RIDDLE OF SEA.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 189, 11 August 1928, Page 3 (Supplement)

RIDDLE OF SEA.

AMERICAN DIPLOMAT LOST FROM SHIP. TREATY BEARER. The mystery of Kent Loomis is different from most of the strange stories contained in this series because it has an official aspect. Mr. Loomis was the brother of F. B. Loomis, U.S.A. Assistant Secretary of State, and he was commissioned to be the confidential representative of the United States in delivering an important treaty it had made with King Menelik of Abyssinia.

It was expected that he would be gone for a Jong time, a period of months, and hj bade nis wife and child good-bye, and sailed for Cherbourg on, the Kaiser Wilhelm 11. on June 14, 1904.

It was at this point that the mystery of Kent Loomis became a mystery of the sea. Before the ship reached its destination the representative of the United States Government was reported missing, and no sooner had the cable flashed word

of his baffling disappearance than all sorts of puzzling rumours came to the surface.

It was shown that Loomis was last seen about midnight on June 19, when he had gone on deck following the usual captain's dinner, which had been given just before the vessel reached its destination. Soon after that time the ship made its customary stop at Plymouth, England.

One of the passengers was positive that he saw Mr. Loomis in the crowd during the landing. He seemed to be in a dazed and stupid condition, yet the captain of the ship and the head steward, who had stood at the gangway when the passengers alighted, were certain that Loomis did not leave the ship with the other passengers. When the Kaiser Wilhelm 11. left Cherbourg a systematic search of all the cabins was made for the miesing passenger. William H. Ellis, who was Loomis' travelling companion, continued on the journey to Abyssinia, carrying the tin box containing the treaty.

A week later a cablegram announced that the missing man had turned up alive in Paris, but this proved to be without foundation. Later" it was reported that he had been found dead at Cherbourg, and also that he had been placed in a sanitarium at Plymouth. Body Washed Up. But all these stories were swept aside on July 16, 1904—four weeks after- hits disappearance—when his body was washed up at Warren Point, 15 miles from Plymouth.

There was a medical examination and | a coroner's inquest. Under tbe right ear of the dead man was a circular wound which appeared to have been inflicted before his death, and. basing their conclusion on a post-mortem examination of the lungs, the verdict was that death had been caused by blow rather than by drowning. The puzzling part of the whole ease is that there did not appear to be any niotive for the crime. It is true that lie Wilis carrying valuable papers, but they were merely certified copies of a treaty wliich had "already been approved by the United States Government. One theory was that the young man might have lost his balance and accidentally fallen overboard, but to offset this it was proved that on the night of his disappearance the sea was unusually calm. Tn addition to this it was well known tliat the rdls of the two main decks of the Kaiser Wilhelm 11. were very high. Nearly a quarter of a century, has passed since the mysterious disappearance of Kent Loomis. and it still remains one of the most puzzling mysteries of the diplomatic history of the United States.