Originally published in Pearson's Weekly (C. Arthur Pearson Ltd.) vol.1 #8 (13 Sep 1890).
There are two legendary stories which are supposed to illustrate the theory that there is a sea hanging over us. The tale is told of how the people were coming out of a village church in Suffolk, one very thick and cloudy Sunday, when they saw the anchor of a ship hooked to one of the tombstones, and the cable, which was tightly stretched, hanging down from the air. The people were somewhat astounded, and while counselling about it, suddenly they saw the rope move as though someone laboured to pull up the anchor. The anchor, however, was held fast by the stone, and a great noise was suddenly heard in the air, like the shouting of sailors.
Presently a sailor was seen sliding down the cable for the purpose of unfixing the anchor, and when he had just loosened it the villagers seized hold of him, and while in their hands he quickly died, just as though he had been drowned. About an hour after tho sailors above, hearing no more of their comrade, cut the cable and sailed away. In memory of this extraordinary event, the people of that village made the hinges of the church doors out of the iron of the anchor, "and there they are still to be seen."
At another time a merchant of Bristol set sail with his cargo for India. Some time after this, while his family were at supper, a knife suddenly fell in through the window on to the table. When the husband returned, he saw the knife, declared it to be his own, and said that on such a day, at such an hour, while sailing in an unknown part of the sea, he dropped the knife overboard, and the day and tho hour were known to be exactly the time when it fell through the window.