The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1881-09-10 00:00:00

THE MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCE
AT THE ANTIPODES.

The Daily Sews has published the following from a Car.
respondent :

Sir,—Mysterious disappearances have not been in-
frequent of late, but perhaps no inure mysterious and
unaccountable occurrence has happened than that
which took place near Sydney, in Australia, towards
the end of last year, when five persons disappeared
altogether, and have never since been heard of, in spite
of every effort made in all imaginable quarters to clear
up the mystery
The head or leader of this party was a gentleman
well known in Sydney—Mr. Lamont Young, Geolo-
gical Surveyor in the Government Department of
Mines, Associate of the Royal School of Mines in
Jermyn-street, and a Fellow of the Geological Society.
The second, his assistant, was a young German gentle-
man—Mr. Maximilian Carl Waldemar Schneider,
also in the Government employ. The three others
were sailors—Messrs. Casey, Lloyd, and Towers.

_
Deputed by Government to survey and report on
certain new gold fields at Bermagni, on the coast 180
miles south of Sydney, Mr. Young arrived with his
assistant on Friday, the Bth October, ,1880. On the
following day he made some preparatory inquiries, and
on Sunday, the 10th, having hired a boat, with the
three sailors as crew, the party of five embarked at
seven or eight in the morning, in perfectly calm
weather, intending to row across Bermagni Bay,
round Aich the diggings are situated, to its northern
headland, Corunna Point, 10 miles distant, which Mr.
YOUIW was told was ueti, ITI tprpcf inv. 35
rom wa.s
rar ott, romedary. that
moment the whole party have never been heard of, nor
have any vestiges or traces been discovered which can
indicate their fate with any degree of probability, far
less certainty. Their boat which was found at four
p.m. of the same day at Corunna Point, their pro-
posed destination, beached above high-water mark
within a reef of rocks, at as experienced seamen say, the
best landing-place to be found in the neighbourhood,
and to which she could not have drifted but must have
been guided. The boat had a quantity of stone ballast
in her, much more than she could have floated with.
Some of the largest of these stones had from their
nature been evidently taken from the locality, and with
them apparently three large holes had been knocked in
the boat, one in the bow and two in the sides. In her
bottom were found, besides various articles belonging to
the crew, Mr. Young's charts and maps, dry and unin-
jured, and on one of the thwarts a book with a pair of
spectacles and pencil case. In her side was a bullet-
hole, the bullet itself being found on the rocks, and
the mark of another on a thwart, but this had been
hammered by hand, probably to attach it to a fishing.
line. On the shore close at hand were found the re-
mains of a meal which had been partaken of, a boot of
Lloyd's, a couple of hats (not Mr. Young's which was
a cork helmet), fragments of cigars, and, some ac-
counts say, a cigar-holder of Mr. Young's. A few
articles were missing, as a sail, anchor, and stern line.
No traces of blood or of a struggle of any kind. None
of the party had more than small sums of money with
them.
Such are the principal facts of the case, derived,
it must be stated, chiefly from newspaper correspon-
dents and private sources; for, strange to say, up to
the present moment no authentic and official narra-
tive of the event has been published by the Govern-
ment. The circumstance was immediately reported to
Sydney, and a gentleman from the Department of
Mines, together with police, was despatched to the spot
to investigate the matter and report on it. The excite-
ment about Bermagni and in Sydney was great, and the
interest and sympathy shown on behalf of the bereaved
families universal, four of the five, including Mr.
Young, being. married men with families. The wife
of one, the sailor Lloyd, has since gone out of her
mind from the shock. Notwithstanding, however, a
close and long-continued search, in which all assisted,
and although a reward of £3OO has been offered,
matters remain as they were, and no clue to the fate of
these unfortunate persons has been discovered.
It has been made the subject of interrogations in the
Sydney Parliament. The Governor of New South
Wales, consuls, and naval commanders at all foreign
ports have been directed by the Imperial Government,
who have taken strong interest in the matter, to lend
every aid in their power ; but nothing has transpired
during the eleven months that have since elapsed. The
German Consulate have also lent their assistance. The
facts detailed have led to a general belief here that the
party have been kidnapped for perha•ps whaling pur-
poses or trading to the South Sea Islands—a nefarious
traffic for which men are not easily obtained, and
which has caused complaints, not long ago, to be made
in regard to crimping at Sydney and elsewhere. In
the neighbourhood of a new goldfield nothing more
likely than for a ship's crew to desert and leave a
captain helpless, except by recourse to impressment.
Once carried off, there is no saying how long they
might be absent. Not long ago a vessel engaged in
this perilous trade was reported lost, and her crew
massacred, but after nine months, when their families
had fully given them up, all turned up safe in Sydney
harbour. The Sydney police are, however, unwilling to
admit the possibility of kidnapping. Montague
Island, where a lighthouse is building, lies off Ber-
magni, and no suspicious vessels were seen, but two
or three left Sydney for the South Sea Islands imme-
diately after the occurrence.
Although unwilling to allow the probability of kid-
napping, however, the police can in no way account for
the extraordinary fact of five well-known persons, and
two of them Government officers on duty, disappearing
without leaving any trace whatever. Capture and re-
moval by land, or the idea of' lost in the bush," is not en-
tertained for a moment, as the black-trackers employed
have found no signs. Moreover, there is no bush to
speak of, the country on the coast being fairly well
settled, with rising eminences and boundary fences
running down to the sea. They believe drowning or
destruction by sharks snore likely. But three of the
five were good swimmers, Mr. Young himself an
accomplished athlete and swimmer; and sharks do not
frequent the shallow water near reefs and the shore.
They also think, and this seems to be the belief about
Bermagni itself, that some foul play or violence may
have been committed on shore, but of what nature no
one can form an idea. In short, the mystery remains
unsolved.
We have said that the information given is derived
from private sources, and from newspaper correspon-
dents, who were most laudably detailed and precise in
their accounts published immediately after the occur-
rence. The Illustrated Sydney N cws also gave two
or -three accurate drawings of the boat and surround-
ing localities, but no authentic Government account
giving all the actual facts as ascertained, and
the evidence of persons under suspicion or inter-
rogated, has yet been given to the public. Had
such an extraordinary event occurred in En land,
there can be no doubt that -by evidence and cross-
examination taken on oath, and by official reports,
every circumstance connected with it would have been
fully placed before the public; and if this had been
done in Sydney as early as possible after the event, it
would no doubt have greatly aided and directed
further inquiries, and have saved Mr. Young's
numerous friends and relatives much distressing labour
and conjecture.