Pop told me about Capt Kidd..................
“His
Britannic Majesty’s sloop of war De Braak, Capt. Drew,” an account from
Philadelphia, published on May 31, 1798, just six days after the
disaster, stated, “overset in Old Kiln Roads, about 4 o’clock last
Friday afternoon…she immediately filled and went down, with Capt. Drew,
his lieutenants and 38 others seamen, and marines.
“About
25 days ago she fell in with, and captured a Spanish ship from La
Plata, bound to Spain, with a very valuable cargo, consisting of 100
tons of copper in bars, a quantity of cocoa, etc.”
Ignoring
the phrase, “consisting of copper bars, a quantity of cocoa, etc.,” the
mention of a “very valuable cargo” sparked a search for the remains of
the De Braak that lasted nearly two centuries and led to the creation of
a Halloween legend.
By the late 19th
century, many people concluded that the De Braak had been filled with
gold and silver when it went down. Several attempts were made to locate
the sunken ship; but they all ended in failure.
During the first decades of the 20th
century, the stories of the wealth of the De Braak continued to excite
treasurer hunters, but some people began to wonder if something sinister
was protecting the lost ship.
In 1935, Charles N.
Colstad, an engineer from Attleboro, Massachusetts,, surveyed the ocean
floor off Cape Henlopen and announced, “We have been encouraged in what
we have accomplished and believe we are on the right trail.”
The
arrival of harsh weather in November dashed Colstad’s hopes of
retrieving the treasure of the De Braak. The expedition's crew was
convinced that the wreck of the British brig was protected by a “Weather
or Sea Witch” who summoned violent storms to drive away anyone who
approached the sunken ship and its treasure.
The
superstitious sailors decided on an elaborate ritual to exorcise the
evil spirit. After the demon was drawn on cardboard, the treasure
hunters then used the cardboard image for target practice.
After
the first attempt to drive the Weather Witch away failed, the sailors
constructed an effigy of the Weather Witch. The old hag had long gray
hair that streamed from under a tall peaked cap.
Equipped
with a broomstick and clothed with a flowing cape, “The witch was given
the position of honor in the cabin, offered drink and food, and then
was burned, with many incantations, in the galley stove.”
At sunset, the witch’s ashes were collected and scattered on the sea.
The
sailors’ exorcism appeared to have angered the Sea Witch. Strong winds
whipped the sea into high waves and made the salvage vessels
unmanageable. Faced with the worsening weather conditions, Colstad
postponed the search until the following summer.
In
August 1936, Colstad used two vessels to explore the ocean floor off
Cape Henlopen. On Sept. 18, the Weather Witch returned and was
accompanied by a full-fledged hurricane. The storm drove one of
Colstad’s boats on to the beach 300 yards from the surf and destroyed
the expedition’s range markers.
Defeated by the demon of the deep, Colstad abandoned the search for the De Braak.
Charles
Colstad’s vain attempt to locate the De Braak created notoriety for the
legend of the Sea Witch. When the remains of the De Braak were raised
in 1986, no gold, silver, or other treasure was found with the ship’s
timbers, now on display at Cape Henlopen State Park.
Tours
of the remains of the vessel are conducted on a limited basis. The
Weather Witch, on the other hand, has a prominent place in the annual
Rehoboth Sea Witch festival held Halloween weekend.
Principal Sources:
» Sylvanus Urban, editor, The Gentleman’s Magazine and Historical Chronicle, 1798, Part 2, London, July, 1798, p. 618.
» New York Times, Sept. 19, 1932; July 12, 1936.
» Donald Shomette, The Hunt for HMS DE Braak, Legend and Legacy, Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press, 1993, pp. 109-111, 373-374.
» Delaware, A Guide to the First Sate, Federal Writers’ Project, New York: The Viking Press, 1938, p. 106.
No comments:
Post a Comment