The Mystery of the Ne'erlost (1824)

Transcripts from Periodical Press

THE DEVONSHIRE FREE PRESS & FLYING POST

Thursday, September 16, 1824

SINGULAR DISCOVERY OFF THE DEVON COAST.

DERELICT SCHOONER IN WEMBURY BAY.—LUXURIOUS CARGO AND STRANGE SPECULATIONS.

On Tuesday morning last, the coasting craft Sea-Flower, bound from Dartmouth to Plymouth, espied a two-masted vessel floating broadside upon the swell roughly half a league off the Mewstone, near Wembury. Seeing no colors displayed, and observing a strange irregularity in her helm, the master dispatched a boat to render assistance. To the astonishment of the mariners, upon boarding the vessel—which proves to be a topsail schooner named the Ne'erlost—not a living soul was found on deck, nor in the cabins beneath.

The vessel appears in every respect seaworthy, her timbers sound, her rigging intact, and her hold laden to capacity with a rich cargo of nutmeg, cinnamon, vanilla, and various unidentified nuts and seeds of extraordinary size, apparently originating from the West India Islands and the Spanish Main.

Yet the chief wonder lies in her interior furnishings. The main cabin is fitted up in a style of lavish splendor rarely seen upon a merchant craft of her tonnage. Couches of deep crimson velvet, silvered lamps of unfamiliar workmanship, and strange astronomical instruments constructed of ivory and brass were discovered in the captain's quarters. Upon a table was found a decanter of wine half-filled, and three glasses, as though the occupants had but a moment prior been interrupted at their refreshment.

Conjectures among the fisherfolk of Wembury and Yealmpton are of the most extraordinary character. Some maintain that the crew were lured away by uncanny agency, or that the vessel drifted through some unknown rift upon the ocean into lands hitherto uncharted, leaving her company behind. Captain Harris of his Majesty's Customs hath taken possession of the vessel, which now lies at anchor in the Catwater awaiting further inquiry.

THE TIMES (London)

Monday, September 20, 1824

THE DERELICT SCHOONER NE'ERLOST.

Letters received yesterday from Plymouth furnish further particulars regarding the abandoned schooner Ne'erlost, the discovery of which off the Devonshire shore has excited considerable curiosity in nautical and commercial circles.

The vessel, measuring by estimation some ninety tons, carries no registry upon her stern save the single word Ne'erlost, executed in gilt lettering of antique form. A minute examination of her log-book has thrown little light upon her history, the entries being recorded in a cipher or dialect which has hitherto baffled the ingenuity of the officers at the Custom House.

That she had recently touched upon the tropical coasts of the New World is evident from the state of her cargo, which includes large quantities of fine cocoa, pimento, and rare botanic specimens in an unblemished state of preservation. No signs of violence or struggle are manifest; her boats remain stowed in their chocks, and her arms chest was found locked and undisturbed.

A superstitious rumour has gained currency among the inhabitants of the West Country, who contend that the schooner is a "ghost-ship," or that her crew were magically transported to another realm. Such wild theories, however suited to the fireside tales of Devonshire cottagers, will find no credit with rational minds. It is far more probable that her crew, having encountered some sudden sickness or fallen foul of a foreign privateer, were compelled to abandon her in open water, leaving the vessel to be carried by the Atlantic currents to our shores. The Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty have directed an investigation into the matter.