Los Angeles herald., 1908-04-16

TELL OF CITIESON
OCEAN BOTTOM
TALES OF SUBMERGED TOWNS
RELATED
Some of the Stories Are Said to
Bear Evidence of Being
Founded on
Fact

nature, to spend a holiday at many Oh
the charming resorts dotung the coast
line of the German ocean VIII nave
been amused (and perchance interest,"
ed) by the many tales and legends re-
lated as to submerged cltles-alI SUI
nramundane trace of which has now
disappeared, SAYS the Scientific Amerl-
can. OF such Cities which once were
famous for their wealth, beauty ana
power, it is whispered that their loNe
of luxury, their greed ana cruelty leu
to the offended and unseen powers
above causing the waves to rise in the
night and engulf them forever. MOI
only are such legends rife on the coast
but even in inland German towns many
a lake is invested with halo of SINH
lar mystery.
or these latter causes two of the
most interesting relate to an old-tlme
city named Buck0w, which is said to
rest upon the bottom of Lake Seher-
muetzel, in Brandenburg, while Lake
Werbellin Ca most mysterious sheet OIL
water, according to folklore) concealS
in it's bosom town of the same name;
all that remains of this latter IS the
name given to a small village, In mem
ury of it's predecessor, which now
stands not far from the point where
the former town stood.
Although most of the stories rife in
Germany as to vanished towns in the
interior have no actual historical basis
or, at best, a slight one Che Werbellln
story being based upon the disappear
ance of a castle called Werbellin, one
of the Ascanian castles built in 115O-
ITO by Albert the Bear margraVe OF
Brandenburg, and a contemporary of
Frederick Barbarossa), this is not so
on the coast; here the legends are all
well founded on fact and, in most
cases, the salient features have lost
little of their original truth in the tell
ing.
The most striking of all the legends
current in the coast towns of the Ger
man ocean is that dealing with the lost
Dutch town of Stavoren at the en-
trance to the Zuyder Zee. Here there
whose pride, cruelty and selhshness
aroused the anger of heaven, ana
caused the wicked and misguided city
to sink beneath the waves. A small
portion of the city (where the good
people lived) was saved, and its name
still cIeaves to the small town OF
StaVoren, which is well known to every
traveller going by water from Amster-
dam to Lecuwarden and Groningen.
Was Wealthy City
1t is an indisputable fact that, in the
thirteenth century, Stavoren was
wealthy and powerful commercial city;
however, due partly to the port be-
coming choked with sand and partly
TO the eruption of the Zuyder Zee In
1877, 1t rapidly lost its Importance, and
at the present time what is left of it
only affords shelter to about eight
hundred souls. The roofs and spires
of the now submarine building can, 1t
is said, be often seen far down in the
depths when the sea is still and the
weather is clear, while silent listeners
on Christmas eve will hear the distant
and muffled tone of church bells aris-
ing from the depths, only to break
in bubbles and ripples on the surface
of the Zuyder Zee
Visitors to Sylt, the well known sea-
side resort and island in the North
sea. will doubtless remember the small
village of WiRningstedt. Although its
present population is only fifty persons,
it is none the less commemorative OF
the large commercial town of Winning
stedt, which went to the bottom of the
sea during the great flood and storm
which took place on January 10. 1867.
Winningsted is by no means the only
town which once stood on the shores
of Friesland and Holland, only to meet
with destruction at the hands Cor
rather billows) of Old Hans, as the
Frisian familiarity terms the North
sea. AS q matter of fact, of all the
seas in the world it is the German
ocean alone which can establish
record for the number of towns, vii
lagos and hamlets which it has either
destroyed or engulfed.
Since the eleventh century Old Hans
has devastated no less than 144 towns
and villages, either by swallowing them
up entirely or else by burning them
nnder heaps of sand. The fate of the
Dutch town of Rungholt, which disap-
peared during great storm IN the
year 1887, is still sung and told in
story by the present day fishertolk OF
Holland.
The Baltic sea has not such bad
record in catastrophes as Old Hans
Yet "a halo of romance is thrown
around the legends, told about TINS sea-
by the story of the wonderful town or
Vineta. chimes from whose church
steeples may, at the fall of eYentide
be heard pealing family from the
depths of the ocean.
In the '70s of the last century articles
were still published in support of the
sometime existence. of large, tabu-
lously wealthy Wendish city named
Vineta, which, in the Middle Ages,
nestled at the foot of the Stakelberg
at Usedom, nearly at the same altitude
at which the hamlet of DameroW now
stands The legend states it was to-
tally destroyed by a flood and earth
quake which occurred i'm the year 1883
AT one time the city bl iutlet Nt'0
marked on the Prussan maps, but geo.
logical and historical Investigations
made locally by Prof NirchOW and
others have proved beyond doubt that
a town never could have stood upon the
site indicated.
Part Is True
Researches into the origin of the
legend led 10 the remarkable discOV-
cry that the name of Nineta was moth
iI4e more than corruption of Jumneta
and Jumne-the old Wendish name Of
the modern town of Violin, or Julin as
it was called by the Danes. The re-
ported fabulous wealth owned by vi
meta was to a certain extent true, as
Julin or Jumne was-acCording to the
old historian Adam of Bremen--a very
large and remarkably wealthy town in
the tenth century, doing even then q
trade with Arabia, Asia and the coast
towns of northern Africa.
TO use the historians own words
this old Wendish town was certainly
the greatest of all towns ''noW existing
i'm Europe" When the Danish King
Waldemar the Great crushed cut the
power welded by the Wends he also
DESTROYED Jumne by burning ii to the
ground in 1172; hence in this case the
earthquake and flood business is a
mere fabrication.
But TO turn to other parts of the
world. There are not many known in
stances of sunken cities, still there are
a few The latest known case is that
L..