The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1913-11-21
UNSOLVED MYSTERIES OF THE SEA

spectral brig picking her way through
la narrow channel between two i'm
mense icebeTgs.
Her rigging was a hopeless tangle,
her frozen sails were hanging in
shreds, her decks piled high with the
SHOWS of many seasons and her hulk
sheeted in glittering white. She was
fearsome sight, but the Greenland
er at last summed up courage enough
to board her.
As he pulled himself up to the
deck he stopped to peer in at one OF
the port holes. There he saw man
seated erect in a chair before the
cabin table. The log book lay before
him and in his clenched hands was
pen. The man was stark in death.
When the Greenlander looked at
the log he found that the last entry,
made even while the catpain was
awaiting death, was dated Novem Der
IN, 1862. For thirteen years the
Gloriana had wound in and out
among the ice foes with no hand to
guide her. Not far from the catpa1n
were found several other bodies,
among them a woman.
In the record of crewless cruisers
there is no more astounding than
that of the Marie Celeste. Forty
years have passed since she was dis
covered on her lonely voyage, but al
though many theories have been ad-
vanced there has never been a salts
factory solution of her battling pre-
dicament.
The Celeste sailed from New York
for Genoa November 7, 1872, with a
cargo of petroleum and alcohol. In
command was Captain Benjamin 5.
Briggs of Marion, Mass, with Albert
R. Richardson of Stockton, Me, as
first mate, and Andrew Gilling of
New York as second mate. The crew
was made up of five men, all Ger
mans, and the captain had brought
his wife and small child.
The brig was in the best of condi-
ton, well manned and well equipped.
Not month after she had sailed she
was picked up off the Azores drifting
aimlessly about in light winds with
her head sails set and all her other
canvas down The brig Del Gratia
noted her in passing and getting no
response to her imperative hail ran in
and boarded There was absolutely
no sign of life.
There was nothing about the ship
to indicate panic, nothing to indicate
disease or pressing danger. The last
entry in the mates log, which was
found among the officers effects, was
oath, ten days before the
Del Gratia came up with her. There
was nothing in the log to show what
might have been the trouble, but the
last entry was not without it's pathOs. |
1t was a single line and read: Fanny
my dear wife" Whether the words
were written merely in remembrance
of a distant loved one or in the
depths of despair will never be
known.
The stern boat was gone, but 9TH
erwise everything appeared as if the
crew were still aboard. Her run
ming rigging was all properly made
fast and the slack coiled neatly on
the decks. The companionways were
open, half-turned music lay on the
rack of the little cabinet organ, the
toys of the captain S child were scat
tered about the cabin and in his
wifes room the impress of the child's
head was distinct on the pillow.
The captains gold watch hung be-
side the cabins clock, a bit of sewing
was still in the sewing machine, in
the galley the captains dinner was
left half cooked and in the forecastle
the mems chests had not been dis
turbed. Yet there was no trace of
the crew and to this day nothing has
been heard of Capt. Briggs or any OF
the others,