With a Camera in the Wake of the Scenic Preservation Commissioners.

Otago Witness, Issue 2649, 21 December 1904, Page 50

With a Camera in the Wake of the Scenic Preservation Commissioners.

(From photos, by Mr H. J. Matthews )

AN UNSOLVED SEA MYSTERY. On a certain morning in the sixtips (writes Mr J. Li. Hornibrook in Chambers's Journal

for Octobor) the Spanish authorities near the Straits of Gibraltar noticed a vessel in the offing which attracted special attention. Though the sea was calm and the weather fine, she did not hold straight on her course for two minutes together. Sho

wobbled about and veered with every changing puff of wind, as if bereft of a guiding hand. A boat put off to the vessel, and the crew, as it drew near, perceived that the

wheel was deserted, nor was a soul observable on board.

The brig was absolutely devoid of life. The entire crew, from captain to cabinboy, had disappeared. Yet there was not a boat missing. They were all in their

proper place, swung on the davits. Everything, from truck to keel, was as sound as the day the vessel had sailed. The captain's watch was ticking on a nail above his berth, and on the cabin table were the remains of a half -consumed dinner, appaiently

as fresh as when it came from the cook's galley. The same thing was noticeable in the men's quarters, which looked as though the entire crew had been interrupted or startled in the midst of their me-al. The brig was navigated into Gibraltar,

and there the American Consul came on beard, for, as was seen by the name of her port on tho stca - n she hailed from Boston. The only fresh discovery was something which looked like the slash of an axe or cutlass on the bulwark forward ; but this,

in itself, was calculated to throw little light upon the mysi^ery.

The Marie Celeste had set sail from Boston under most favourable auspices. She was an ordinary trading brig, bound for the Mediterranean with a general cargo.

Her crew consisted of 17 hands, chiefly Americans, Danes, and Norwegians. In addition, there were the captain, his wife, and their little daughter — 20 souls all told.

Mr Hornibrook refers to some of the theories put forward at the time to account

for the abandonment of the vessel — a visit from pirates, attack by an immense seamonster. But none of them are acceptable, and the mystery remains unsolved. No member of tho missing crew over turned up to explain what had happened.