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THEY DIDN’T COME BACK ALIVE

(SEABOARD MYSTERY)

North Carolina’s, Roanoke Island, is twelve miles long by three miles wide. This small dot of land is home to a centuries-old mystery. In 1587, one hundred and seventeen English colonists established a settlement on the island. The homesteads were built atop a previously abandoned English camp.

The deserted camp had been home to fifteen Englishmen, who had vanished. There was no sign of combat or message detailing what had become of the settlers. It was thought, the small company of men had been destroyed by hostile Indians on the North Carolina mainland.

This bad omen did not dissuade the new pioneers from making the old home their new home. The hardy colonists were determined to make a better life for themselves in the new lands off the Atlantic seaboard.

The voyagers constructed numerous buildings and farmed the island. With the township secured, expedition leader John White promised the pioneers, “In less than a year more ships will return with more colonists and supplies.” White sailed for England with the flotilla that had brought the immigrants to Roanoke; his mission was to report to the English Crown on the progress of the lodgment.

For three years European ships did not visit the Atlantic outpost. War with Spain and economical upheavals prohibited White’s charter company from sending men and supplies to the Carolina anchorage.

Privateers did venture from England to check on the Roanoke colony, but their missions were aborted by greed. As the buccaneers engaged non-English ships all over the Atlantic, the divested pilgrims became an afterthought. The island roadstead was never visited because there was no profit in beaching at Roanoke.

By 1590 the Spanish naval threat to England had been checkmated. Only then was White able to assemble a convoy. Filled with supplies the task force sailed for Roanoke.

On arrival the fleet was greeted with silence. The colony’s houses were in a state of disrepair or had been torn down.

Where had the colonists gone? No graves were found. Carved onto a tree were the letters “CRO”. On a wooden fortification were emblazoned, “CROATAN”, which was the name of a nearby Indian tribe. It had been agreed upon, a Maltese cross would be carved upon large and small timbers if a disaster had over taken the English enclave. None were found.

The search was abandoned for the missing inhabitants when a storm chased the rescue ships into the Atlantic. In the open sea, the convoy sailed back to England. Protests by White about duty and lives in the balance did not move the ships’ officers from their decision. The squadron had taken storm damage; there was no profit at deserted Roanoke, and the crews were spooked.

Roanoke was written off as a lost bulwark, there was no need to sacrifice more men and supplies in a lost cause. A reconnaissance expedition visited Roanoke twenty years later; no clues or settlers were found.

Theories then and today abound over the mysterious disappearance of the Roanoke pioneers, but none of them make sense. Had the Indians attacked and killed the Europeans? The idea lacked merit; there were no coded signs and no evidence of a great struggle. Some historians claim the stockade wall was proof there was trouble with the Indians. Wood salvaged from the buildings was used for constructing stockade walls. The need for beams would account for the torn down or falling apart houses that were found inside the colony.

But this idea does not make sense. Roanoke was not a defenseless town when White sailed for England in 1587. Defensive positions and walls had been built. Furthermore, ramparts were standard on all New World settlements. Is it not possible some of the town’s houses had fallen apart due to violent storm activity?

It was speculated the island was hit with a drought. The populace was forced to move inland. Once on the continent the English banded with an Algonquin tribe. Through the decades the colonists intermarried with Indians, their looks and culture was absorbed.

Then why didn’t English culture and technology blossom in the different tribes of the area? Generations later, Indians with English bloodlines should have met the next wave of settlers with muskets and metal arms. The science of musket weaponry is never lost; it is passed down from generation to generation and improved upon.

Another theory fancied by some pundit’s, claims that the Europeans were ambushed and destroyed when they ventured onto the mainland. One delirious survivor managed to make it back to Roanoke and carve “CRO” or “CROATAN” into the timbers of the settlement. The Englishman was then killed and dragged off before he could disclose the fate of the colony.

The theory is absurd; the brave pioneers were not stupid. The English would have left messages and arrows carved in wood or stone, pointing in what direction they went. Even if the pilgrims were annihilated on the mainland, there would have been many clues left at Roanoke, as to what was their plan of action.

One idea that was in vogue for years with the university brainiacs, had the settlers being defeated by nature and giving up. After three years of no contact with England, the immigrants rejected their thin life on the island and concluded they had been abandoned. From the wood of their houses, the colonists built two or three ships and sailed for England. In the Atlantic, a storm broke the ships apart; the Roanokens drowned.

This theory is unlikely, very few colonists ever returned to their homeland. The New World with all its perils was better than anything Europe had to offer. Again, one must beg the question, why were no messages left chronicling the colonist’s decision to sail back to England?

It was postulated the villagers were captured by Spaniards and shipped back to the West Indies. The prison ship was holed and sank with all hands in the Atlantic. Spanish records indicate there was no expedition sent to Roanoke. It is debatable if the Spaniards even knew the English had a colony off the North Carolina coast.

One wild theory attests the colonists were taken prisoner by men from outer space and whisked off the planet. Another mind bender has the islanders opening up a door to another dimension. Before the portal closed, the energy or beast from this new dimension consumed the settlers.

What is most intriguing about the Roanoke mystery is that the pioneers were snuffed out without leaving so much as an SOS.

“CRO” and “CROATAN”, what did it mean? If the colonists did manage to leave behind lost clues, a 1862 Civil War battle, which was fought on the island, destroyed them. Interestingly, Union and Confederate troops that bivouacked all over the island, never uncovered any data about what became of the missing settlers.

What’s your guess on what became of the lost settlers? Where is Rod Sterling when you need him? This mystery needs a Twilight Zone ending – a conclusion one can understand. (6)