SEA MYSTERY

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVII, 26 November 1927, Page 15

SEA MYSTERY

DERELICT SHIP. MENACE TO OCEAN-GOING VESSELS. San Francisco, Oct, 22. Another of the mysteries of the sea remains unsolved to-day despite the efforts of Governments of half a dozen nations to solve the story that is stranger than fiction. The latest report of the local hydrographic office containing its periodic warnings to ships at sea cautions against the possibility of encountering a mystery derelict floating somewhere 1500 to 1600 miles north-west of Honolulu. Four times the ominous bulk nas been seen by ships traversing the wide sea lanes of the Pacific. Each time those who saw it were unable to furnish any information that -oul-l aid in establishing identity of the mystery vessel. The only identification marks seen on the ship were the numerals ‘O-2,” barely decipherable after the vessel’s ceaseless battle with the elements for a period whose length can only be conjectured. No nation on earth has claimed the derelict. A search of naval records throughout the world has failed to disclose these numerals or to shed any light on the name and nationality of the phantom vessel. In the haunts of seafaring men in San Francisco, the derelict submarine is a topic of frequent conversation. Many have been the conjectures they have offered, but many have been th, stories of other missing ships whose fate was recalled by the sighting of the submarine. OTHE MYSTERIES RECALLED. The old sailors recall the strange derelict the British steamer Mina Brea discovered a year ago in the Atlantic. It was without identifying marks or registration name. Only five leet ot its stern was showing above the water, yet a light was burning from the masthead, showing that it had only recently been deserted. The captain ol the Mina Brea concluded it was a rum runner and a victim of the war between hijackers and rum runners on the high seas. Another story related is that of the derelict schooner found oft the coast of Costa Rica in 1924 by the steamer Satsuma. The ship was beating an erratic course under full speed—“A painted ship upon a painted ocean.” No trace has ever been found of Tier crew The name of the vessel was found to be Panviego, but a search of maritime records of every important country in the world disclosed no further information concerning her. The crew of the steamer Satsuma found the lifeboats of the Panviego were in the davits. The ship’s papers were missing. Her decks were awash. Every yard of her canvas was spread. But what caused her to be deserted, or what became of her crew was never known THE MARIE CELESTE. But perhaps the greatest mystery of the sea within a span of hall a century was that of the Marie Celeste, according to the stories of sailors here. . The Marie Celeste, a Yankee barque in command of Captain B. S. Briggs, sailed, from New York to Genoa on November 7, 1873. Her .log showed that she passed the Azores on November 24. Ten days later she was sighted by the British vessel Del Gratia. The Marie Celeste was then drifting aimlessly under part sail. The captain of the British ship and a party of his mon boarded her. She had been mysteriously abandoned in. mid-ocean. There, was not a sign of life aboard. Everything was in perfect order. There was plenty of good food and fresh water. A storm could not have been the cause of the crew abandoning the ship, because a medicine bottle was found sitting upright on the captain’s table. Any unusual rolling of the ship would have upset the bottle. All the ship’s boats were intactl The captain’s wife and two-year-old baby had started with him on the trip and they had disappeared also. Her knitting had been laid aside as if she were in a hurry. The impression of a baby’s head was found on a little pillow. A clock in the captain’s cabin still ticked away. At the conclusion of the usual entries in the day’s log ran the words: ‘‘Fanny, my dear wife ” The sentence was never finished, and like so many mysteries of the sea, nothing was ever learned of the fate of the vessel’s crew.