The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-06-27
A CURIOUS DISCOVERY.
MADE IN CALIFORNIA BY MARK
 IND HOWARD KELSEY
Found Burial Place and Bones GA British Captain Killed By Mutinous

British Captain Killed By Mutinous
 Crew.
 The San Pedro staff correspondent of the Los Angeles Times, printed under date of June story of no little inter- est, in which Mark and Howard Kelsey. sons of MT. and Mrs w. A. Kelsey of Meriden and two of their Los Angeles friends made a discovery that is prob- ably of considerable historical import ance. The Times correspondent says:
 Uncovered by a caving bank mass of human bones reveals a clew which may explain what has for a century | been a mystery.
 For a hundred years the manner of the taking off of one of England's mas ter mariners has been a secret buried beneath the soil of Deadmans Island. It is known that the captain of Brit ish whaling ship was killed by his crew, who mutined and buried him on the island, but the way in which he came to his death has been unexplained, Dana, in his 1.-TWO Years Before the Mast tells of his visit to the site of what is now San Pedro in the '30s and speaks of Deadman's Island as the bur ial place of the unfortunate skipper, but tells only vaguely of how the man died The log of Captain Timms, one of the pioneers of San Pedro, who died several years ago, also mentions the taking off of the British mariner, but speaks of the manner of his death as mystery.
 A broken coffin and a mass of human bones were discovered on the island by Mark Kelsey, Howard Kelsey, Chester Silent and Ray Bancroft, four Los An geles boys, Wednesday, The lads were on a fishing trip, when the exposed re- mains attracted their attention
 Climbing up the side of the hill they found where the caving of the bank had caused an old coffin and it's con tents to faN a short distance on to an incline of debris, which was gradually sliding down into the sea as the waves washed away the dirt at the foot of the slope
 The coffin was in a good state of preservation, although the boards of which 1t had been made had fallen apart one from another The material was apparently of pine, and the boards had been cut so as to make a square box instead of a coffin shaped one.
 On the boards lay the skeleton with its arrangements only partly destroyed by the fall. The bones were not disin- tegrated, although they were very vel low. A few of the teeth were gone and those which remained were apparently those of a man of 35 or 40. There was lot of hair of a reddish or yellowish cast about the skull, and there were fragments of what had undoubtedly been clothing. t4D
 Looking more closely the boys dis covered an old rope, routed with age, and almost in pieces around the skele- ton between the head and ribs. The rope was of the size used by hangmen.
 A physician to whom one of the bones was shown said that the skeleton must have been buried long time, and very likely had lain in the grave for century The well preserved con- dition of the remains made it appear that they had been in the ground only a few years, but an old resident who has frequently visited Deadman's Is- land said that the dry condition Of the soil there might bar disintegration for a great many years. Inquiry among the pioneers versed in the history of San Pedro, failed to discover any one who had heard of the body of eman killed by hanging be- ing buried on Deadman's Island As the death of the skipper of the British | whaler has been mystery all through the century the discovery of Wednes- day is interpreted as showing that the man was hanged by his mutlnous crew and that they buried him without re- moving the rope from his neck. w So with their story told the human remnants with every caVing of the bank above go sliding down the slope to the sea beneath where, if they De not soon rescued the waves will for ever hide them from the view of man.