lot of Beans Jabez never spilled. She s alive he says Calm As you please Angelo you take her Tail while take her head and Well put her indy bunk. Vic you la find the first Aid Box in the drawer with the  s a bottle of whisky and some spirits of  went to work on her and sponged out her wound and sewed it up with sail thread. It s not As deep As i thought he said. It s mostly inthe fish part of her so i think it la be All  he made a surgical dressing and bound it on her with adhesive tape. Then he pulled the blankets Over Herand held her nose and gave her a Jigger of whisky and some spirits of am Monia. You could hear her breathing with a soft moaning  Guys get up on deck ordered Jabez and keep As quiet As you  the engine put out a sea Anchor and catch what you can with landlines. I la be with you when i  maybe it was three four hours be fore Jabez came on deck but it seemed All Day. None of us said much. We caught 80 or 90 butterfish. And a few King Mackerel but we did t have our hearts in it. Finally Jabez comes on deck  whisky bottle. It was still nearly full so i knew he had t been using , gentlemen he said i m going to break one of the rules of this ship and let you have a swig. I think you need it. Gentlemen a Toast to Miranda and May she recover  what she Tell you asked Vic Alears. Just her name answered Jabez and i did t even ask her that. She s a sick girl too sick to  what la we do asked Ned.  run her in to the Hospital at new Bedford in about five , that would t do said Jabez. You know what would happen Why every reporter in new Bedford Boston and new York would be there in notice. They d be shooting off flashlight. Bulbs making sound movies. And broadcasting to a National Hookup from her bedside. The publicity would kill her. No sir we be got to take car of her right Here and keep her till she s Well enough to go  my asking i said but what does a Mermaid eat that s a Good question said Jabez. I Don t know the answer. Well just have to wait and  i Only know what i read in books when i was a kid said Ned but i got a Hunch it Ain t too Good for a Mermaid to see much of human  sounds reasonable agreed  t other Way round too. In my Day they still taught greek at Tisbury High. I remember a Little what happened to a Guy called of Dee sus who ran afoul of sirens something like Mer  to i never knew anything about Salt water mermaids added Vic. But my dad who came from Bohemia used to Tell stories about River Maidens in the River Moldau. Seems one would some times get a crush on a Bargeman. When she did there was hell to pay. You a better watch out , we be certainly got a Story that beats anything of Jack handles said Ned. It s a Good Story All right sighed Jabez but if you re smart you won t Tell it. In fact i order you never to Saya word about it. No one would believe it. We d be marked for a Crew of com plete loonies and we d get in no end of  after that we Felt some better and we got a Good catch of fish for landlines. Jabez would t let us below but he got the meals and brought them on deck and that evening he brought our mattresses up. It was a Clear night almost Calm so we were comfortable enough though we did t sleep  morning Jabez went below. He came up smiling and rubbing his hands. She s lots better he announced but she says it s Stuffy below decks. Well fix up the mattresses and set her up in the  Jabez and i carried Miranda up an fixed her As comfortably As we could. She was White still but even prettier than the Day before. Her smile made even me a respectable married Man feel a Little twitchy inside. Vic went below and got breakfast and we ate it in the cockpit Jabez passed everything to Miranda and we looked to see what she d eat. She took a Little Tomato juice some hardtack and a cup of Coffee but she would t touch the Beans and Bacon. She made kind of a face at the Apple pie but ate her slice up. We did t talk much teach other and not any to her we figured we d better leave the talking to Jabez. Then Miranda spoke and her voice had a faraway sound like Waves on a pebbly Shore and sometimes like a Bellboy Way off in the night. You go ahead with your fishing an Don t bother about me. I la be All right. And there s a Shoal of swordfish Dow that Way she added pointing South by East. ,. We beat Down against a gentle southerly Breeze. I Don t want to run the engine Jabez pointed out. Have a Hunch the smell of Oil won t do Miranda any  sure enough we ran into plenty of swordfish big Fellows. By the end of the Day we had nine packed in toehold. We were so Busy we did t have time to think much and even Jabe paid More attention to hauling in the fish than he did to  southerly held up and that night we ran before it and anchored inthe Lee of no Man s land. I think that s All the. Swordfish this trip said  Market s High right now and a bigger catch might spoil it and get folks sore at us. Well stay Here two Days. You Fellows can troll from the Dory Orgo ashore and loaf around. I think we can put Miranda overboard thursday then Well run Back to Woods Hoje and have a Holiday till next monday.". The nex t two Days we took it pretty easy. We fished a Little and Vic and i shot several rabbits on no Man s land. On thursday morning Miranda said she Felt Well enough to swim Home. You were Nice to me All of you she said. And if some Day i can do some thing for you i won t  and i lowered Miranda into the water. She swam a few Yards blew kiss to Jabez and then took a nose dive. We thought that was the last we Dever see of her. Now reme Nebr what i told you about keeping your traps shut said Jabez. Don t say anything about this not even to your  the swordfish brought a goo Price. Maria and i went in to fal Mouth and got the coat and a lot of other stuff. I did some Spring planting and painted the Woodwork. It was Tough not telling Maria about the Mer maid but i managed to hold it in. The next week we circled Nantucket getting bluefish and nothing much happened. But that saturday night Vic the Liaci Aglupos and Filipo Lopez went Over to Teaticket to some kind of portuguese Brawl. I Don t know just what happened but there was a lot of liquor and loud talking and somehow or other Vic blew it All. We found out about it monday morning when they were Tell ing it All Over Garvins with part that never happened. They Rode Jabez pretty hard. He tried to deny the whole works but the More he denied the harder they ribbed him. Finally he had to shut up. We got going in a hurry. Jabez could have bawled holy sellout of Vic but he did t. Vic Felt bad enough anyway. All Jabez said was he guessed we d better put into Newport till the talk blew Over. But in two week the Story had reached Newport with " More gambling so Jabez figured weight As Well go Back to Woods Hole the next week  we finally docked at Woods Hole the folks there had got tired of the crazy yarn and let us alone. But we d Only been there an hour and were still unloading fish when Henrietta Helburn came steaming Down to the Dock. Continued on Page 22 c weekend june 26, 1942