Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1899-04-13
OCEAN MYSTERIES.
SECRETS WELL GUARDED BY OLD
.5qs. T.. FATHER NEPTUNE.

Vessels Which Have Sailed and Never Been
Heard of-The Marie Celeste-An Ameri-
can Brig That Was lowed Into Port but
Her People Had All Disappeared.
Ga When a well-found ship leaves port
and is never afterwards heard from, it
is put down as mystery Of the sea.
When a dead body encased in an un-
identified life-jacket is lifted up by the
sleepless surf and cast on the wave
worn beach, that, too, is recorded as a
mystery of the deep. The waterlogged
: raft with the stump of distress sig
nal spar pointing mutely skyward; the
battered lifeboat with the.'oars drag
ging from the gunwales, and the acre
OF boxes and barrels and beams and
planks floating silently on the white
crests, and in the dark hollows of the
surging sea, these are likewise called
ocean mysteries Sometimes these
marks of shipwreck and death are
picked up by more fortunate craft and
are brought to port to be mysteries no
longer. But there are mysteries Of the
sea deeper than the plank, the crushed
lifeboat and the dead sailor. Man has
tried to fanthom> them, hopelessly at
tempted to put two and two together
that he might get at the truth. Noun
tains and valleys echo their secrets,
but the cruel old ocean never does.
There are greater secrets In Old
Neptune's care than those Of the miss
ing ship. The Naronic went away and
never came back So did the City OF
Boston, City Of Glasgow, Erin, Alvo,
City of London, City of Limerick, Pres
ident, Pacific and score of others.
Yet the disappearance of these craft
are ordinary mysteries OF the sea-. A
greater mystery still is when crew
abandons it's ship and is never again
heard from, while the abandoned craft
is subsequently towed into port with
ont giving the least trace of those who
had been in charge of her.
Such case was that of the Marie
Celeste, and it Is as weird and uncanny
a tale as even the Ancient Mariner"
or the "Flying Dutchman" aspired to
be. The remarkable disappearance Of
the Celeste's crew was made the sub
ject of an extensive investigation by
the State Department in Washington,
and it is from these records that the
particulars herein given were obtained.
The Marie Celeste was an American
brig of over 400 tons, and early in the
seventies left this port for Villefranche,
in the Mediterranean. Several months
after her departure she was towed into
port as sound as a new coin, but her
people, numbering thirteen, including
the wife and child Of the skipper, have
not been heard-of from that day to this.
The name of the captain of the Marie
Celeste was Benjamin Briggs, and he
hailed from New England. In addition
to the little six-year-old daughter who
shared the fate of the crew, whatever
it was, the captain had boy ten years
old. 1t had been his habit to take this
boy to easwith him, but on the event.
full trip in which he disappeared from
the face OF the globe, he left his son
behind. The latter has spent small
fortune in trying to ascertain what
happened to his parents and the other
people Of the brig after that vessel was
deserted; he knows as much now Of the
mystery as he did twenty years ago.