Empty Deck

Gibraltar, Wednesday, December 18, 1872, 9 pm. At the Vice-AdmiraltyVice-Admiralty Colonial British court that judged maritime matters such as ship seizures, salvage claims and prizes. wharf, under guard and in the rain, an empty brigantinebrigantine Two-masted sailing ship with square sails on the front mast and fore-and-aft sails on the rear one. creaks at her moorings: the Seraphine, found adrift on the 4th between the Azores and Portugal, her sails in tatters and her boat gone.

She sailed from New York on Thursday, November 7, bound for Genoa, with 1,600 barrels of alcohol, Captain Josiah Wentworth, his wife, their two-year-old daughter and seven sailors. The last entry in the log is dated November 25, near the island of Santa Maria. None of the ten has been seen since.

The one who found her was the Constance, which is asking the court for half the value of the ship and cargo. Yesterday, at the opening of the hearing, the Queen's ProctorProctor Old British title for a lawyer who represented the Crown or a party in admiralty and church courts. said a sound ship does not empty itself and called in the police.

Three people know more about the Seraphine than they told the court. One of them made ten people climb down into a boat.

Vice-admiraltyVice-Admiralty Colonial British court that judged maritime matters such as ship seizures, salvage claims and prizes. court room in Gibraltar, 1872, with open logbooks on the table.