The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1898-11-26
MYSTERIES OF THE DEEP.

IL was III the dawn OF OtCtuUcI
morning fve-and-twenty years ago
that the shippers of the fishing
schooners, lying bound and helpless
in the white mists of the Newfound-
land coasts, were simultaneously
awakened by a sound that sent a
chill to every heart. In the waste
of waters, piercing the impenetrable
veil that hid all things from sight,
there had hoated a wall or cry,
slowly rising and dying away in a
moan like the signing of the wind.
They waited and listened, and pres
emily the cry came again-once,
twice, thrice, fainter, fainter, then
silence, dark and impenetrable, like
the mists.
And they said: "That cry is
like nothing we ever heard in this
world" and then for love of human
sympathy they called to each other
- and cried, "God have mercy on US
all p
Only long months afterward did
these fishers know that the cry was
the death dirge of the 500 men and
women who went down in the White
Star steamer Atlantic, driven ashore
in the fog off Halifax, N. S.
The official records, supported
by several afidavits, bear witness
to the fact that the Atlantic herself
went to pieces on the rocks and
was long ago swallowed up in the
trough of the sea. The Newfound-
land fishers, however, beg leave to
differ with the official report.
Else how, they ask, can the Mar
thine Boards account for the pres
ence of the giant steamer, bearing
the White Star lights, that looms
up silent and shadowy in the mists
of the Banks, always riding inshore
right on the reefs? Scarce sailor
on the Nova Scotian coast but will
tell you that the Atlantic still rides
the sea, with a phantom crew and
phantom captain, and ghostly
throng of white faces peering over
the sides, only when the mists are
heaviest and the sky as dark as
night may she be seen.
"See ftp says Captain George
Nicholson, an old Nova Scotian
sailor, now anchored for the rest of
his days in the Snug Harbor;
there's fifty of US have seen her.
And just as sure as the Atlantic
rides the water it means disaster to
the one who meets her. He's going
lose his life or his boat, or both.
There's Con Brady, him as was
passenger on the real Atlantic and
swan out with the life line and
made it fast to rock-the line
that saved 200 lives-ask him; he'll
tell you, asI do. Mystery? There's
more mysteries in the sea than ever
was heard of on earth since the
world was world"
Assuredly the records of the Ma
rine Department contain evidence
sufficient to lend color to Captain
Nicholson's theory. An examina-
ton of the books will show upward
of 200 vessels of whose fate nothing
is known, or ever will be known
until the sea gives up its secrets.
They have simply left port and have
passed from the ken of human
knowledge. Missing ships, like
dead men, tell no tales. Thus says
Captain John Griffin, once OF the
coast fruit steamer SANFORD, as he
strikes into the conversation.
II always wonder what the name
of that little girl might be-" says
the captain. II mean the little girl
we found floating in mid Pacific
the morning after that fearful hur-
ricane one night in January, twenty
years ago. Nellie every man in
my crew insisted she was, mainly
because her lovely golden hair and
the prettiest blue eyes in the world
made it seem the likeliest name, and
as Nellie we buried the poor lamb.
sit was just after sunrise when
the man on the lookout yells Raft
ahead and we made Decline for
that raft just about 500 yards away.
We came to her presently, and there
we were all Knocked speechless by
the sight that met our eyes.
dashed down on half a dozen
nine lops was littIa rirl-o uoo