The Wisconsin tobacco reporter. (Edgerton, Wis.) 1877-1950, 1921-06-24
WARMER BAFFLED
BY MISSING SHIPS
Sea Mystery Deepens; Assumes
More Serious Proportions.
ELEVEN VESSELS DISAPPEAR
Three Theories Advanced as Five U.
5. Government Departments Start
an Investigation and Search
for Craft.

Washington, June 22-The mystery
Oh the sea deepened and assumed more
serious proportions under the investi-
cation of five government depart
mentS.
Whether their loss be due to some
mysterious raider of the seas, to mines
carried by ocean currents far from
thelr fields, to some gigantic monster
OF the deep, or to cause not yet i'm
aglned, the fact remains that all the
ships involved have disappeared in a
manner inexplicable to the govern
ment officials investigating.
Missing ships are not uncommon
entries in marine registries, but as
pointed out by Secretary Hoover, the
evidence which first called attention
to the mystery is all opposed to any
theory of ordinary loss.
Eleven Vessels Disappear.
And now it is discovered that the
losses have been more serious than
was first reported.
Checking the lists of vessels which
since the first of the year have been
Solemnly tOlled out by the marine
graveyard bell of the marine insur-
ers as missing without trace" the
bureau of navigation of the Depart
ment Of Commerce found IL craft
which are believed to have fallen vic
Tins Of the unknown" fate.
Nearly all were in the waters adj
jacent to Cape Hatteras when last
heard from, and as the only evidence
in the possession of government in
yestigatOrs centers around this spot,
the fate of the other vessels Is be-
lteved to have been settled there.
The list as now enlarged from the
two vessels first mentioned by the
bureau of navigation includes these
names:
The Italian auxiliary bark Merinek,
bound from Genoa to Norfolk
Russian bark Albyn, Norfolk to
GOthenberg
Spanish steamer Yute, bound for
Dunkirk, France.
Italian steamer MOntesan Michele,
New York to Gibraltar.
Brazilian steamer CabedellO, Norfolk
to European ports.
Italian steamer Esperanza de Lar
riaga, Norfolk to Reggie.
Norwegian bark Svariskog, New
port News to La Plata.
British tank steamer Ottawa. Port
LObas via Norfolk to Manchester.
British tanker Gymeric, Thameshav-
en- to New Orleans.
Included in the list also are the
American steamer Hewitt and the
American schooner Carroll A. Deer
ing, whose mysterious fate was re-
spOnsible for the investigation.
Three theories have been advanced
upon which it is hoped some clew may
be later erected to explain the loss of
American and European steamships
and schOoners from charted ocean
lanes, unconnected with a sweeping
investigation now under way by gov
eminent forces.
Floating Mines Dangerous.
That floating mines constitute the
greatest udHSef IO ocean LrdVeI is
strongly insisted by many. 1t is
pointed out that the mines thickly
planted round the British Isles were
Of the permanent type and are said to
be capable of floating for four years
and still be able to explode on con-
tact and send vessel to the bottom.
That the ships may have been de-
strOyed by natural accidents, be dis
abled and broken into pieces and dis
appear forever from sight is also of
fered as an explanation, while the
mutiny Of Bolshevik crews is said to
be a plausible explanation.
The fact remains that at least eleven
vessels are missing and that in only
two cases was word of any kind ever
received, message in a bottle telling
a strange tale of kidnapped crew, and
a postcard from a member of the
crew of another vessel that has
dropped out of sight being the only
clues yet obtained