The Tragic Wreck of the Olive Branch
We mentioned yesterday that a vessel had been lost near the Ducks, and that her name and other circumstances were unknown…. The masters of the [schooners] Huron, Fitzhugh and Augusta all brought the information to port that en route hither they saw a schooner in the distance ahead of them, that about noon she suddenly disappeared, and that they all concluded a disaster had occurred. Their impression is confirmed by the captain of the schooner Dudley, who saw the topmast of a vessel above water as he sailed down the lake for Kingston in the afternoon…
Other than a Union Jack (British) flag floating from the peak of the topmast, no other clue had been found offering any possibility of identifying the unfortunate vessel. It was immediately assumed that the entire crew had perished because not so much as a sole survivor had reached shore to tell his tale. The newspaper that day concluded that
…The case is at present shrouded in mystery, an explanation of which will only be forthcoming when the water gives up its dead after the lapse of a few days, or when some other evidence is supplied to place the question of identity beyond a doubt. In the meantime the accident is a matter of much speculation, and the friends of Kingston sailors must suffer not a little from suspense.
The captain of the schooner, , claimed to have seen the ship sink as he watched through his telescope, the vessel apparently rolling over before disappearing. Another schooner master, Captain McLeod of the , reported passing within a stone’s throw of the wreck and seeing a “fly” (a pennantshaped flag used mainly to indicate wind direction)
