A Sailor's Grave

ALONG time ago, in 1886, John Douglas, a sailor on an American warship, USS “Mohican,” died and was buried in Papeete. A headstone, bought in Auckland, was placed over his grave.

Fifty-five years later, Mr. O. G. Nord man, a merchant, of Papeete, was walking through Uranie cemetery one day, when he noticed that workmen were removing the headstone. When he learned what was afoot, he asked the men to cease

their work, and hurried to the Mayor, M.

Georges Bambridge.

M. Bambridge said that the municipality now urgently needed all the cemetery spaces, and remains that had been buried in ground that had not been paid for were being removed elsewhere. The USA Consulate had not bought the ground— there was no fund for that purpose.

Mr. Nordman thereupon paid 586 francs and became the owner of the ground.

The Mayor shook hands with him: “Un beau geste de votre part, Oscar,” he said.

Mr. Nordman, whose father had been shipmates with Douglas in US ships, presented the ground to the United States Consulate. The bones of a long-forgotten US bluejacket now lie permanently in American soil.

Mr. Arthur Herbert Young died sud denly on Pitcairn Island on July 1, aged 70. He was the youngest son of Simon Young and brother of Fisher Young, who was killed by the natives at Santa Cruz when on a missionary tour with Bishop Patteson. Simon was a grandson of John Adams and of Edward Young, of “Bounty” fame. On his mother’s side, Arthur was a grandson of John Buffett.

Rosalind, his sister, was author of “The Story of Pitcairn Island.” His wife, nee Adela Schmidt, who pre-deceased him three and a half years ago, he met in the Gambier Islands. He has two sons and a grandson in the New Zealand forces. He was a kind, helpful and most ingenious man, who will be greatly missed by everybody on the island.