The Pascagoula democrat-star. (Pascagoula, Miss.) 1878-1920, 1894-02-23
SCRANTON, FRIDAY, FEBRUARY

ginning to shake their heads over it
when we sighted whale, and in the !
chase and capture that ensued the
dcrelect was forgotten. We had the
dead whale alongside and ready to cut {
in when the boats were lowered for IA
second, and three hours later the bark
was drifting off with the carcass OF
whale on either side OF her and the |
crew working like beavers to get the {
OFT before change Of weather.
! was alOft In the crows nest when
the second whale was tOwed along
side, and had been ordered down to
bear 4 hand when ! took last look
through the glass. Down in the south {
and not over four miles away the
derelect suddenly hove into view as II
rising from the bottom Of the sea.
was sure had carfully swept that
quarter half a dozen times within an
hour, but there she now lay i'm plain
view, and | was bit ratified as | To-
cused the glass for good look at her.
What | made out was the hull Of a
ship. with all her masts, yards, bow
spirit and standing rigging gone. She
was nearly bows on to me, so that
could not make out how badly her
bulwarks were damaged. The stump
OF the foremast was about twenty feet |
high, while the others had broken of
lower down. The hull was very buoy |
ant and floated high; but, as was to
be expected, it presented a weather
beaten and f0rlOrn appearance. The
deckhouse and the cooks gallery were |
still standing, and thought | could |
make out lot of wreckage floating |
alongside. 1t was now within an
hour of Sundown, and | had not been |
surveying the wreck over three min
utes when peremptory order to come
down chokcd me off. reported
! the presence Of the derelect TO the
captain, but with so much blubber at
hand he was Indifferent to other
things and asked no questions about
! her.
-Four days later, when the oil was in
the barrels, our position at noon
showed that We were fifty miles south
east of the spot where we made the
doutle capture. An haur later the
man in the crows nest sighted the
derelect to the north Of Us, and at 2
o'clock we were up with her. 1t was
the hulk of the lost Magnet. From
the time of sighting her up to the
moment of heaving to we looked for
some sort of signal to show that some
one was ret living aboard her, but
nothing was shown. When we had her
under our lee, the crew ran alOft to
look down upon her decks. The fall
of the masts had crushed her bulwarks,
but the damage Had been repaired
afterward, though the new work had
, not been painted. The water about
/ her was entirely clear of wreckage,
: and the hull was apparently as tight
: aud buoyant as when it left Rio. 1t
, was terribly weather beaten, however,
and seemed to be sailing on Il bed of
, weeds and grass. A musket was
t brought up and fired three or four
times. and the crew shouted in chorus
J again and again, and the captain or
, dcred boat lowered and said he
, would go in it himself. We boarded
her at the bows, and when | fol-
: lowed the captain over the rails |
, braced my nerves to meet a
terrible spectacle. Nothing living or
: dead was in sight. Every bit OF the
wreck was gray-white in color, be-
J cause of long exposure to the weather,
and there about the decks were black
spots of decay. There were a few
coils of rope, heap OF clothing and
! bedding little better than black mold,
, and three or four water casks had
rolled about with the hull until de-
molished.
The door of the cooks gallery was
| held open by its hook, and we locked
, in to find pots and pans hanging up and
the stove in good condition. The
Magnet left Rio with l20 adventurers
and a crew of seventeen men. In the
: deckhousc, where the crew Quartered,
we found bedding and clothing and
5 sea chests, but nothing to show what
) had been the fate OF the sailors. The
2 between decks had been fitted up for
T the passengers. lat least expected to
( find dead men down there, but no
} such grewsome spectacle met my eyes.
5 There were bedding and clothing,
firearms, knives, tobacco boxes, hatch
5 cts, cartridges, empty jugs and bot.
, ties, a great lot of cheap crockery and
: other stuff which the passengers
, wanted for use on the voyage or after
4 they landed. In some of the hunks
{ the bedding was nicely arranged, but
t in others it was rolled In a heap. The
. lamps had been taken down and the
0 oil poured out Of them, and we found
A hanging on Il nail some WlcKS Wlllcn
S had been taken from candles. Nell
4 thcr here nor in the deckhousc above
| could we find SO much as the heel OF
t boot or shoe. ,
( From between decks we proceeded
1 to the cabin, the doors of which were
= shut, but not locked. The first sight
' to greet our eyes was that OF human
: body hanging by Il rope around It's
4 neck in the main cabin. There was
1 no odor eminating from the dead.
| The body had simply shriveled up un'
e Til it was hardly more than a skeleton
/ The frame was that of a large man,
1 but the weight of the body was net
o above fifty pounds. On a table just
0 beyond where the man was hanging
was the ships log, and near II an INK
d bottle and a pen. The captain took
0 the 10y on deck and very soon an
r nounccd that it contained some par
( ticulars of what had occurred aboard
d We then made Il search of the cabir
d and found the ships papers, about
y 300 in gold pieces, a bag containing
@ 1925 in silver, several rifles and revOlv
Q ers, three watches, some legal papers
& which had belonged to the captain
! and ouita n numher Of other things