The daily morning journal and courier., 1906-11-16
GHOST NsH1P OF CAPE HORN.
Not a PhaAtom at All, Merely Great
 Barren Rock.

Another blow against ti1ne-honored traditions has been struck by the icon oclasts of science. The United States Hydrograpt3c office has calmly de- clared says the San Francisco Call, that the phantom ship seen in the vi- cinity of Cape Horn, the ghost ship of Le Maire,'s is nothing more nor less than a rock which under certain at- mospheric conditions bears a deceptive resemblancel to a ship.
 Very often ships coming from Europe to the west by way of Cape Horn have been startlea to see what seemed to be derelict with the water washing over her decks. Af the sailors were of an imaginative turn of mind they would Invest the unknown ship with ghostIy qualities and call her the Flying Dutchman or sometimes the ghost ship of Le IMaire, from the strait of that name, wherei she was usually seen. One of the stories which have been longest remembered is that of the ill., fated Crown of Italy, which sighted the supposed derelict and subsequently went ashoreg The Crown of Italy was standing close to the jagged black rocks at the entrance to the Strait of Le Maire when she sighted what seemed to be a waterlogged bark drift ing on the rocks of the strait, Many other ships rounding the Horn have seen a similar apparltion and the hy- topographic office has received many reports to that effect.
 Not long ago the Norwegian bark l Servia came into Seattle with the tale of phantom ship which almost exact ly corresponds to that given by the Crown of Italy. The second officer of 1 the Norwegian vessel declared that he had seen a derelict with sails set and decks awash drifting in through the strait, It was this report which led the Photographic office to make public the declaration that the phantom ship was nothing but a combination of | rocks and shadows.
 It seems that the numerous reports of derelicts or ghost ships always ap- l bearing in about the same place led even the Argentine government to be- | stir itself. A tender was sent out from the nearby lighthouse with the object of making an Investigation, and it was found that the apparition was due to a 1 strange freak of nature. Among the black jagged rocks that lined both sides of the Strait of IJe Maire there was one in particular which, under cer- tain atmospheric conditions, bore a de- captive likeness to a ship. The forma- tion of the rocks and the shadows they cast combined to produce the effect oi a bark running under short sails At 8 distance of five miles the place will be marked with the words 'fRock bearing the appearance of a ship"
 The passage through the Strait of Le Maire is not often made. Steamers shorten the route by going through the Strait of Magellan, while sailing ves- | sells usually prefer to be entirely on thu safe side by going still further south and rounding the Horn itelf. only un. l der the most favorable weather condi. | tions do they slip through the Strait O. Le Maire in the outward trip, going to- ward the southwest, but never wher bound for the north. For this reasor l many old sailors have never met tho ghost ship or the rock ship.
 Upon making inquiry among old sail ors of San Francisco, however, severa were found who could give minute l dnsnr{ntiop If 4bo ronty and u,bo +actf fled to its striking resemblance to ( l ship. It seems to be standing head on I pointing to the south and low in tn, water. The sails are shortened as they would be in what sailors call half z .l gale The whole formation isr very dark, as if the hull were painted blael and the sails weather beaten. It hal three masts and is higher on the forl than on the main. Upon coming on tn, side of the vessel the illusion vanishes and the whole thing resolves itself int, a conglomeration of black rocks. Int perpetual fog of those regions of cours helps to befuddle the vision.
 The rock looking like a ship is by nt I means rare natural formation. Al | i'O0I SfSly odlilI Has S6eH Ull6 III SOnl( part of the world. In the Clippertor Islands there Is great white rock looking like three masted schooner leaning on the wind with her royals SC and the sun shining on her white sails About six or seven miles west of Hon. olulu there is a rock known as French tFrigate Rock, because once upon a time French frigate went ashore ol it. The cliffs looked so much like 6 ship that the frigate was deceived ana thought she was meeting another yes. sel. St. Paul Island in the middle ot the Atlantic is said to look very much like a ship when approached from a certain direction, but it is a place which mariners prefer to give a wide berth.