GHOSTS OF THE SEA

Evening Star, Issue 19787, 10 February 1928, Page 6

GHOSTS OF THE SEA

TRAWLER'S STRANGE HAUL SUNK RACING SCHOONER. “ The weirdest sight I have ever witnessed at sea,” is how Captain Myhro, master of the fishing schooner Vcnosta, describes the sudden appearance, followed immediately by the disappearance forever, of a famous derelict, the international racing schooner Columbia. Three years ago the Americans built the Columbia, and with this vessel the Gloucester fishermen challenged the Canadian cod fishers in the international races, which take place every year. . After these competitions the Columbia was entered in the regular trade, but foundered last August in a hurricane, the crew of twenty being lost. On New Year’s Night the Venosta was trawling 120 miles off the Nova Scotia shore. The gear which was dragging to fish with powerful tackle was hoisted away until the Columbia herself broke through the surface of the sea before the astonished eyes of the Venosta’s crew. With masts erect and deck and sides gleaming and polished as if the ship had been-launched yesterday, the derelict stood out clear as Captain Myhre turned the searchlights from stem to stern of the famous racer. The derelict hung a full minute as the Venosta’s crew stared aghast. Suddenly the steel cables parted under the strain of the heaving sea, and again the Columbia sank to her watery grave to join her dead crew.