New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1889-03-26
A MYSTERIOUS WRECK.
WHOSE WERE THE BODIES FOUND AT sEAl
YEARS THAT THE CoNsERvA WENT DOWN IN
THE SToEM-THEORIEs ABOUT oTHEH
VESSELS.

That one or mo.e steamers went down In the
fierce gale CT last week somewhere of the Virgins
coast is certain. and shipping circles downtown
yesterday were greatly agitated in trying to den-
tify the doomed vessel or vessels. From the cvf-
dence at hand it seems almost certain that the
of the human beings who have been lost will
he found in the list Of those board either tho
Conserva, the Yedmandale or the NantcOke. Threo
dead bodies have been found al sea and quantity
of wreckagc has been passed, and the conclusions
reached after studying the facts are hardly satis-
factory.
At IL 80 o'clock on Saturday morning the NAL
Ory steamer Colorado, bound for this port, while
80 miles south of Ncw-Yorl, in latitude 81 de-
grees 30 minutes north, longitude "a degrees 30
minutes west picked up hfe-raft on which. faces
downward, lay two dead men. Their faces were
bloated and blue from exposure and the men had
evidently died from exposure. One man was toll
and we'll built. with small dark mustache and
kinky hair, which made those on the Colorado
believe that he was IL muatto lie wore blue
flannel shirt, two pairs of trousers and dou bic
breasted corxscrcw coat In his pocket was soma
ship biscuit. Under his head lay a rough cloth
cap. The other man on the raft was smaller,
with smooth, dark face and long, straight black
hair. He appeared to be Malay. lie WAS
dressed like a fireman. in jumper apd overalls.
There were marks on the feraft to indicate
TO what steamer she belonged. but the name OF the
maker was on it, thus: Captain Jonathan Cone,
Builder, Wilmington, Deli A card bearing the
name of a grocer in Ilayre was found in the tall
mans pocket, but by some mIschance it was lost
and the name forgotten After everybody had
looked at the two bodies, iron bars were tied to
them and they were sunk into the sea-
wRECKAGE ON ALL SIDES.
Afterward for twenty miles the path Of the
Colorado was strewn with wrccllage. part OF
extension table. lounge and half dozen newly
panted inside cabin doors were among the stuff
that doated by. 1t WAS plainly the wrecIlage Of
some steamer. The sailors of the Colorado thought
the lost vessel was probably the Csnserva, which
had been bought and fitted up in this port as
warship for Hyppolitc, the leader of the Haytian
rebels Tie Conserva, formerly the Madrid, left
BROOKLYN at p. III. on Tuesday last, bound os-
tensibly for SANTANA. Her cew, except the officers,
were all West Indians or Malays. She had twenty
seven men on board all told. II. f. kunhardt
who had fuM charge of the fitting out Of the
COnserva, said yesterday that he did not believe
that the wrecked vessel was the Conserva, a. the
which she was built. lie felt certain that during
the storm she was long way east OF the place
where the men were found on the raft; She
carried life-aft and "A steam launch, but the
name Con>erva' was painted IN big black letters
on the raft, which was not made in Wilmington.
The vessel thirty-two years old but had been
rittcd regardless of cost. &. u. kunhardt O
cousin Of III. x. kunhardr, sailed in the steamer.
Her officers John II. Anser> captain: Joseph
Sherwood, first mate: and - Mccarthy, second
mate.
WAS 1T THE NANTICoKEa
Samuel R. Holmes, of No 124 Front-st, said
yesterday that he was afraid the lost steamer
WAS the propeller Nanticoke, which sailed rom
Baltimore Friday, bound for Ruatan, Guatc-
maa, where she was expected to do service on
Of the rivers OF that country The Nanticoke
took cut 400 tons of coal, a burden greatly
beyond her capacity, and this fact led Mr.. Holmes
to think she was the vessel. The Nanticoke
carried lounges, tables, and had cabin doors such
as were passed by the Colorado. She also had
hfe-raft Before going south she ran on the
Chesapeake Bay as "a pasSenger-boat between
lIavre dc Grace and Baltimore. Boston Syndi-
cate bought her aud sent her south. Last evening
the Portuguese bark Vasco da Cana, thlrty-tlve
days from Maranham, arrived and tied up at a
pier in the Atlantic Basin Captain Antonio
Ferrara Coelho reported that he had encountered
strong northwest winds and heavy seas north OF
Cape IIatteras. AT a. m, on March "A, IN
latitude 3s degrees. o minutes north,
lonsude "a degrees argG west s,edn e aHnc6 vsSi
This was painted whit, above the water-llne and
was about twenty-five feet in length; The sea
hst night, that they did not stop to make an
investigation The launch was too far away Tor
tc men TO read any name that might have been
painted upon il, but an ugly looking hole could
he seen in the starboard bow There was a
lrcat quantity of deck tmbers and other wfecRaSe
dangerous TO navigation floating about, and the =
captain thought that possibly the damage 10 the
launch had been caused by these An hour ailer
the launch was sighted, the dead body OF man
was seen floating in the water A lll'-oelC was
about the mans waist and as the lace wils in
the water il WAS difficult to say whether the
body was that of white man or not, put 10
was believed that he was white. as MS DlacN
hair was long and straight.
SEVERAL THEORIES ABOUT THE WRECK:
The captain of the steamer City of AeNandrla'
from Havana. reported that on March -, Fowey
Rock Lighthouse ten miles distant west-south-
vest he passed the poop-decli of a vessel Iuso
o,yash. The combing, of the slylight were
painted white, and the waterways blue Inc
after companion-way hatch was painted white
with blue top. The wreck seemed to DC new
one. -, .l
These two stories seem TO bear ont the theory
that it was the COnserva as the htterS woouwofS
in some places wiin painted blue and white, ana
She carried a steam launch. third theory
* that the mysterious wreck was the English
steiner Ycdmandae, of ScarborO. bound from
New Orleans TO Roucn, with cotton and sugar.
The brig w q. Locihart and the schooner Annie
! KEMP which reached here yesterday from the
West Indies both spoke the Yedmandale on March
10 in latitude 80 degrees As minutes, longt-
lude 10, degrees minutes. The st steamer
na lied that her machinery was disabled and that
bcr sails had been blown away but She
declined assistance and only asked TO he reported
10 Llov,l's TIE mate of the Kemp said ycstcr-
day that if the Yedmandalc survived the hurri-
cane in her condition II was all she could have
done. lie thought, however. that II was lmpossi-
bile for a raft 70 d:ift against the wind from the
spot where the ledmandalc was seen TO the spot
where the dead men were picked up by the Colo
RADIO. - ,,
The steamer marlborough from 81. Kits, re.
ported passing on March ~ in latitude 36 degrees.
longitude II degrees 30 minutes steamer dis
abled. with n British steamer standing by her.
The crew of the Marlborough said thar the dis
ablcd vessel reSembed the Saginaw, Of the Clyds
Line Al the Clvde Line office II was said that this
could not be tie Saginaw as the description did
not correspond 10 that of the vessel, and the Sag-
nav must have been in another part OF the ocean
at that time.
DROPPED DEAD IN HIS LOCOMOTIVE CAB.
Rochester, ~ T., March 25 tSpecaD.-The So
IL ~ A-ori rtral l.aLlA A..a l.-s