, 1903-10-14
FINDING THE MAGNET
copyright. 1903. by C. B. Lewis.l

rival at Rio In the whaler John Davis
a craft called the Magnet, containing
about sixty gold seekers, had left
that port for the coast of Africa. AS
she had not been spoken and as we
were bound to those seas we were ask
ed to keep a lookout for signs of her.
Forty days later one day when l was
aloft i'm the crows nest | sighted a
derelict not over four miles away
What | made out was Il craft with all
her masts, yards, bowsprit and stand
ing rigging gone. She was nearly bows
Oh to me, so | could not make out how
badly her bulwarks were damaged.
The stump of the foremost was abou
twenty feet high, while the others had
broken off lower down. The hull was
very buoyant and floated high, but, as
was to be expected, 1t presented a
weather beaten and forlorn appear
ance
On descending to the deck | reported
my discovery to the captain, and an
hour later, the wind being very light,
we were up with the wreck. To OIL
great surprise the drifting hulk proved
to be that of the missing Magnet.
From the time of sighting her to the
moment of heaving to we looked for a
signal to show that some one was still
living aboard of her, but none was
shown. When we had her under our
lee the crew ran aloft to look down
upon her decks. The fall of the masts
had crushed her bulwarks, but the
damage had been repaired afterward,
though the new work had not been
painted. AS for the hull, it was appar-
emily as tight and buoyant as when 1t
sailed out of Rio. 1t was terribly
weather worn, however, and seemed to
be sailing in a bed of grass.
\ musket was brought up and fired
three or four times, and the crew shout
ed in chorus again and again, but as we
got no response the captain ordered a
boat lowered to go aboard. We board
ed her at the bows, and when | fol
lowed the captain over the rail l braced
my nerves to meet a grewsome specta-
Gle. Nothing living or dead was In
sight, however. Every bit of the wreck
was gray white in color because of long
exposure to the weather, and here and
there about the decks were black spots
of decay. There We're a few coils of
rope, Il heap of clothing and bedding
little better than black mold, n three
or four water casks had rolled about
with the hull until demolished.
The door of the cooks galley was
held open by its hook, and we looked in
to find pots and pans hanging up and
the stove in good condition. The Mag
net left Rio with sixty Adventures and
a crew of seventeen men. In the deck
house, where the crew was quartered,
we found bedding and clothing and sea
chests, but nothing to show what had
been the fate of the sailors. The be
tween decks had been fitted up for the
passengers. | at least expected to find
dead men down there, but no such
spectacle met Il eyes. There were
bedding, clothing, firearms, knives, to-
bacco boxes, bottles and jugs and other
stuff which the passengers wanted for
use on the long voyage or after they
lldNl lulRlCd. Ill SOilC VI IL LII Nv
bedding was nicely arranged, but In
others it was rolled in a heap. The
lamps had peer taken down and the
oil poured out of them. and we found
on a nail some wicks Which had been
taken from candles. Neither here nor
in the d%eckhouse above could we find
so much as the heel of a boot or shoe.
IN,,NnN HofyONr Ioalyc xyo nnAnaodad
to the cabin. The first sight to greet
u eyes was that of a human body
hanging by a rope around its neck
from a hook in the ceiling. There was
no Odor ~emanating from 1t. The body
had simply shrlyeled up until it was
no more than a skeleton. On q table
just beyond where the mar was hang
ing was the ships log, and neal 1t an
ink bottle and n pen. The captain tool
the log on deck and very soon announc-
ed that it contained some particulars
of what had happened aboard. We
then made a closer search and found
the ships papers, about 5000 in gold
pieces and a bag containing 1925 in sill
yer, together with several watches and
AiN tiiiSo vi NdluSs ANCltntl llC
ships flag nor any charts were to be
found, and not Il compass, quadrant or
seXtant could be turned up. The en-
tries in the log book for the first two
weeks were in the captains handwrit-
ing. Then came an entry in a different
hand, reading:
We found out hat they had deceived us
and sent them adrift in one of the boats.
Ten days later another entry in still
another hand referred to some of the
people sailing away in the longboat.
After that many weeks elapsed before
there was another entry. The man
now hanging by the neck and swing
ing to and fro like a pendulum had
written in "a trembling hand:
l have been all alone for the last ten
days. and for the last four l have tasted
neither food nor drink.
On the next doV or tho uayt ho had