The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-01-15
HTNTNC A DEATH SHIP.
4 Mystery Of the Sea That Time Has
Not Cleared Up.

Than Sent Adrift in an Open Boat.
wben the Wreck was Found One
Bodv Swung from Rope in the
csbiu-The Last Survivor Had
Hanged Himself.
From the Chicago Times.
In the spring of the year 1865 a man
oomed Alexander Cross, who was pre-
.rmably an American, made his appear
.nce at Rio de Janeiro and claimed to
bare made an astounding discovery on
.ba African coast His story was to the
o4act that he had landed at Cape Town
two wears before and made his way up
the coast to the Hottentot country in
search of gold. He had been captured by
the natives and held prisoner for many
months, and during that time had discov-
erred a gold field so rich that a miner could
dig enough in three days to make him
rich for life. I am only giving you the
skeleton of his story. He filled in the
particulars so nicely that nobody could
doubt his sincerity, and to cap the climax
he exhibited several nuggets of gold which
he claimed to have secured without the
slichtest trouble. His idea was to charter
q
much per head, but such was the rush Of
adventurers that two ships were chart
erred One of them was fitted up to carry
I80 men and the other had 120 board
Cross was bold and heartless villain,
and his story was a lie from beginning to
end. He intended to get possession of all
the money he could and then disappear.
He had no idea of sailing with either
craft, but circumstances wrought
change in his plans. The gold seekers
watched him so closely that he had no OBJ
portunity to abscond, and when the day
Of sailing came he found himself aboard
the ship Magnet, an english merchant
man chartered for he voyage. This ship
was to sail week in advance of the other
and wait for her at point agreed upon.
The second ship did not get away. The
Magnet had been gone only two or three
days when some English people arrived
at Rio and stamped Cross as an adven-
turer and imposter who had been obliged
to fee the country. Up to this time it was
supposed that the money he had received
from his victims had been deposited in a
bank at Rio, but it was now ascertained
that he had transferred it to Paris.
MYSTERY OF THE OCEAN.
As to what occurred after the Magnet
sailed much win never be known beyond
a certain date. Four weeks after her de-
parture from Rio her yawl was picked up
at sea 700 miles south of her course for the
HottentoJ coast. There were three dead
bodies in the boat, and they were fairly
identified as those of Cross and the captain
and mate of the ship. They had been
sent adrift without oars, sail, food or
water, and the people aboard the ship
must have been in vengeful mood to do
such a thing as that. Three weeks after
the boat was picked up, a craft supposed
10 be the Magnet was sighted to the east
of Tristan da Cunha Island. A week later
she was sighted again further to the
southeast. This time she was sadly
wrecked aloft and was flying a signal Of
distress, but as a gale was blowing and
night coming on, no assistance could be
rendered Nothing further had been
reported up to May, 1867, when the
American bark Ezra @. Davis, cruising
for whales south of the Cape Of Good
Hope, touched at Marion Island to renew
her supplies. 1t was there learned that
dismasted ship, supposed to be the Mag
net had been sighted to the south only
three days before. We had newspapers
on board the Davis giving the particulars
as | have related them, and when we left
the island it was TO cruise for the lost
ship as well as for whales. She must be
death ship as well as a missing one.
Every drop of water and every morsel of
food must have been exhausted in the
first ninety days, and if the ship had
touched at any island or spoken any other
craft the fact had not been reported. We
did not believe that the derelict reported
by the islanders could be the Magnet,
which had not been heard of for twenty
two months, but nevertheless hoped to
find the hulk and solve mystery.
Forty miles south Of Marion Island we
killed a whale and drifted off to the west
as we tried out the blubber and cleaned
up. We then made half days run to
the south and changed our course to the
east, and at the end of the fifth day after
leaving the island we were about eighty
miles to the southwest of it. Half an
hour before sunset the man in the crows
nest sighted the derelict dead ahead, but
long way off. With the going down of
the sun the wind died out and as night
came down, the wreck was still four or
i've miles away. Her bearings were
TAXED by compass, and we had no doubt
OF picking her up next morning The
night was perfectly calm and the sea
quiet, but when daylight came the wreck
was no longer in sight. There was moth
ing so very strange in that, however, as
we We're both drifting, and her drift
would be the faster. A breeze lifted the
sun out of his ocean bed, and we ran to
the southeast, expecting to have the
wreck In sight within an hour After
Two hours sailing we knew that we must
nave overrun her or that some mysterious
current had drifted her in another direc-
ton
THE SUPERSTITION OF SAILORS WORKS.
Our crew were beginning to shake their
heads over it when we sighted whale,
ana IN the chase and capture that ensued
the derelict was forgotten. We had the
dead whale alongside and ready to cut in
when the boats were lowered for sec
ono, and three hours later the bark was
drifting off with the carcass of whale
on either side of her and the crew work
ing like beavers to get the blubber off be-
lore change of weather.
was aloft in the crows nest when the
second whale was lowed alongside, and
mad been ordered down to bear hand
when took last look through the glass.
uoWn in the south and not over four miles
away the derelict suddenly hove into
view as if rising from the bottom of the
sea l was sure l had carefully swept
mat quarter half dozen times within an
hour, but there she now lay in plain view,
and was bit ratified as 1 focused the
giaSs for good look at her, What
made out was the hull of ship with
an her masts, yards, bowsprit, and stand
ing rigging gone. She was nearly bows
on to me, so that l could not make out
now badly her bulwarks were damaged.
me stump of the foremost was about 20
Ieet high, while the others were broken
ou lower down. The hull was very buoy