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.
With the eyes of the Atlantic seaboard directed toward the Vineyard this week, the twelve-year-old mystery of the sinking of the rum runner John Dwight began to unfold. The investigation has progressed to a point where it is definitely established that the wreck lies undisturbed with but slight damage to the hull, and that, presumably, her cargo of liquor, her store of wealth and the bones of the victims of violence are still in the decaying hull.
A survey of the sunken wreck of the steam rum-runner John Dwight will begin today, weather permitting; Eugene Nohl and David J. Curney of Vineyard Haven having made their plans to begin the work. This same crew has completed its survey of the Port Hunter, and has reported that salvaging her cargo of steel is feasible.
The good ship Chappy, huge freight scow which will this summer transport freight and automobiles over to Chappaquiddick Point and back, was the cynosure of all eyes Sunday, when she steamed all over the harbor. With Engineers Joe Costa and Jesse Jeffers coaxing the automobile engine turning the propeller, Capt. Tony Bettencourt walking the bridge, Joe Brown and Oscar at the tiller ropes, swinging the craft around in her own length, the scow made triumphant progress, loaded to the ribands with free passengers and accompanied by a great deal of assorted and uncalled for advice.
The Vineyard Gazette installed on Saturday a new Intertype machine—a typesetting machine embodying a great many recent improvements—and this addition to the plant was put into operation for the first time this week. The Intertype replaces the now old fashioned typesetting machine which the Gazette brought to the Island in the early summer of 1920, the first machine of the kind to be Set up on Martha’s Vineyard.