1954 February SAGA MAGAZINE Mystery Of Oak Island  Robinson Crusoe Sailing 

Description

1954 February SAGA MAGAZINE Mystery Of Oak Island  Robinson Crusoe Sailing .
SAGA true Adventures for men.
VOLUME SEVEN, NUMBER FIVE,
1954
CONTENTS
FEBRUARY
OUT OF THE NEWS 10 THEY CALLED ME A P.O.W. RED by Jack Flanary
42 THE SNOW FIGHTERS by A. E. Allen
SAGAS OF THE PAST 16
THE MYSTERY OF OAK ISLAND by C. H. Frick
18 SIX WERE HANGED by Jack Pearl
22 WHAT HAPPENED TO THE MARY CELESTE?
by George Horne-Martin J. Nor
30 THE REAL ROBINSON CRUSOE by Arthur Train, Jr.
34 THE TENDERLOIN by Herbert Asbury
MEN IN ACTION 14 THE GLORIOUS FOOL by Clark Hunter Bradford
26 THE ROOKIE LION TRAINER by Gerald Payne
32 KILLER ON THE LOOSE by Homer Croy
40 HUNTING THE BEHEMOTH by Hugh Prior
50 NIGHT JUMP by Donald P. Kruse
CRIME 46 MURDER-PROOF MALLOY by Hugh Layne
SPORTS 52 FISHERMAN'S HEAVEN by Stan Smith
56 THREE TIMES AS FAST AS THE WIND by Jack Orr
FEATURES 6 LETTERS TO SAGA
8 THE LOOKOUT
48 SAGA'S PHOTO CONTEST
66 GOIN' PLACES
70 JOBS FOR ADVENTURERS
74 ASK THE EXPERTS
Cover Painting by Ed Valigursky
F ALL THE STORIES of treasure
buried in the earth or corroding in
the hulls of sunken galleons, per-
haps the most baffling is the mystery of the
Oak Island Money Pit. The name applied
șo glibly is largely conjectural. No one
knows whose treasure he seeks on Oak
Island or what precisely is its nature. Yet,
generation after generation, the search
goes on.
Captain Kidd, the goat of high intrigue,
the pirate who cried from the gallows plat-
form, "I am the innocentest of them all!"
has been credited with burying his loot
here off the coast of Nova Scotia in an area
he never visited. Others claim, 'with greater
logic, that the treasure might well be gold
from the fabulous Spanish Main, for this
Treasure Island of the North lies on the
latitude of Spain. Still others recall the
legend that the jewels of Louis XVI and
Marie Antoinette, which vanished during
the French Revolution, were taken to Nova
Scotia and disappeared there. But all agree
that at the bottom of the pit, tantalizingly
protected by devious devices that have
baffled engineering science a century and
a half, lies a fortune.
The story begins on a bright October
morning in 1795. Three youths-Anthony
Vaughan, Jack Smith, Daniel McGinnis-
were paddling toward the uninhabited
island on a hunting expedition. As they
paddled they discussed strange stories the
old folks told-of lights that flickered on
the island at night, of cries coming out of
the darkness. As the island inched closer the
boys could see the oak trees growing on it
Qak leland, NS.
Southenitem end
T.
he
la
of
----------- 2 -----------
e
t
hone Bay were covered with spruce Oak Island is a tiny spot in the At-
lantic about a mile long by a mile and a half wide.
of Nova Scotia approximately 45 miles below Halifax.
Ashore on the island, the boys found red clover and other plants
unknown thereabouts. The youths pushed through the Acadian quiet
and the underbrush until they came upon a clearing. Magnificently alone
in the clearing, about four hundred feet from the beach, stood a huge
oak tree. It drew their attention and roused instant curiosity. One
horizontal limb had been amputated four feet from the trunk. The
stub was scarred on top, as though by friction from a rope or cable.
It lies off the coast
-tall, trees more like live oaks oaks.
They, a for all the rest of that dot Ma-
----------- 3 -----------
Beneath it the ground had sunk in a circular depression
about 13 feet in diameter.
Next morning the boys were back with picks and
shovels and dreams of pirate gold. They dug into the
heavy blue clay, and soon saw marks of other pickaxes
along the sides of the old shaft.
deep before their picks struck timber. In a near frenzy
they uncovered a heavy oaken platform. Below it lay
The pit was ten feet
more dirt.
Camping on the island, they kept on digging. At 20 feet
they came upon another wooden platform. And at 30 feet,
after laboriously hauling out thousands of buckets of clay,
----------- 4 -----------
they reached a third platform. Winter was upon them, and
they had to halt operations.
Before spring came, the boys decided to enlist aid. But
the mainlanders were not interested. Some had a super-
stitious dread of setting foot on "haunted" Oak Island.
Others simply passed it off as tall talk from teen-agers.
Knowing that they could not proceed without help and
equipment, the boys waited.
More than seven years later, the first Oak Island Treasure
Company was organized. Drilling machinery and hoisting
gear were purchased and work began in the summer of
1803, under the leadership of Dr. (Continued on page 64)