The sloop Silver Heels, Capt. Eugene Nohl, returned to Vineyard Haven on Tuesday after spending more than two weeks in investigating the wreck of the rum runner John Dwight off Cuttyhunk and reported rather discouragingly that the hull is filled with bottles. Nohl, who has done most of the diving, said he had completed a thorough examination of the wreck, which he found damaged but slightly and sanded scarcely at all. But to the height of his shoulders, the entire cargo space is filled with empty beer bottles and rotted barrel staves. He estimated that there were many thousands of these, and groping and delivering among them failed to bring to light a single whiskey bottle.
He was not ready to give up the quest, however, as the whiskey has always been supposed to have been stowed beneath the beer, which was in flour barrels. The rustling of the caps and breaking of the barrel hoops accounts for the great mass of empty bottles, and these will have to be removed before the salvagers can get at the portion of the hold which is supposed to contain the hard liquor.
No clue as to what occurred aboard the Dwight was disclosed by the investigation and but a single hint of the violence which may have taken place. This was a great knife, quite two feet in length, which Nohl found in the hold. Whether or not this grim weapon brought death to any of the smugglers will probably never be known, but almost equal to a cutlass in size and weight, it could have been employed with telling effect.
Preparations are being made to take submarine photographs of the wreck for Pathe News, John Craig, well known photographer being expected to make the pictures. Lights of 3,000 watt power are to be employed, and if the pictures are successful, the public will be furnished with positive proof that “the hole in the sea bottom” reported by the men supposed to have destroyed the Dwight, is a myth.
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