KOEBENHAVN MYSTERY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21934, 18 October 1934, Page 16

KOEBENHAVN MYSTERY

SUPPOSED END OF VESSEL CRUSHED BIETWEEN ICEBERGS [FROM OCR OWN correspondent] NEW YORK, Sept. 18 A' message in a bottle throws the first light ou the possible fate of the fire-masted Danish training ship Koebenhavn, trhicih has not been seen since she left Buenos Aires for Capetown on December 14, 1928, carrying a crew of 60, including 45 cadets of the Danish merchant marine. Liborio Jus to, son of the President of Argentina, states that he met at Port Stanley, in the Falkland Islands, a Scotsman, who had been sent there from the whaling station at South Shetland with a fractured arm. This man, who had spent years in southern latitudes, showed Justo a translation he had made of the contents of 6ome papers in a bottle found on one of the deserted Bonvet Islands. It was a diary, supposed to have been kept by a member of the Koebenhavn's crew. Justo copied the notes. The diary, wihich opens with an entry on January 20, is continued to March 2, the name of the vessel not being stated. From January 25 to February 14 mention is made of the enormous icebergs crossing tno ship's path. On February 21 the ship war> abandoned, and on the following day the qrew saw her crushed between two icebergs and "reduced to splinters." The last entry, on March 2, reads: — "We have stopped at the point, where the sea cuts us. off. In front of us the wide ocean is covered with bergs. It is snowing and a gale blows. To-night, while every one is sleeping. I make this last entry. I realise our frightful fate. Everything convinces me that this sea has taken us fceyond the limits of this world."