Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1892-07-15
CoLUMRUs,s LOST ANCHOR.
The Oldest Relic In Existence OF the
Great Navigator


On the night of the I'd of August,
l40s, the little fleet OF Christopher CO.
lumbus, the discoverer of America, he
being then upon his third voyage, lay
at anchor just off the southwest point
of the Island of Trinidad, off the main
land of South America, which he had
seen that day for the first time.
Being on board of his ship" saws
Washington Irving in his history of
the great navigator, "late at night
kept awake by painful illness and an
anxious and watchful spirit, he heard
ate rrible roaring from the south, and
hehcld the sea heaped up, as it were,
/ by great ridge or hill, the height of
the ship, covered with foam and rolling
| toward him with tremendous uproar.
As this furious surge approached, rem
dercd more terrible in appearance by
the obscurity of night, he trembled for
the fafety of his vessels His own
ship was suddenly lifted up to such a
height that he dreaded lest it should
be overturned or cast upon the rocks,
while another of the ships was torn
violently from her anchorage, leaving
her anchor behind her. The ere VS.
were for time in great CONSERVATION,
fearing they should be swallowed up,
but the mountainous surge passed ON,
and gradually subsidized, after a violent
contest with the counter-current of the
strait. THIS sudden rush of water. il
is supposed, was caused by the swell
ing of one of the rivers which flow into
the Gulf Of Para, and which were as vet
unknown to Columbus"
The anchor thus lost on the night OF
August ., 1898, nearly 400 years ago,
from one of the ships of Columbus, off
the southwest extremity of the Island
of Trinidad Point Arenal, rs Columbus
named the spot, vide Irving) has re-
Gently been recovered by Senior Argos
tino, the gentleman who now owns the
point OF land in question. 1t has the
rare merit of being the oldest relic ex-
tant oil the great navigator and of the
discovery of America.
As would be expected from the age
of this relic, il is an anchor in the
simplest form of expression. The shaft
is round and s feet o inches in length. |
At the head OF the shaft is round ring
nearly foot in diameter to which the |
was fastened. The fulSes have |
a spread of about feet. The total !
weight is / 100 pounds.
This anchor was dug up by Senior |
Argostino in his garden from depth
of six feet at the distance of 327 feet
from the nearest beach of the sea. His
first suppostion was 4hsJ he had
stumbled upon relic o. the Phoeni-
clans or of some other OF the ancient
nations who have been supposed by
many to have visited the coasts of
thousands of years ago.
But an examination of local facts
md authorities soon convinced him
that a portion of his garden now occu-
pies the very post at which the ships
Of Columbus lay at anchor on the night
IF August ., l49s. The land is con-
'tantlv rising from the sea along the
entire coast, as has been shown by
Findlay ana scores of others
Who have written upon the subject,
md the rate of this rising is known to
rave been quite sufficient to turn in
90 years the anchorage of the great
leet into the garden of private citi-
en-.
There is not particle of doubt,
therefore,, at the end of the rigid in
Iuiry that has been made that the an
hor recently found by Senior Argos
inc is really and truly the lost anchor
4 Columbus.