New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1921-07-03
Pirate Tales in the
Present Tense Sup
plar,t Those of LONG
Iohn Silver. Tides
Turn and Turn but the
Grim Riddle of Missing
Ships Is Unanswered
By Arthur Chapman
Illustration by Albert lowering

OLSHEVIK pirates-the newest recruits
- to an ancient and daring profession
| are thought to have had hand in the
disappearance of several ships at sea
,rrinc the last few months. Also. the same
buman agency is believed to have been re-
sponsible for the wrecking of the Carol A.
neering, ive-masted schooner which ran
sshore off the coast of North Carolina last
January with all sails set and with nobody
aboard
All these theories about pirates are not the
privately held opinions of people who know
little or nothing about seafaring and general
conditions on the modern highways Of mari
time trade Officials of the United States
government, unable to reach any other con-
clusion, have advanced the startling idea that
piracy has been responsible for so many ship
disappearances and that agents of the Boil
sheviki have recruited crews which have mutt
MED and have imprisoned their officers and
sailed for ports which are under the control
Of the ambitious Messrs. Lenine and Trotzky.
II the question of piracy does not enter,
then those who are specializing with regard to
the disappearance of these vessels are thrown
back to the age-old queries which have been
heard ever since ships began to disappear and
leave no trace In old days when such a mys
terry came to the fore, it was assumed that the
vessel or vessels had gone to the Port Of
Missing Ships" which in the popular mind
was the Sargasso Sea--that strange eXpanse
Of seaweed and wreckage, drawn together by
a convergence of tides and currents. Once
caught in this sea, it was supposed that
drff oh in OF
pool, held fast by numbering seaweed, doomed
TO float in monotonous circle through the
wears until storms or decay finally sent it to
the bottom. Nor is it so very long since
that theory was exploded. 1t was not until
the expedition of the Michael Sars, under
Sir John Murray and the Norwegian govern
ment in 1910, that it was proved that the sea-
drift of the Sargasso was only in patches and
was not dense enough to hold ship.
Sea monsters. large enough to destroy ships,
have been blamed for the disappearance OF
many craft that sailed forth and never re-
turned. About the stanchest supporter OF
the sea monster theory, and the one who Sc
cured the greatest following, was the Nor
wegian bishop, Pontoppidan, who, in the seven
seenth century, wrote complete description OF
the kraken, or deep sea monster. line Krakeh'
as the bishop painted it, was enough to strike
terror to any simple soul who contemplated
sea change.
According to this Norwegian authority,
when fishermen who had sailed out for nlles
found the water to be only twenty or thirty
fathoms deep, instead of eighty or one hundred
iathoms as it should have been, they knew they
G-nsn 4bo thew made
haste to change their location. After they had
pulled to deeper soundings they would see the
monster come to the surface. Only Its PACK
would be exposed, mile or two in clrcum-
ference, and like small islands numbered by
seaweed From these islands would projecV
bright horns as long the masts OF stout
ships. These were the animals arms, capable
Of dragging down the largest war vessels
One Of these monsters is reported to have come
ashore in 1880 at Alstabourg. 1t was young
kraken and playful, and while attempting TO
uproot some pine trees along the shore 1t was
caught in a rocky cleft and effectively blocked
the harbor There it died, and the stencil was
great indeed.
The sea monster still maintains it's hold IN
Inc imagination of many people, though there
may De no widespread belief in the kraken any
more. In 1877 and 1919 monsters of terrify-
ing size and men appeared off Gloucester and
Nahant, according to reports at that time, ana
atlantic City's sea serpent in the sos was
the talk of the country and did more to at
tract attention to that sprightly center OF
amusement than all the convention press
agentlng Of recent years. Shippers come in
every once in a while with stories of sea mon
ssefs encountered at various ATTITUDES, and a
iew weeks ago one was able to direct the at
@hton of scientific party to the floating
remains OF sea animal the like of which
Aau never been seen. But the idea OF mon
S'ers large enough to destroy vessels has grad
sauy died out. Besides, vessels have grown
- N SIZE in Jate years that even the kraken
" Old would have hard work to wrestle one
70 the bottom.
Inc spanish seafarers did not go in so much
:. ~ belief in the responsibility of monsters for
sse disappearance of their ships which left no
saace' The Spaniards laid q lot of such disap-
s 80 to the "vgia," word meaning "look
The "vigia" were rocky pinnacles, or
= ss9a isiets, level with or just below the sur
.sse OF the water. Some such islets actually
'ae as search has proved, though few have