Annie was not interested in reading on. This part of the diary had the information that she was seeking. There were more details given in Mrs. Mark’s diary than Annie could ever hope to find anywhere else. This was just incredible! What a stroke of good luck to have found this diary!
Annie went back and reread the lines… “When my brother Jimmy and I waved goodbye to Captain Saunders, we had no idea that this would be the last time that we’d see him.”
Captain Saunders? Annie stared at the print in amazement. So there really was a Captain Saunders! His ship was named the Winslow. Then Marion spoke of the rings…He was planning to propose marriage to her mother!
She closed the document slowly and looked at the cover. On a label affixed to the cover was printed:
‘The memoirs of Marion Marks, daughter of Emily Street. From the Wm. H. Tuttle Collection (Copy): Original located at S.F. Public Library.’
Annie walked over to the photocopy machine on the side of the reference desk. She copied the pages from the diary. Then she returned the diary to the lady at the circulation desk.
“Did you find what you were looking for in the Mark’s diary, dear?” The librarian asked, looking above her bifocal glasses.
“Yes.” Annie replied. “That diary is very interesting, and it tells about a shipwreck that happened in 1885 up in Ocean Cove. And it really gives lots of details about it. That’s exactly what I was looking for!”
“Well, you know that you have here a firsthand account in this diary. It was fortunate that we had a copy…I recall that a grandson of Marion Marks requested that the copy be sent here, about five years ago…”
Natalie and Logan came over, finished with their magazine browsing. Natalie thanked the librarian as they left. She smiled at them and replied that she was very pleased to be able to help.
They were home by lunchtime.
Chapter 13
The Winslow
After lunch Annie took her library books to her room and closed the door. She took the photocopy from Marion Mark’s diary and read it repeatedly, staring at the copied manuscript a long time. Annie felt that these writings made by Marion Marks a hundred years ago were somehow a part of her; as though she had experienced it.
Now Annie took her library books and skimmed them for information about a Captain Saunders or a ship named ‘Winslow’. The first two books had nothing about this. Annie put these books aside. Looking at the third book, she found a chapter that described shipwrecks in Sonoma County. On one of the pages she found the following information: 1885 C.S. Winslow - A timber schooner bound from San Francisco to Portland, Ore. It was a total loss in an early season storm at Ocean Cove. Cause: a broken rudder. Casualties: 2: The captain and ship’s steward lost.
The book did not mention the captain’s name, but Annie knew that this was Captain Saunder’s ship, the same one that Marion Marks spoke of in her diary with an identical name: ‘Winslow’.
Annie could get a clear picture now how the disaster happened, right down to many the specific events of that tragic day.
She laid back on her bed and closed her eyes with a sigh. Annie could picture the young Marion and her brother Jimmy waving goodbye to the captain as he boarded his ship to set sail from San Francisco on that fateful day in 1885. They could not have known that this would be his last voyage.
Later that day the Winslow hit a terrible storm at Ocean Cove and the rudder broke, causing the ship to sink. The captain and Travis never made it off the ship before it went down.
Now Annie remembered her close scrape with death at the cave, and she had a faint recollection of being saved by the boy…his name was Travis….and the captain. The captain…. what was it he had said? Annie strained to recall his words. Something about the rings.
Suddenly Annie remembered what he had said. “The rings are for you and Emily!”
Emily? That name was familiar. Of course! Annie remembered now! Marion’s diary had included a family tree. Emily was the name of Marion’s mother…. Emily Street was the woman that Captain Saunders loved, the woman he was planning to marry.
“There are two rings inside this rock,” Travis had told her. These words now rang clear in Annie’s mind. “The rock”, Annie whispered. “Of course, the rock! The rings are inside the rock!”
Annie sprang up from the bed. She had to find out what was inside that rock. It was on a shelf in the garage and she was walking there when her mom spotted her.
“Where are you going, Annie?” Natalie asked.
“I am going outside to play,” Annie replied.
“When the laundry is done, you need to help me fold it!”
“Okay, mom, I will…”
Annie opened the door that led from the laundry room into the garage. She grabbed the rock off the shelf and took it out to the back yard. She hit it several times against the sidewalk. It did not break.
She went back into the garage, looking for a hammer. She found one hanging over the workbench. Once back outside, she placed the rock on the sidewalk again, and hit it with the hammer several times. After striking it repeatedly, the rock began to crack. Annie continued to hit the rock until it broke open, the shattered pieces crumbling away in all directions.
As the last chunks of rock broke away, a rusty metal box appeared. There was so much corrosion that layers of the box peeled away easily. After years of submersion in salt water the metal had become soft and pliable.
Annie could see that there was a lid on the metal box. She tapped on the edge of the lid until it opened slightly. As she pulled the lid upwards it came completely off in her hands. The hinges were so rusted that they broke.
There was a lot of silt within the rusty box. Annie scrapped it out carefully. Her hand touched something near the bottom. She grabbed the solid object and pulled it out.
“Another rock!” she muttered. “It’s just another rock!”
Just then Logan came out and joined her. “What are you doing?” he asked.
“I broke open my rock,” Annie explained. “I thought that there was something valuable inside, but I only found another rock.”
“You found a rock inside another rock? Wow, that’s so weird! Let me see it.”
Annie handed Logan the rock. He looked at it closely. “Hmm…this sure does have an odd shape.” He put the rock down on the sidewalk and picked up the hammer. He struck it twice. The rock pulverized as he struck it.
“Hey, I think that there is something inside this rock!” Logan cried.
He tapped all around the surface of the rock. A crusty hard substance that had the consistency of cement broke away. There was something made of metal inside!
“I know what that is!” Annie shouted in delight, her heart pounding in her chest. “It’s a jewelry case…. We have to open it, let me see it!”
Annie grabbed the jewelry case from Logan. She tried to open it by hand with no success. It was rusted shut. She took the hammer and tapped the side of it. The case cracked open just enough that now she knew exactly where the top and bottom were. After a few more taps, the lid sprang upwards just enough so that Annie could try to force it open with her fingers. She pulled and pulled on the top, but it was still stuck tight.
“I know!” Logan said. “We can open it up with a screwdriver.” He dashed into the garage and returned with a flat head.
Annie held the jewelry case in her hand as Logan pried up on the lid. The screwdriver worked. The lid opened!
Annie almost fell over when she saw what was inside the jewelry case. Two diamond rings! The diamonds glittered in the afternoon sunlight.
“Diamond rings!” Logan shouted in disbelief.
“Shhh…. Be quiet!” Annie cautioned. “We have to show this to mom right away!”
Annie and Logan dashed into the kitchen. Natalie was cutting up some carrots and celery for a salad. Annie held up the rings in her hand and cried, “Mom, look what we found!”
Natalie looked up from her chopping block. When she saw the two rin
gs her eyes widened in amazement. “Where did you get those?” she asked.
“Logan and I broke open that rock that I found in the cave at Ocean Cove,” Annie explained. “The rings were inside it.”
“You found rings inside that rock? How did they get there?” Natalie asked as she washed her hands off in the sink. “Let me see them, Annie.”
Annie handed the rings over to her mom. Natalie looked at them closely. “These must be worth a lot of money, judging by the size of the diamonds. The gold bands are badly tarnished, though. I have some jewelry cleaner that might work to restore the gold…. let’s give it a try.”
Natalie brought some jewelry cleaner out from the closet. She placed some of the cleaner into a plastic container, then she put the rings into the solvent. Annie and Logan stared at the rings as they soaked in the solution.
“We’ll soak them overnight,” Natalie said. “It will take hours to remove that much tarnish. Now, Annie show me where you found them….”
Annie and Logan showed their mom the broken rock and the badly corroded lock box and jewelry case outside. Natalie looked puzzled by all of this. She could not understand how two rings could have been inside a rock.
“Mom, I can tell you how these rings got there. I read about it in Marion Mark’s diary…. the one the librarian gave me this morning….”
“Marion Marks?” Natalie looked even more perplexed.
“Let me show you!” Annie quipped. “It’s in the house….”
They went back into the kitchen. Annie ran off to her room and returned with the copy of Marion Marks diary. She set it on the table and they sat down and looked at the pages. “It’s all right here, mom, let me read it to you….”
Annie read the entry from the Mark’s diary. Natalie and Logan hung on every word. When Annie finished reading there was complete silence in the room.
Annie looked up into her mom’s eyes. “See, mom!” she said. “I have it all figured out! Back in 1885 Captain Saunders was in love with Marion’s mother, Emily…. He was planning to ask her to marry him. He bought these two wedding rings, and he showed them to Marion and her brother Jimmy as he was about to leave San Francisco. He took the rings on the ship. It says that the ship sank in a bad storm somewhere near Ocean Cove! That’s exactly the same place where we were on our camping trip!”
“Let me see that,” Natalie said softly. Annie gave her the copy of the Marks diary. Natalie read it in silence.
“This is just unbelievable, Annie!” She said, looking up from the diary. “You are very fortunate to have found these rings….and this diary. What made you suspect that the rings were inside the rock?”
“I really can’t remember exactly why,” Annie said, glancing out the window. “I remember seeing Captain Saunders and Travis in a dream…. I think, and they told me that the rings were inside the rock!”
Natalie bit down on her lower lip. She looked confused. “Captain Saunders told you about the rings? This is becoming stranger by the second!”
“Wow, maybe the captain really was a ghost!” Logan blurted, with his eyes opening wide in amazement.
Natalie scratched her head and looked at the Marks diary again. “You are right, Annie,” she said. “It’s all here…. Captain Saunders, the rings, the shipwreck…. It all happened.”
“But mom, we were talking to a Captain Saunders out on the beach, remember?” Logan exclaimed.
“Well, Logan, I must admit that this whole thing really has me stumped. Yes, he did say that his name was Captain Saunders, and he knew so much about ships and ghosts…. yes, he talked a long time about ghosts! Then it seemed like he just disappeared as he walked away from us. It is as though he was one.”
“He was a ghost, mom!” Annie said. “I just know it! He was the captain of the Winslow, the ship that sank at Ocean Cove in 1885. He has been dead for over one hundred and twenty years! He is the ghost of Ocean Cove!”
Natalie got up and continued to cut carrots and potatoes over on the kitchen counter. She seemed to be in deep thought as she chopped.
“Yes, Annie, I am beginning to think that he is….” Natalie’s voice trailed off as she said this. “I had a dream about him last night….and he called me Emily!”
“He called you Emily?” Annie echoed.
“Yes. He said that he loves me and he called me Emily.”
“Mom, this means that you could have been Emily Street in a past life!”
“What do you mean, Annie?”
“Some people believe that we have past lives. Emily Street was the woman that Captain Saunders was going to marry, so in your past life you may have been her!”
Natalie looked bewildered. “Well, I suppose that’s possible, if you believe in such things.”
There was a long silence and Natalie continued to chop.
“Mom! What about the rings?” Logan inquired. “What are we going to do with them?”
“I am going to take them to a jeweler and have them appraised,” Natalie replied.
Logan looked confused. “What’s that?”
“An appraisal is where some experts tell you how much a piece of jewelry is worth. They should be able to tell us the value of the rings.”
Chapter 14
Farewell
Natalie spent the rest of her vacation getting the rings appraised. She consulted with four different jewelry appraisers. She also paid to have the rings professionally cleaned. They were now restored to their original condition.
The best appraisal offer that Natalie received was $16,000 for the lady’s ring and $20,000 for the men’s ring. Now she had to decide whether to sell them or hold onto them as an investment. She put them into a bank vault, realizing that they would increase in value with time.
Each time Natalie had the rings appraised she told the story about how Annie found them at Ocean Cove, and how they were from a shipwreck. The story was leaked to the local newspaper, and an article appeared in the Sacramento Bee. The media now was hot on the trail, and the family was interviewed by a T.V. station, and this ran on the 5’ock news.
Several magazines and national talk shows now became interested in the story. Annie and her family were fast becoming celebrities.
Many people who listened to Annie’s story scoffed about the ghost of Captain Saunders. Did this girl make up this story to gain all this media coverage? Or perhaps she was a little “off” in the head. Despite all this criticism, there were also many people who believed her.
Mystery Portals, a T.V program dedicated to the study of the paranormal, sent an investigative team to Ocean Cove. They spent two days and nights filming on location. A live ghost cam feed was set up, where people at home could watch the investigation and save images on their computers and smart phones.
The investigations confirmed Annie’s reports of ghostly activity at Ocean Cove. One video showed what appeared to be a bright orb, brilliantly lit, rising above the cove. The orb then vanished like someone had thrown a switch.
Another video clip showed what seemed to be a shadowy figure walking in the distance along the cliff tops at the head of the cove. As the camera zoomed in on the figure, it paused briefly before it disappeared into a layer of mist.
Many people watching the web cam sent images to the Mystery Portals studios. Some of the best images appeared to be of a boy and man in a captain’s uniform, standing at the cliff’s edge. One image, sent in from 37 separate web sources, was taken at 7:01 am on Saturday, September 12th. This image caused quite a sensation and was seriously questioned by the skeptics. There appeared to be two ghosts in the image…. but the faces were somewhat unclear. Annie identified them as the captain and Travis Beacon.
Many of those who had scoffed at Annie’s story now became convinced that these unusual events did indeed happen. Besides, who wouldn’t believe a 12-year-old girl with a sweet honest face and strong convictions like Annie O’brien?
Steven Taylor and Johnny Pratt were not at all impressed with all this sensation about shipwre
cks and ghosts. Their parents thought that this was all just a ridiculous story that Annie O’Brien had concocted.
Steven and Johnny decided to play another trick on Annie just for some good laughs. They wrapped themselves in white gauze from head to toe, and set off for Annie’s house at a quarter past mid-night. Steven filled his pocket with firecrackers before they left. They tried to suppress laughter as they sneaked up the driveway to Annie’s house.
“I’ll set off a string of firecrackers….” Steven said dryly. “When Annie comes to the window, we’ll howl like ghosts and then shine our flashlights on our faces….”
“Yea, yea, okay, let’s do it!” Johnny whispered.
Steven pulled the firecrackers and matches out of his pocket. He struck the match and moved it towards the fuse. A sudden burst of wind blew out the match.
“Dang, man, where did that wind come from?” Steven groaned.
He tried to light the fuse a second time. The flame on the match blew out again. They moved over by the tree in the front yard, hoping that it would shield them from the wind.
Steven struck another match. As he was about to light the fuse, there was a gurgling sound, then a swish of water moving through pipes…. the lawn sprinklers were coming on! Water was spraying everywhere. They ran towards the sidewalk, but they could not avoid getting soaked by the sprinklers. Steven dropped all the firecrackers as he fell down into the wet grass. They stood on the sidewalk looking back at Annie’s house.
“Ah, man! Our prank is ruined!” Johnny moaned.
Another strong burst of wind hit the boys and stripped the rest of the white gauze off them. They were about to leave when they heard a voice.
“Good evening, boys….”
Steven and Johnny wheeled around to their left and saw a man approaching them on the sidewalk. He was wearing a captain’s uniform and long black boots. It looked just like Annie’s ghost, Captain Saunders!
“What are you two boys doing out here at this hour?” He demanded in a stern voice. “I hope that you’re not trying to bother these nice peaceful folks, now are you?”
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