The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1914-01-02

worth about twenty-five cents apiece
which appeared on the ships statement
as salable boots and shoes.
Passing the night on the schooner
Mary +. Douglas, the inquisitor en-
gagged her captain to obtain consular
certificate that these and similar pack
ages were part of the ruined ships
cargo. Upon Mr. PurrAM's return to
the States Captain PARKER was in
dicted for barratry and for conspir-
acy to defraud. AZ the original letters
written by shippers to their conslgnecs
at Port-au-Prince were necessary to
the case, Mr.. PUTNAM was despatched
again to Hayti. going out on a char
tered steamship. the Saxon. He carried
an order from the State Department
to the Consul at Miragoane to return
with him to the United States. At that
port a Haytian General In full uniform
came out to the ship to say that the
Consul was about to decamp, but that
President SOLOMON. II no requested by
Mr.. PUTNAM, would anticipate his
flight and deliver him UP In the Gus
tody Of q file of soldiers. To shanghai
an American Consul and carry him
away on steamship flying the British
flag seemed like high minded proceed
Ing. and the insurers agent declined
President SoLoMoNs offer. The black
General must have gone ashore acutely
disappointed, and perhaps he did the
Consul the favor Of telling him what
was w. At any rate. that gentleman
ran away into the brush. 1--WE cleaned
out his place." says Mr.. PUTNAM.
The jury in Captain PARxER's con-
spiracy case disagreed after being
locked up forty-elght hours, and three
months later he died. thus escaping
new trial. The case against the
shippers was 80 clear that all con-
fessed. One of them, who had col.
lected loss Of 5000 on consignment
of rotten fish, faid the money hack
with interest and costs Of suit. An
other shipper killed himself. More
over, all Of them failed within six
months. Captain PARKER's mate died
six months after him. On her next
voyage the steamship Saxon was
wrecked and her crew drowned to a
man. The same fate befell the
schooner Mary +. Douglas. the vessel on
which Mr.. PUTNAM passed the night at
Miragoane when he arranged with her
captain TO get documentary evidence
from the American Consul.
Sailors, and landsmen for that mat
ter, will regard the Mary Celeste as a
hoodoo ship. Nothing was ever heard
OF the captain and crew who vanished
from her deck In 1872. leaving their
effects behind them. the larder full and
everything In apple pie order; one boat
was gone--that was the only fact, and
an unsubstantial one, to base surmise
on, except a hatch upside down as ne
sailor would let 1t lie. The theory OF
Captain j. II. WINCHESTER, her owner
that skipper and crew precipitately Ned
before spontaneous combustion In par,
Tue CuTkO VI VII anu IN" ''s
Mary Celeste sailed elusively away
when their fears were found to be un
justified. is the most plausible solution
of the mystery.
Ever after the brigantlne under
cloud must have been distrusted by tho
seamen who shipped on her, and hel
end came with a conspiracy between
thieving merchants and n rascally cap
tain, for at his trial the man at the
wheel when the Mary Celeste ran OF
the reef testified that he was ordered tt
steer straight for 1t. With sailors sh'
never had much reputation to lose, ant
the wrecking Of her they may have re
garded as a sort Of retribution. How
the laundering OF the Saxon and thu
Mary Y. Douglas, associated with thu
last sinister event In the Mary Celeste
career. can be accounted for may b.
left to the psychologists and the weav
ers Of sea rOmances. 1t Is subjec
for Mr.. JOSEPH CONRAD, who woul,
revel in It.