Evening star., 1934-06-08
SHIP MYSTERIES
DEFY SOLUTION
Disappearance of Danish
Vessel Kobenhavn Last
of Ghast|y Series.

AlS kICdGCOI oCd "a VAN
decade may be near solution If it can
be proved beyond doubt that wreck
age recently washed up on the coast
of Australia is from the lost Koben-
havn. The sea guards well her Sc
crets, and the world has waited five
years for news of the Danish train
ing ship which sailed out of Monte
video in December, 1928, bound for
Australia.
THE Kobenhavn." says bulletin
from the National Geographic Society,
"was a new, ve-masted, steel bark,
the largest sailing vessel in the world,
equipped with auxiliary engines and
a powerful radio. On December 81
she reported all well. She was then
400 miles out. well started on her
course through the South Atlantic,
the loneliest waters in the world. That
was the last word ever heard from
her.
Kobenhavn Dodged Reef.
zone month later the settlers on
Tristan da Cunha, an isolated rock.
half way between Brazil and Good
Hope, were greatly excited by the ap-
PlOdNAl Va q odiAllS NCCOCl. ollC oCCIllCo
to be steering aimlessly, with light
sail set, before gale which was driv-
ing her straight for the islands
jagged reefs. Just as disaster seemed
inevitable she veered aside and drift
ed safely past, not 400 yards off shore.
There was no sign of life on board,
and she was riding far down at the
stern, indicating some damage. 9th
erwise all was in good order, and
there could be no doubt of her iden-
tity. She was the lost Kobenhavn
BY the next day, when it was calm
enough to put out in boats, she had
vanished forever. Whatever the fate
that overlook her crew, it must have
been disastrously sudden to have pre-
vented even a wireless message
Scarcely less strange is it that her
wreckage should turn up halfway
around the world in Australia.
Many are the legends, songs and
stories inspired by ghoStly, crewless
ships. wandering on year after year,
alone on wide, wide sea- Coleridge
paints a CHASTITY picture of a specter
bark, sailing without wind or tide. A
skeleton ship on whose deck sits a
woman, Life-in-Death, dicing with
her companion, Death, for the soul of
the Ancient Mariner.
Real Unnamed Ships.
Even stranger than the ghost ships
OF fiction are the ships of fact, which
In modern times have sailed our seas
unnamed. One of these, the Hud-
son Bay steamer Baychimo has
haunted Arctic waters three years.
Loaded with valuable cargo of furs.
she was caught in the ice off Vain
wright, Alaska. Her captain and crew
went ashore, resolved to wait until
the Spring breakup to work her free
One night a terrific storm broke her
loose from her moorings and set her
on her wandering course. At inter-
vaS she is reported by the CAPTAINS
OF whalers and trading vessels. Es-
k1mos have salvaged most of her cargo
ana twice she has been boarded by
ships. e
Some 10 years ago Atlantic ship
ping was Tor months endangered by
the erratic behavior of the Governor
Parr, a disabled British schooner.
abandoned by her crew in mid-ocean
Superstltious sailors credited her with
supernatural control over storms. She
carried in her hold a fortune in
Canadian lumber. Twice steamers put
on from Nova Scotia to tow her ashore
and salvage her cargo but each time
after they had boarded her a sudden
storm forced them to abandon the
attempt. Months later she appeared
on the Azores, where again efforts at
salvage met with the same defeat. Her
f1nal fate, like that of the others. re-
mains mystery.
Not so the fate of the baruuentine
Guiding Star, whose crew were
stricken with fever on a voyage from
Netherlands India to Hobart. Tas-
mania. A bad storm struck her, and
with men too ill to handle the sails,
they were soon blown away. A Dutch
steamer finally sighted her, rescued
the three surviving members of the
crew, and left the ship adrift. Years
later an old mariner, once master of
the Guiding Star, saw a strangely
familiar ship at anchor in Batavia.
She was painted black, new houses on
her deck, and a Javanese crew on
board. but there was no mistaking the
sturdy lines of the little Guiding Star.
Disappearance in 1872.
perhaps the most famous mystery
of ALL puzzle that has defied solu-
ton for over so years. is the question
of what happened one day in Decem-
ber, 1872, on board the Mary Celeste
Countless ingenious theories have
been advanced. Sir Arthur Conan
Doyle fashioned from his explanation
q romantic novel, but no one will ever
know the true story. On November 7,
1>>>>>>