The commonwealth. (Scotland Neck, N.C.) 1896-1929, 1908-01-16
The ANCHOR OF COLUMBUS.
How He Lost 1t and Senior ArqOStinO
Found II In His Garden.
philadelphia Press.)

philadelphia Press.)
On the night Of the End of August,
1893, the little fleet Of Christopher
Columbus, the discoverer of Ameri-
he then being on his third voyage,
lay at anchor just off the southwest
point of the Island Of Trinidad, off
the mainland of South America,
which he had seen that day for the
first time. Being on board of his
ship" says Washington Irving in his
history of the great navigator, "late
at night, being kept awake by pain
full illness and an anxious and watch
full spirit, he heard a terrible roar
ing from the south, and beheld the
sea heaped up, as it were, into a
ridge or hill the height of the ship,
covered with foam and rolling to-
wards him with terrible uproar.
AS this furious surge approached,
rendered more terrible in appear
ance by the obscurity Of the night,
he trembled for the safety of his
vessels. His own ship was suddenly
lifted up to such a height that he
dreaded lest it should be overturned
or cast upon the rocks, while an
other of his ships was torn violently
from the anchorage, leaving her
anchor behind her. The crew for
a time were in great CONSERVATION
fearing they should be swallowed up,
but the mountainous surge passed
on and gradually subsidized, after a
violent contest with the counter cur
rent of the strait. This sudden rush
of watar, it is supposed, was caused
by the swelling of one of the rivers
which flow in the Gulf of Para, and
which were as yet unknown to Col
umbus.
The Anchor thus lost on the night
of August 2, 1893, nearly 400 years
ago, from one of the ships of Colum-
bus, off the southwest extremity of
the Island of Trinidad Point Arenal,
as Columbus named the spot, vide
Irving), has already been recovered
by Senior Argostino, the gentleman
who now owns the point of land in
question. 1t has the rare merit of
being the oldest relic extant of the
great navigator and of the discovery
of America.
AS would be expected from the age
of this relic it is an anchor in the
simplest form of expression. The
shaft is round and eight feet nine
inches in legth. At the head of the
shaft is round ring, nearly a foot
in diameter, to which the cable was
fastened. The fukes have spread
of about five feet. The total weight
is l, 100 pounds.
The anchor was dug up by Senior
Argostino in his garden from depth
of six feet at the distance of 327 feet
from the nearest beach of the sea.
His first supposition was that he had
stumbled upon relic of the Phoeni-
clans or of some other of the ancient
nations who have been supposed by
many to have visited the
coasts of America thousands of years
ago. But an examination of local
facts and authorities soon convinced
him that portion of his garden now
occupies the very post at which the
ships of Columbus lay at anchor on
the night of August 2, 1893. The
land is constantly rising from the
sea along this entire coast, as has
been shown by Humboldt, Findlay
and scores of others who have writ
ten upon this subject, and the rate
Of this rising is known to have been
quite sufficient to turn in 400 years
the anchorage of the great fleet into
the garden of a private citizen.
There is not a particle of doubt,
therefore, at the end Of rigid en-
quiry that has been made, that the
anchor recently found by Senior
Argostino is really and truly the lost
anchor of Columbus.