Posted inMaritime & Naval History Mysteries & Unexplained

Unlaid Ghost of Tar Delays Ship

Illustration of the ghost appearing, with a spectral cat on each shoulder.

Mates Won’t Sail on the Annie Smith With Steve Jackson’s Wraith Roaming Decks.

SAILOR WAS MURDERED

And Worse Still, Two Black Cats perched on the Spirit’s Form, So the Commander of the Barkentine Was Unable to Put to Sea.

New, York.—It was not exactly the fault of Capt. Frederick Foote that the Annie Smith, as trim a little barkentine as you can see in any port, did not sail the other day for Brazilian ports. Nor was it the fault of Edwin Moore, the mate negro that of Steve Jackson, a negro seaman, lately deceased. The blame really belonged to the ghost of the said Steve Jackson.

The Annie Smith, with her general cargo stowed away, her clearance papers signed, her sails ready to he set, was unable to cast off, because Captain Foote could find no mate to sail in her.

And if you speak to Captain Foote and your conscience and your constitution can weather oaths that will make your hair stand on end, you will learn that when Steve Jackson slipped his cable with a knife stuck in between his ribs, he carelessly allowed his ghost to roam at random on the Annie Smith.

Posted inDaily News Mysteries & Unexplained

Martian Signals Read by Local Man

‘Old Salt’ Discovers Possible Code For Recent Sounds

The mysterious “signals from Mars” have been read! A local man, a retired and retiring sea captain, has a theory concerning the sounds, not of earthly origin, recorded on radio Instruments during the recent approach of Mars to the Earth, and in view of the fact that scientists themselves are disputing as to what these noises may be, his theory is as good as any other.

“Old Salt,” as the originator of the theory prefers to be known, started from the fact that the sounds consisted of four dots and five dashes, often repeated. He then proceeded to number the bodies in the solar system, starting with the Sun as No. 1. Mercury No. 2, Venus No. 3, Earth No. 4, Mars No. 5, and so on.

Posted inLocal Histories Mysteries & Unexplained

The Wild Man of Chilhowee

Tenn., Jan. 26. – Editor Forest and Stream: In your numbers of Dec. 14 and Jan. 4 you give descriptions of the “Lost Man in New Brunswick,” and ask correspondents if they can throw additional light on the questions, who is he, and where did he come from. Apropos of the question asked, I can give you a description of his first cousin. The subject of my sketch is known as “The Wild Man of Chilhowee Mountain.” To come to the real facts with as little circumlocution as possible, the man was found by a party of hunters several years ago. The four hunters were camped at the base of Chilhowee Mountain, on a deer hunting expedition.

The Chilhowee Mountain is a rough and very wild and brushy knob or single pinnacle that raises its head far above the other peaks of the Cumberland range of mountains. It stands somewhat aloof from the main mountain range and therefore has a name of its own. It is situated some miles west of Cleveland, Tenn., and ninety miles northwest of Chattanooga. This part of the Cumberland range is extremely difficult of access, as there are practically no roads into the wilderness. Nature seems especially to have ordained that this brushy, repulsive region should be the home of animals alone. It is entirely uninhabited by man, excepting it be an occasional “wildcat distiller.”

Posted inArchaeology Mysteries & Unexplained

Carter Undaunted by Pharaoh Ghost

Howard Carter, standing holding a book.

LONDON, October 3.—Howard Carter, the American Egyptologist, left for Luxor and the Valley of the Kings today to resume his excavations at the tomb of Tutankhamen. The scientist said he had not the slightest belief that any occult influence was responsible for the death of Earl Carnarvon, who succumbed to fever after discovering the tomb, and that he had no fears for himself in that direction.

“It is rather too much to ask me to believe that some spook is keeping watch and ward over the dead Pharaoh, ready to wreak vengeance on any one who goes too near,” Carter said.

Posted inArchaeology Mysteries & Unexplained

Expert Laughs at Pharaoh’s Curse

Cairo — Belief in “curses’’ attached to certain antiquities is ridiculed by Mr, R. Engelbach, keeper of the Cairo museum and one of the world’s greatest authorities on ancient Egypt.

Latest of the ‘‘accursed” remains to be returned to Egypt is a piece of bone, claimed to be part of Pharaoh’s skeleton which has been blamed for a series of accidents which have befallen Sir Alexander and Lady Seton, of Edinburgh.

Posted inMaritime & Naval History Mysteries & Unexplained

The Sea Serpent

Illustration of a sea serpent from an old manuscript with writing in Greek and Latin

A letter has been received at the Merchants’ Exchange, from Capt. Wales, (son of T. B. Wales, Esq.) of barque Wave, at Malaga, from Boston, dated Sept. 5, in which he states that on the 5th of August, about 6 P. M., Cape Cod, bearing E. by S. 30 miles, he discovered a huge sea monster crossing the bow, about a half a mile distant to the northwest. It at first appeared like the surf breaking over a rock or reef, but it soon arose in a perpendicular position, 30 or 40 feet above the surface, remaining for about 10 seconds, and then following horizontally, the body disappeared, leaving a wake in the water, and rising again in the same position at nearly regular intervals for the space of half an hour, when it disappeared entirely.

Posted inMaritime & Naval History Mysteries & Unexplained Ship Histories

The Mystery of the Cyclops

The Unexplained Disappearance of the United States Naval Collier Causes a Marine Expert to Discuss the Fantastic Possibilities of Encounters Between Ships and Gigantic Octopuses

old illustration of a giant octopus wrapping around a 3-masted sailing ship.

The disappearance of the great United States naval collier Cyclops during the year 1918 has now been ranked among the famous unexplained mysteries of the sea, like the fate of the crew of the brig Marie Celeste and many another ocean tragedy.

The Cyclops, a ship of 19,000 tons, sailed from Barbados in the West Indies on March 4 last on war duty and has never been reported since. This great steel ship, with all her crew and arms and equipment, her wireless and her boats has vanished from the seas just as feeble sailing ships did in ancient times when the ocean was an uncharted wilderness.

By order of the Navy Department all available naval craft In Southern waters have been making a dragnet for the ship, but steadily the conviction grows among officials that the great modern mystery of the sea will remain unsolved.