The Case for the UFO - Varo Jessup Edition-pages

Page 88 of 165

Page 88 of 165
The Case for the UFO - Varo Jessup Edition-pages

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who believed an ominous fate still pursued her were soon presented with a convincing sequel. Here are the actual incidents that followed. Winchester refused to gamble further on the brig. He managed to get rid of her at an $8,000 loss. The succeeding owner, Captain David Cartwright, according to the New York World, January 24, 1886, "sent her to Montevideo with a cargo of lumber. She arrived there minus her deck load, and minus spars and sails. There the Captain got a charter to carry horses. The few delivered alive were too ill to be worth anything. Edgar M. Tuthill (her skipper) obtained a charter to bring freight from Calcutta. On the passage home he was taken sick and died in St. Helena, three weeks later. We next sent her to Africa. She lost $1,000.00." But the end was near. The Marie Celeste's last proprietor, Wesley A. Grove, signed Captain Gillman E. Parker and loaded her with assorted cargo for Port-au Prince, Haiti. The various shippers; first took out insurance for $25,000—and on January 3, 1885, the drunken Parker staggered up to the helmsman, pointing to a clearly visible coral reef. "Steer hard for her, m'hearty, and do the job real good." The brig crunched viciously, and the grinning skipper shouted all hands below for a lusty drink session, after which all rowed ashore. In Haiti, someone talked. The plot failed when the insurance companies dug up evidence to indict the bribing shippers. At the trial in Boston, the shippers admitted guilt. Parker escaped conviction, as the judge ordered a new trial on the charge of barratry. Perhaps the last echo of the Marie Celeste’s evil fate intervened to cheat justice. For within three months Parker died. Six months later his mate was dead. All the conspiring firms by this time had bankrupted, and one of their members committed suicide. There are several facts which we must stress. First, the upper rigging of the ship was slightly damaged, as if some unusual accident or activity took place there. Then, the compass was damaged. Aside from these, there was no note of disarray or a struggle. Life had departed from the ship instantly, apparently with all the routine activities interrupted and; no preparations made; log book on the table, clothing in order, sails set, galley undisturbed—but no records in the log or anywhere else! To attempt to postulate motive for space inhabitants kidnapping crews from ships—not to mention isolated individuals to which we shall @me momentarily—is in the realm of pure speculation. On the other hand, bearing our two possibilities in mind as to the origin of space contrivances, in either case our space friends would want to know what has happened to us since they left, or what has happened to us since they put us down here. Again, there is always the possibility that the open seas provide an easy catching place. Ought to, the Sea is Natural home of the Little bastards. ED: The following has no obvious reference or necessary position. The Little pricks come-aboard at nite and go Wandering about the Decks, Scares the Crews but No Crew Man meeting one, ever Says so, Just quits drinking. In any case, selective transportation requires intelligence. intelligently directed could do some very puzzling things. 88 Thus the log book of the most ill-fated brig in history was closed forever. A force acting from the sky and Here is another mystery at sea as reported in Fate Magazine, June 1954: