Ship-Thieves

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 514, 17 November 1928, Page 16

Ship-Thieves

i i DAVY JONES’S LOCKER j CAN’T CLAIM ALL LOST | VESSELS. I

STRANGE STORY OF CHARCO

F the thousands of ships that have vanished, not all found their way into Davy Jones's locker. Some of them have been stolen and have had

their names and features altered so as to defy recognition until a sport of chance revealed their true identity. Stranger was the story of the trading schooner Charco. She was lying at anchor off Hawaii, with the captain and one man on board, who kept watch while the remainder of her crew went ashore. Yet when, in the early hours of the morning, her crew put off from the quay, she could not be found. A peak cap belonging to the watchman was found on the beach two days later, and several weeks afterwards a body which could not be identified was washed ashore on one of the neighbouring islands. Foul play was suspected, and up and down the Pacific news of the missing ship was sought; but • nothing resembling the Charco could be found. At all the islands a full description of the ship was given by the son of Captain Wansell, the owner and master. Young Wansell scoured the Pacific for years in search of his father and the ship that vanished in the darkness of a calm night. By associating with toughs along the waterfront of San Francisco he learnt that ship-stealing was the work of a gang who stopped at nothing so long as anything of value was to be had before the ships were made away with without trace. Shipmasters who had drawn freight money became so alarmed that they refrained from taking it on board. It was known that Captain Wansell possessed a large sum in notes, which he had drawn for outward-freight the day his ship was missing. There had been no ship in port that night to have caused collision. The anchor chain had been slipped and buoyed to prevent noise, and this work, it was realised, could not have been done single-handed. It was quite by accident that young Wansell heard of the successful raids made on the pearling beds by the schooner Constance. Big money was being made by a gang of sea sharks, led by a big Hollander, named Mass. For weeks a French patrol boat sought the raiders, but the luck was with them. The patrol always arrived a day too late. Mass took care the French did not catch him on the grounds or in the act of taking shell. At length the French became

wise to his moves of keeping look-outs posted at the mast-heads, and set a trap for him. They landed a six-pounder and guns crew among the palms on a hillside position, which commanded the lagoon entrance. After waiting many weeks, they had the satisfaction of seeing the Constance sailing through the reelmarked channel. They allowed the ship to go round the point and get well inside the outer line of reefs. Unfortunately, the man behind the gun becam so excited that he ni ed before the ship reached the lagoon. Quick as lightning, Mass realised the trap, and put about, but he had sailed too far into the narrow channel to navigate in safety, and the saw-teeth of the coral bed tore the bottom out of the Constance before she could be got round. As she sank the sharks took toll of the struggling crew. For months the wreck lay pounding on the reef before she went to pieces, and it was not until one of her deck beams washed ashore that the identity of the Constance was discovered. Cut deeply into the beam -was the name Charco and her official number. Mow she came into possession ot the Hollander will never be known, but her theft had evidently been managed by a gang expert at the game.