HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Seaforth News, 1941-02-20, Page 7THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 1941
"Don't forget to let our cook get a couple of easy ones!"
Penny Bank Report—
Total amount on deposit in the
:Penny Bank at Seaforth at end of
December, 11614li_ Eli? 9.67, 'Compara-
tive figures of a year .ego, $L,4 i1:,114,
Colonel Hubert Stethem, C.M.G„
D.S,O., Director of Internment
Operations and Director of the
Priaoners of War Information
Bureau.
'MYSTERY 'SHIPS
Into a rock-bound inlet on the
west coast of Britain, 'the other day,
a 200 -ton vessel stately glided; Wat-
chers on shore gasped as she missed
by mere inches, a jagged rock that
would have ripped open her side.
.-1nd they marvelled that not a soli-
tary sailor trod •the deck, When she
touched shore and stopped, not an
order was elionted, not a rope was
throe n. not a sign of life was in
eeidei ee. lint the engines atilt turn-
ed 1amtuidly at 'slow.'. :1 shin that
had made port without crew- and
without guidance -umens ghostly
tangy had tamed the wheel! Some
of her timbers were scorched, and
here and there the paint was blister-
ed. 'Wallets lhelongini; to the crew
were in the bunks; there was 'grub
in the .galley. There was everything
a ,good little ship ought to have, ex-
cept a crew and a skipper. It was
all very queer and a :bit creepy—
until members of the crew turned
up and explained things. Fire, the
origin of which was a mystery, had
(broken out savagely when the ship
was 'sixty miles from land. It was
such a lively blaze that the ship
was abandoned in a hurry. Yet the
'fire ctiedeaut and •the ship sailed on.
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PHONE 84
THE SEAFQRTH NEWS
PAGE SEVEN
Truth is stranger than Beton. No
novelist, no matter how daring his
dreams, 'would telt of at •hip abandon-
ed on fire, that lost cher flames and
found her way to port. 'Nor would he
expect to be convincing if he invent-
ed some of the stories of heroism and
lm -fortitude of 'nen on British ships
b•onubed raided or torpedoed yet at
este tiller of (overladen lifehoats sus-
taining life .and hope in others with
epty chatter and comic songs. These
are tales for the London Gazette,
which can compress an epic of the
sea into an inch of newsprint.
There was no element of 'mystery
in the story of the self -saved ship, we
have re -told. and the thought of guid-
ance by a ghostly pilot is but fancy.
Yet the tale somehow recalled some
real mysteries of the sea; mysteries
of •the past on which no light has
ever 'been shed' by even a solitary sur-
vivor of desperate a•dven'tu•re, .the
nature of 'which we can only ;guess.
Among the 'unsolved riddles of the
Seven Seas is the story of the i:'fary
Celeste. She was an ,Amerioan brig
commanded by Captain 'Griggs, and
sailed out of ,New York harbor one
fateful :morning for Genoa, Italy, O.n
,a calm day in paid -Atlantic, the crew
of a 'Nova Scotian 'barque noticed
that the two -masted, square-rigged
(Mary 'Celeste was following an er-
ratic -coarse. Peering at her through
'binoculars. they could see no sign
of life 'aboard; so the :skipper ordered
an investigation
(When the Noa'a Stations climbed
warily abroad the stranger, they.
found her completely deserted. In the
log, the last entry had been made
eleven days 'before. On tables, a hair --
eaten ureal had been left. - ntouc'hed
and intact. the general cargo was in
the hold, but sextant, manifest and.
hill of lading were missing. Obvious-
ly faked, evidence to create the im-
pression that the brig had been in
c tilieinn. was found. A sword was
picked ee ;tm1 examined. Before it
had 'been replaced in ite r.rbleird.
.the blade had been wiped clean—al-
meet clean --of 'bbiorl. That tots the
only clue. And it is now, seventy-
years since those sailors of Nova
Scotia found that sword dot the -Mary:
t't+Ieste. '\Vhat happened to skipper'
Griggs, his 'wife, chit and crew. is a •
riddle, still unsolved.
'William Barris, writing in ascien-
tific monthly, teals the story of the
Mary Celeste, and others, Two more
instances of vessels completely- desert-
ed, and with never a hint as to what
became of their crews, are recorded.
One was the British Brankame Hall;
the other the American James B.
Chester. Both ships when found. had
'been sailing for days without a guid-
ing hand.
Is it possible for a`vessel equipped
with wireless telegraphy to disappear
without sign or signal? There is one
such instance, at least. In IMarch 14113.
a huge ,American freighter buil` of
steel, the Cyclops, left a South Am-
erican port laden with manganese ore 1
to supply steel mills of the U.S.. then
working at top speed on war orders.
This weighty cargo had 'keen loaded
mainly in the holds fore and alt, leav-
ing midship space with much lighter
materia]. More than 300 •men were in
the crew. There arts a call at the Bar-
badoes for fuel, on that northbound
trip. Less than d'S hours later, the Cy-
clops teas at the (bottom of the sea.
No signal of distress was heard: not
a single member of the crew survived
not a stick of .wreckage from any of
the =many lifeboats was ever found.
But experts suggests a 'likely -enough
reason for the sudden sinking. There
was too much weight at each end of
that long steel ship, not enough in
the middle. When. with a certain roll
of the sea, Te' centre portions of the
'Cyclops was poised on the crest of a
wave, it is supposed that the ends
drooped under the enormous strain,
and the freighter snapped in two. I'f 1
such were the case, the wireless aer-
ials would Ibreak like thread, and the
two halves of the ship would sink it:
a matter of seconds.
In 'the fifties of the tot century,
there was a long and 'tragic list o'
ships that vanished without leaving a
trace. IM'ay. delet3, saw the Aurora. •out
of 'New look, disappear with crew
and 'passengers. Sonew•heee on the
Atlantic, in March, '15'514. the City of
'Glasgow was proudly making way
She 'teas one of the pioneer steamers
of :iron, of 1,600 or so tons, with 350
horse -'power engines, but (barque rig-
ged, just 'in case the horses became
fractious. And the City of Glasgow
boasted a ,drug store, and other sea-
going novelties. But the 'brave little
steamship ;carrying 4510 passengers
and crew, was never seen again, 'Nor
was the Collins liner Pacific, with 2S8
souls board which 'vanished without
clue in •10516; nor the Anchor liner
Tempests 'which sailed into oblivion
with 11150 'persons aboard in 10517; nor
the City of Boston bound from 'Bos-
ton -to Livenpool in 11370, which dis-
appeared without 3 trace with her 1710
passengers, several From Toronto.
Wliet 'happened These ships that
'had no radio to tele of their distress
or call for help? There vsetc no mines
in those days; 'no submarines beneath
the surface of the , sea; no 'bombs
dropped from the sky. Faulty con-
struction, fire, tempest, icebergs—
these are the theories. 'but the facts
will never be (known.
PUBLIC OPINION IN EUROPE
(By Britannicus!
Pabi1' opinion in Europe a waking
tip after being dazed by the swift
triumphs of (German force between
itrvaeion of Norway and the collapse
of France. And it wakes to the voice
of Britain.
Since the (victory of the R.A.F. in
the Battle of ,Britain, German netts
and propaganda have suffered a sev-
ere slump, while British news and
propaganda have enjoyed a 'boom.
From all over Europe conies evidence
of widespread and increasing listening
to broadcasts from London,
In France 'particularly, the public
turns to the B:B.C. news in French as
-its main channel of contact with the
outside world, The ipso -Laval element
in "unoccupied" Frame fret and fume
at this. Vichy has found it necessary
to impose a Than ori p+rhlir listening to
British broadcasts, Hatred of the eeer-
mans, and realisation that - however
honourable and fine -spirited 'Marshal
Petaiu may be Vichy can only Ibe a
tool of German domination. are rising
steadily. A nation nursed in democ-
racy, convalescing from a :period of
psychopathic self-accusation of hyper
consciousness of sin after defeat, is
chafing tinder dictatorship. Even 'Le
Tempa, organ of pro -Fascist "big
'business" and a leading mauthpiece
of German and Italian 'propaganda,
has acknowledged that ,,;tentalitarian-
ism is impossible in France."
In the 'Occupied 'Lone the people
are even more pro -British. The Paris
correspondent of the I\ladrid news-
paper Ya. not a particularly friendly
..u'nan ha written of "a -veritable pnn-
dentoniiun of British radios pouring
news throat h balconies, winel((we and
patios." The Germans are ohcinusly
quite unable to stop it. The frank and
sinupie slogan adapted in one of the
B. -BIC. 'broadcasts, "Radio Paris
(lent" ("Paris Radio 'Lies"). has be-
cotne a .popular ,byword. Newspaper
(boys in the occupied capital have
been heard crying "'Pari; Soir 'Men-
sonage as if a corner vendor were
to Aleut: "Evening paper! All the
Latest Lies!"
There is a story of a woman cross-
ing -sweeper in Paris, e drab and rag,
ged creature, who suddenly (became
inflamed with disgust at the German's
humourless strutting ways. and in
coarse mimicry goose -,stepped down
the 'Champs Elysees, her ihroom on
her shoulder. In her there flourished
the spirit of France tri day.
Although the French have no means
of forcible revolt against their •oppres-
sors, all this is of the greatest import-
ance in the conduct of the war again-
st 'German niorale. For the German
occupying troops see around them a
resentful population, -,detesting them
and admiring. their enemies, loving
'freedom, irrepressibly individualist,
able to make more of life on 'tire mis-
erable fare which is all that the con-
quering looters have left then', than
the Germans can with the best to
choose from. This is an .atmosphere
that breeds discouragement, home-
sickness, and had morale, of which
there have been several plain signs
among the 'German forces.
(Cold-shaulderin•g, and indirect ac-
cess to truthful news, are having their
effect on the Germans in other occup-
ied countries, In (Brussels, when 'Ger-
mane 'hoard a tram, all other passeng-
ers get off. The cinemas which show
German new, reels are empty. If a
German aeks a 'Belgian stranger for
a light, it is offered, but the Belgian
throws away his own cigarette.
In IItxlland,' the German -controlled
Ililt-ersum radio has had to complain
that ministers of the .Church select
anthietiotl5 texts for their sermcne'int
order to point an anti -Nazi moral,
The German periodical "Das Reieh'•
has grumbled: –rile heavy and slaw-
movinz Dun'h '1„ not 'want to realize
LIGHT,
TENDER:
IANC TEXTURE.
Casts less than
10 per average
baking
the truth of what has happened lar
them." Here, too, there is widespread
listening to elle British radio. Profes-
sor C. W. de Vries of Rotterdam heel
been sentenced to dB months impris-
onment and a fine for introducing
some remarks about the Dutch Royal
House in a speech with the wards
"_As I myself heard -over the radio
and as you will have heard .. .
'It is the same in other countries of
Europe, whether Germaneoccupied;
(german-controlled, or independent.
The foundation of free public opinion
is 'British news. Its truth has won a
victory as important as the :Battle of
Britain itself.
Teacher (to boy's mother) -"Why
what's the matter ? Has Johnny wok
toothache?"
Angry Mother — "No, 1lohnny
hasn't got toothache. His suffering
comes from your foolish teaching.
You told him he was to tell you how
long it would 'ta'ke him to eat twenty
apples if is took one and a hale min-
utes to eat one apple—and he got
stuck on the Sfteenth.
1n the local train was e. char, wlio,
had just come 'back front Pot -tea -3;1,
of all ,places!
"How. did. you get on?" 1 asked
hien. "Did inn 'have any trot/bit
grasping Portnzuese?"
'No," be said. "I didn'tfin/ 5111
an 'tard_-r to nz•ra't that: Eggefelt
aerie.
\Cant. ate': Fe. Satt. Ade ..eels 50't
EVERY CANADIAN FAMILY
t, e K:/fge4 57
('THIS TIME we are ALL in the front line."—H.M. THE KING.
for WI $4.00
Yogi Get Boic!k $5.00
$ 5.00 for $ 4.00 $10.00 for $ 8.00
$25,00 for $20.00 $50.00 for $40.00
$100.00 for $80.50 -
War Savings Certificates area direct obliga-
tion of the Dominion of Canada, repayable in
73,s years. At the and of that time your invest -
meat will have increased twenty-five per cent.,
which represents interest at 3010compounded
half -yearly. -
They may be redeemed at option of regis-
tered owner, after six months from date of
issue at an established scale of values.
The following table represents an average
basis of saving. These figures are only illus-
trative, as the amount of saving which is pos-
sible will vary according 5, each individual's
family and other economic circumstances..
Maturity Values
Earnings Savings of
Per Week Per Week Annual Purchases
Up to 520 25¢ to $1,00 5 15 to 5 65
$20 to 630 $1.25 to 52.00 $ 80 to 5130
530 to 62(0 $2.25 to 53.50 5145 4o $225
Over $40 53.75 to 59.25 5245 to $600
FALL IN! The line is forming. Close the rants.
Answer His Majesty's call. Every man, womatx
and child in Canada has a duty to perform.
Some will fight. You, too, have a job to do. It
may demand sacrifice. You are called on to help
furnish the munitions needed to win the war
guns and tanks for the army ... planes for
the air force ... ships for the navy and merchant
marine. Guns and tanks and planes and ships
cost money. You are not asked to give—you are
only asked to LEND your money. This is some-
thing you can do ... something you must da.
There is only one place to get the money Canada need:;
to win this war—fromthe people of Canada. A large
part will come from business firms and people with
large incomes. They will pay high taxes and buy heavily
of War Loan Bonds. But more money is needed . a
great deal more. $10,000,000 a month is expected front
men, women and children who invest is War Savings
Certificates.
Work hard. Earn more. Save all you can and lend your
savings to Canada. BUY WAR SAVINGS CERTI-
FICATES. Budget to buy them regularly. Buy them
every week ... every month ... as long as the wan lasts.
You will be forming a good habit ... the saving habit
. a habit that will benefit you when victory is won.
You will be doing a real job in helping to win the war.
Pleb isbed by The War Savings Committee, Ottawa
ER 1FK3TES
4e9r
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