The Hawaiian gazette., 1900-12-28
TSUK|J|MA
MARU LOST
Mystery of a Japanese
Disaster.
WRECKED ON A SHOAL
All Efforts To Find the Vessel Fall
Sorrow Among Many
Relatives.

lima Maru are now arriving thick ana
fast. and there seems, says the Japan
Times. to be no longer any room for
doubling that the worst that had been
apprehended about her has happened
The unknown corpse washed ashore on
the beach of Shizuura, near Numazu,
has been identified by the search party
dispatched by the Merchants Marine
School to be that of Mr.. Matsumoto,
captain of the Inflated ship. A door
of the students berthS quarter mas also
been discovered, while within the space
of about one mile radiating from the
Shoal of Senoumi, off the coast OF the
province, of Suruga. broken spars anu
other things have been found drifting.
An experienced sailor is of opinion that
the ship must have been wrecked on
the shoal. which is only IS fathoms
deep while all the surrounding places
In the Ba" of Suruga have depth OF
from 300 to 700 fathoms; the shoal is
terror to sailors, and as 1t is place OF
danger even in ordinary days, it must
be tenfold more so on the occasion of
such a storm as ragged on the 18th ult
when this terrible disaster must have
happened.
The faculty of the school and several
officials of the Shipping Bureau of the
Department of Communications hur-
riedly started for the scene of the dis
aster on Friday evening, while at the
same time the Navy was asked 10 de-
Snatch warships to renew the search.
The crew numbered l22, many mors
. than we had previously reported, II
whom 70 were students of the school
and had most of them graduated irom
the class room course. Thus hundreuS
of families have been made desoiate by
this awful incident, thousands OF per-
sons are thrown in deep grief, ana
the whole nation is made to j'iourh
over the sudden loss of about 81 young
students who were destined to become
mates and captains of ocean-SoihS
steamers. slight hope is entertainer
about the fate of some of them, for 1t
is just possible that the boats may nave
been lowered and that number OF the
crew may have got into them before
the total destruction of the snip lhls
last hope may not be realized, however
considering all things. The ship was
launched three years ago. ana had
gross tonnage of 1873 tons. AS is the
case on most training ships now, she
had to make use of her sails in orol-
nary weather. and only fell back on
steam power in time of necesslty,a COM
plete set Of engines having been pro-
vided for that purpose. She had car
go of 1,545 tons of coal, fact which re-
fleets somewhat on the school. Inc
captain and few others being MEM
beers of the Yusen Kaisha. an official
of that company has been sent 10 the
scene of the disaster.
The cruiser Musashi, lying at anchor
in the port of Shimizn. has been ordered
by the Navy to go in search OF the
Tsulkijima Maru.
YOKOHAMA, Dec. 12.-Beyond the
Identification of the remains of Capt.
Matsumoto, no other important discoN-
cry has been reported so far from the
searching parties, for search is now GO
ing on at several places, both on lana
and sea. One piece of news of some
,tE1, ph no
Merchants Marine School on Saturday
last to the effect that the site of the
place where the wreck of the ship oc-
CURED has been aScertained to be that
where the remains of the captain had
been found In other words, the place
of the disaster is judged to have been
Seno uni, for it was there that the
captains remains were discovered by
the fishermen of Shizu-ura in the wa
ter and not, as previously reported,
washed ashore. The Chuo's special cor
respondent sends an account of the
story which these fishermen told him
about the discovery of the corpse. Ac-
cording to that account, 1t was in the
afternoon of the day following the gale
that those fishermen, numbering ten in
all, went to the Seno uni shoal for fish
ing, only to discover that the place was
Uttered with broken spars and such
like things, a few of which they picked
up. Soon one of the fishermen detected
corpse bobbing up close by the boat,
and they thought that some big vessel
must have been wrecked Whereabouts.
Anyhow they decided to lift the corpse
up into their boat, and they proceeded
to do so, according to an interesting
custom faithfully adhered to by the
fishermen living along the adjoining
coast when they happen to come across
a corpse at sea. "In Shizuura," said
one of the fishermen with whom the
correspondent In question had an in
terview In ShiZu-ura IL has been al
ways customary for the fishermen, when
they meet with n human corpse at sea,
To lift II up carefully, and in accord
anoe with certain rite, one of the
fishermen in boat crawls into the
hold, and another addresses the corpse
In this way, Cant you give us good
catch? II You do Wen lift YOU up and
treat you very carefully" Then the
man in the hold has To answer thus
IAN right, | shall" This ceremony
was faithfully gone through by the ten
fishermen above mentioned, and then
they lifted up the corpse of an un-
known gentleman, which they found
% be dressed In foreign garment and
that of a man OF fine appearance,
The fishermen searched the pockets
for anything that give clue 10 the iden-
tity of the unknown dead, but there
was nothing In them, The pnus Usher
men were not deceived, for that night
they gnt a splendid catch, ana IN the
evening of the following day they re-
turned 10 sElau=ura, with tho corpse
in their boat They reported the mat
ter "a the NlllaHe once, ana ne nh
known remains were inferred WIN ihe
ceremony on The slat ult hueh was the
account which those Fishermen told inc
correspondent nf The nhnp about lhn
corpse ~ Captain Mataumnin when
wac afierwald llhnihed hY Tie aresaHr
els nNn wife
EnnEllAHha ~ JAPANESE IN
fluf