SEA MYSTERY SOLVED.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19549, 31 January 1927, Page 9

SEA MYSTERY SOLVED.

DESERTED SHIP FOUND. DYING SAILOR'S CONFESSION. (Received Jan. 30, 5.5 p.m.) k. and N.Z. . LONDON, Jan. 28. A remarkable parallel to the famous case of the ship Marie Celeste is disclosed in a message from Berlin. In the year'l924 the Norwegian .steamer Istiennan, which was engaged in walrus fishing, was found abandoned off the Norwegian coast. Not a soul was on board, but the table was laid with food on it, and the lamps were lit. The mystery was never cleared up. It was thought that her crew of nine must have abandoned their ship for some unknown reason, and that all were drowned. A German sailor has now died in a hospital at Hamburg who confessed shortly before lie died that he had boarded the Istiennan, together with other liquor smugglers. A fight had ensued, and all the ship's crew were murdered. Their bodies were thrown overboard by the murderers, who, before they left the ship, prepared the table and lit the lamps as a blind. The case of the sailing ship Marie Celeste is probably the most extraordinary of all the many mysteries of the sea. The vessel sailed from New York for Mediterranean ports, about 60 years ago, and some days after she left she was found in mid-ocean, abandoned. She was m perfect condition, her sails set, and everything in order. The saloon table was laid for breakfast, with coffee-cups half full, as if her crew had suddenly left during the meal. In a sewing-machine in the cabin was a little girl's dress, just as if some one had left it to go to breakfast. The captain had taken his wife with him, and their little daughter, and had left one boy in America. There were no other passengers, no boats were missing, and there were no signs of violence or any slightest clue to the mystery, which has never been cleared up.