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Archiver > QUEBEC-RESEARCH > 2004-03 > 1079097127
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Subject: [Q-R] Excerpt Of History
Date: Fri, 12 Mar 2004 08:12:07 EST
"In 1775, a whaling ship called "Herald" was working just off the west
coast of Greenland. At one point in the expedition the vessel was becalmed. While
the Capt., a man named Warren, and his crew sat out the still weather, a sight
they would certainly never forget was revealed to them, an empty and
unfamiliar ship.
When the strange craft would not reply to signals from the "Herald," Capt.
Warren ordered that a boarding party from his ship be loaded into a lifeboat
and sent out to investigate this unusual circumstance.
As the scouts came near the unknown ship, they were able to read the name.
Although the letters were badly faded, the word" Octavius" was spelled out on
the side of the ship. The men from the "Herald" called out greetings to anyone
who might have been aboard the "Octavius." When no one replied to their
calls, the small group boarded the ship. What they found below the vessels deck was
nothing short of a nightmare. A row of frozen bodies lined the sailor's
quarters. Next door in the Captains cabin lay four more corpses, those of the
captain, his wife and child as well as that of a sailor.
No sign of the "Octavius" was ever seen again. Interestingly though, she
was probably the fist ship to make her way through the Northwest Passage,
although, at the time of that accomplishment all of those on board were there in
body only. They had been dead for many, many months."
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