The Raymer enterprise., 1921-06-30
Government Is Trying to Solve
the Mystery Of the Twenty
MISSING Shlpss 1T
MAY Be WORK OF PIRATES
Admiral Sims, Home, Tells Secretary
penby He Was Misquoted-BrltaIn
Determined to Crush Irish Re.
voIt-Dawes Made Dlrec-
tor Of National Budget.
BY tDwARD W. pIckARo.

The interest of the world was exclt-
ed and Its Imagination stimulated last
week by the remarkable story Of the
20 lost merchant ships, the mystery Of
whose disappearance our government
70 trying to solve. Not since the days
Of the German U-boats has there been
any such a series Of maritime dlsas.
ters. nor was there any such before
the war. A number Of these 20 YES
sells which have disappeared within a
few months were American or sailing
from American ports. The most mys.
tifying Of the instances was that Of tho
American schooner Carroll A. Deering
which ran ashore of the North Caro-
lima coast last January with all sails
Get and every member Of the crew
missing, as were Its small boats. More
than two months later the following
message In bottle was picked up
near Cape Hatteras:
.Deering captured by oil.burnirg
boat, something like chaser; taking of
everything, Handwriting crew. Crew
hiding all over ship. No chance to
make escape. Finder please notify
headquarters Of Deering."
Naturally the favorite theory con-
cerning these events Is that a pirate
craft Is operating in the Atlantic. Rear
Admiral Mutton. commandant Of the
Philadelphia navy yard. inclines to this
view. He says:
ut would be possible for an outlaw
craft to run wild for short time, and
It could do considerable damage to
shipping. II there Is a pirate craft, It
was or is operating with forged ships
papers. It is always necessary. when
q ship enters a port, to have Its papers
examined, and this craft could operate
for a short time with forged papers,
but In the end 1t would disclose Its
identity.
1T Ia true, also, that by stripping
vessels Of provisions and fuel the out
law could continue operations long
time, but eventually 1t would have to
put into some port for repairs. Machin-
cry, you know. cannot run forever
without being overhauled and repaired.
III such craft Is operating 1t will
have to return to port at some time,
and when 1t does. assume there will
be interesting developments"
Another theory Is based upon the.
fact that about year and half ago
the New York police seized documents
which revealed plot which the UNI
ted Russian Workers iof the United
States and Canada were forming to
ret their members to Russia. Those
members who were out Of work were
being instructed to ship on vessels in
suficient numbers to seize the vessels
at sea and steer them into soviet Rus
sian ports. iq
The Departments Of State and Com
merce, however, hold to the plain pi.
rate theory and a worldwide lookout
for the missing ships and their crews
has been ordered.
Admiral Sims, recalled from Eng
land by an order from Secretary Den.
By that sounded especially severe, ar
rived in Washington Wednesday and
reported to the head Of the navy
Thursday. In reply to Mr.. DENLY, he
asserted that be had been misquoted
in the reports Of his London speech.
and the secretary called on him for a
correct text of what he said. Mr.. Den
BY said to the correspondents:
sAdmIral Sims has denied the &C.