Arrival of Message From Dying Ship-Wrecked Mariners Addressed to Undergraduate Evokes an Evasive Answer

"Aha!" was the only comment made by Donald Murchie '28, when he was told that a message apparently coming from five persons in distress on the schooner Norka had been found on the shore of Martha's Vineyard. The message, a call for help which was dated August second and was scratched with a nail on a block of wood, asked that Murchie be notified.

The Associated Press dispatch on the incident follows in part:

"An inscription scratched on a block of wood which was washed up on the shore of Martha's Vineyard today said that disaster had overtaken the schooner Norka in mid-Atlantic last August.

"The block was described in the inscription as the last hope of five survivors who were adrift in an open boat on August second, approximately 1000 miles southeast of Boston. The message, signed by five sets of initials, requested that Donald Murchie of Dedham be notified.

"In the 1922 list of merchant vessels of the United States, the Norka was listed as a schooner yacht of 28 tons, built in South Boston, and sailing from New York City as her home port.

"The block of wood was picked up on the north shore of Martha's Vineyard by Arthur Green of North Tisbury. The message read:

"'Latitude 37.15 North: Longitude 59.03 West. We are adrift in an open boat with only a little food and water. This is last hope of five survivors of schooner Norka, eighth month, second day. H. M., M. V. W., S. L. W., L. M. W., R. E. L. W. Notify Donald Murchie, Dedham, Mass.'"

Various theories have been proposed as to the Norka's fate since the discovery of the two-months old S. O. S. message. Why Murchie was to be notified is unexplained.

Unfortunately for those who pictured the vessel sinking off Cape Hatteras and the block of wood floating from there to Martha's Vineyard, it has been learned that the Norka has been in drydock for the past two years. Suggestions that the block of wood was used as a moving picture property have been made, but this theory has not been verified.

As for the one person known connected with the message, it is useless to question him. He replies only by emitting the evasive ejaculation. "Aha!"