Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1900-01-18


from Boston in the SOS, bound for
Mediterranean ports with a general
cargo Of merchandise? No? Well,
you shall hear it as | heard it told
the other night by friend over a pipe
and something else which cheers the
heart of man. l shall tell you the
story as it was told to me, plain, un-
vanished tale, the details Of which are
writ large in the records OF the Amer
lean foreign Office, or whatever bureau
in Washington corresponds to our own
department at home that looks after
the affairs of other folks. Ihls IS no
mere myth or fiction OF the sea, but
a sober tale Of fact. and when l have
told the story nope | shall relate
it circumspectly-my readers will have
presented to them as pretty puzzle
as ever was set before the mind OF
man to solve. So far as L know, it
has never been solved yet.
The Marie Celeste set sail from Bos
ton with a crew OF seventeen hands,
the captain, his wife and his little
Nothing, as far as we know, occurred
on the voyage across the Atlantic
other than the routine life of a trad
ing brig at sea. But one fine day the
brig came within hail of the Spanish
coast. 1t was thought she was heading
for Gibraltar on her way to enter the
great inland sea- All her sails were
set The weather was fine, the sea
calm, and light wind bore the vessel
along Duly the Spanish authorities
hailed the brig, without receiving any
answer to their signals. Then came a
visit of inspection, by the coast guard
/ presume, and an astonishing state OF
things revealed itself.
Not a soul Of the twenty persons who
set sail from Boston in the brig was
found on board. Every man had dis
appeared, from the captain to the boy,
and the captains wife and child also
were as if they had never been. The
vessei was infinitely and carefully ex-
AHMED There was an inspection by
the American consul; there was bust
nesslike noting of all details, and a
report was duly prepared tor the au-
thorities on the other side OF the sea-
Listen to the astonishing particu
lars which an examination of the brig
revealed. Not a rope or stay, not a
sail was injured or a bolt missing.
Everything from truck to keel was in
it's proper place. The briggs boats
note this fact, please-were al on
board slung on their davits or slowed
on deck. Below everything was in the
same undisturbed state. The watches
of the captain and his wife hung on
nails in the cabin. In me mems quar-
ters, as in the cabin-another fact to
be noted-there were the remains of
half-eaten dinners, cooked apparently
no long time before the brig drifted
toward the Spanish coast. Below and
aloft all was silence-a CHASTITY, sig
niticant silence, appalling by reason or
its ineXplicaDle nature, and causing the
faces of the searchers to pale before
the mysterious possibilities which Of
fered as solutions Of the grim deafness
of the ship Since the day when the
Marie Celeste drifted on her course to
the European shores not trace of any
one of the twenty souls had been dis
covered. Needless to say, strict inqui-
ries were made both in America and in
Europe concerning captain and crew
Every sailors home was notified of
the story, in case some derenCt sea
man should have come to a restfuI
haven therein. The names and nation
alities of the crew were known. | be
Norwegians and men of other nations
in their numbers. But not a scrap OF
intelligence, not a waye-washed bottle
with a message in it, not even dead
body, ever came to light which could
suggest a solution of this horrible mys-
terry.
Suppose Vet set our wits agoing on
the problem of the Marie Celeste, what
explanations are possible or likely to
merit attention? Pirates and whole
sale slaughter of the crew by ordinary
murder or by walking the plank? Non.
sense. Piracy was no more common in
the Atlantic in the SOS than 1t is now,
and pirates do not attack ship mere
ly for the sake of numbering the crew
or without footing the vessel and sink
ing her, and a piratical attack surely
would have left traces of a struggle
on the deck. The pirate idea clearly
will not hold water at all.
\ storm which swept everybody
away? Equally untenable as theory
for storms there were none at the time
leave traces of damage such as We're
absent in a vessel with all sails set and
not rope or bolt missing. Some cal
amity in the way of illness, you sug
gest. Well, where were the bodies
And if, mayhap, you maintain that the
last survivor pitched his dead friends
into the sea and then drowned himself
you have first to find that mysterious
epidemic. and to regard it as very I'm
likely that any disease should attack
whole crew rapidly and instantly, sc
as to cut them off in a few hours time
Don't forget the hall-eaten dinners
for that fact proves that within short
distance of the land the crew were
practically at rest, undisturbed by any
omen of approaching calamity: and ne
disease | know of save, perhaps, chol
era of malignant type, can Kill people
in few hours. Besides, you must
have infection. and whence did the
pestilent microbes come TO the brig
Sudden insanity on the part Of one O