PROBLEMS OF THE SEA.

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 11 September 1914, Page 2

PROBLEMS OF THE SEA.

MYSTERIOUS FATES OF SHIPS

DISAPPEARANCE NEVER TO BE

EXPLAINED,

The recent inquiry, by, official authority, at Newcastle-on-Tyne (England), into the strange disappearance of the steamship Mount Oswald, has provoked public interest once more in a subject which seldom fails to attract the average man-in-the-sti-eet. The Mount Oswald set out from Baltimore on February 20, 1912, under the command of Captain Starmard, but has never since been heard of.! Where she got to, what happened to her, when it occurred ; why no- other vessels ever heard of or spoke her en route ; all these questions have to be probed so far as is possible by the proper authorities ere the missing ship is reported by Lloyd's to be totally given up. LOSS OF THE WARATAH. But the Mount Oswald is only the last, so far, of a long and distinguished company of British and foreign vessels which have similarly mysteriously disappeared. It is not long since the ill-fated liner Waratah vanished* in an extraordinary manner off the South African coast, and thus caused quite a sensation all over Britain and the colonies for a time. Readers may recall how the Government sent warships to search every bit of the shore from Delagoa Bay to Cape Town in order to see if any trace of ship or passengers* could be found. But not the least sign of such was ever discovered. The Waratah had vanished as if a pencil-mark had been rubbed off a slate at one dash. For one evening she was sighted and had signalled all right ; the next morning she had completely vanished. And that without any sound, wireless message, or anything to tell what had happened. Since which morning the unfortunate ship has never been seen, heard of, or traced in any way whatever ! EXTRAORDINARY CASE. Probably the biggest ocean mystery of this kind ever known was that of a French ship named Marie Celeste. This was a trading vessel between France and Boston (U.S.), which latter port she left in February, 3.576, having then nineteen folk 02i board, amongst whom were the captain's wife and little daughter. Some weeks later a ship in full sail was sighted off. Gibraltar, behaving queerly as to the course she was shaping. A boat set out to discover what was wrong with the ship, and the crew saw as they drew near that this vessel was the Marie Celeste, which had evidently got far out of her proper route." The crew of the boat hailed the ship, but got no reply at all. Then she rowed up and boarded her without experiencing any opposition or seeing a soul. And when they searched all over her they could not find a single person of any sort on board !• ,

Yet there was a meal but halfouten left on the table of the cabin; a child's garment only half-made was on the sewing-machine ; whilst the captain's watch was hanging over his berth and—still ticking ! This last item was a facer and no mistake ! But the boat's crew could make nothing of the mystery, nevertheless. The Marie Celeste was quite seaworthy ; she had abundance of food and good water ; her boats were still hanging on the davits; not the least of her treasures or fittings was missing ; there was no evidence whatever of mutiny or disaster, exexcept that glaring and amazing disappearance of all her living- inhabitants !

She was towed into harbour and everything was found just as the j boat's crew had stated. But what \ had become of those nineteen people j who left Boston in her ? Why they had left her, and when ; and whither they had ' gone so hurriedly and astoundingly, has never been solved in the least to this day, and probably never will be ! | DERELICT SAILING FOR THOUSANDS OF MILES. Curious, too, was the history of the Fanny E. Wolstin, which was abandoned for good reason by her captain and crew on October 15, 1891. This ship did not then go down, as had been expected, but continued to float about as proudly as ever, for years ! She was sighted many times by passing vessels in various parts of the ocean, and at one time was observed not less than 4,000 miles distant from the spot where she had been deserted ! The last occasion on which any ship reported seeing this derelict —which was then apparently going as strong as ever—was in December, IS-)3. Since!'that time the Fanny E. Wolstin has never been seen by anybody. How came she to float all right and strong after being deserted for over two full years ? What then occurred to determine her fate, so far away from where she had expected to sink ? Where did she get to ere she finally vanished ? All these arc questions that will perhaps never receive any solution in this world. ANOTHER WANDERING DERELECT. Quite as astonishing was the sequel to ths desertion of the W. L. White, an American ship, which left New York with several people on board, in March, 1838. Hardly \iad the vessel got away from the Siores of the New World — she was

but 80 miles from New York at the time—when circumstances made the captain and the rest leave the ship hurriedly, as they expected her to go down bodily every minute.

But the W. L. White, though thus abandoned completely, did not go down at alienor did any of her people ever try to reclaim her. For many months she sailed helplessly about the Atlantic, a menace to other vessels of all sorts ; and she was seen clearly and recognised during that period by at least 4 5 other ships. There was often talk amongst the various authorities about capturing and destroying this dangerous derelict, but nothing- was done as the result of it.

Then, one fine morning, a coastguard on the Hebrides, off northern Scotland, saw a vessel approaching the shore there. It ran on the rocks, despite his many warnings; and, when he wetit on board to see what the strange conduct of the crew meant, he was astonished to find not a. soul, and to find that this ship was no other than the W. L. White. It had thus come to its last end nearly twelve months after it had been abandoned, and at a spot 5,900 miles distant from the place where the captain and the rest had left it to sink in a minute or two, as they thought. But its final grave was off that rocky coast of the Hebrides, and there the ill-fated W. L. White lies somewhere at the bottom of the sea to-day.