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Customs and Incidents: Nordanhamn

A wealthy German farmer, living near Nordanhamn, was making flour-balls in 1871 for his cattle. At the end of his work he missed his ring, bearing his wife's name. Soon afterwards the farmer sold seven bullocks, which the purchaser shipped to England, on board the 'Adler' cattlesteamer on October 26. Two days afterwards an English smack, the 'Mary Ann' of Colchester, picked up at sea the still warm carcass of a bullock, which was opened by the crew to obtain some fat for greasing the rigging. Inside the animal they found a gold ring inscribed with the woman's name and the date 1860. Captain Tye reported the circumstance as soon as he arrived in port, and handed the ring over to an official, who sent it up to London. The authorities set to work to trace its ownership, and found that the only ship reporting the loss of a beast that could have passed the 'Mary Ann' was the steamer 'Adler,' from which a bullock supposed to be dead, had been thrown overboard on October 28. Meanwhile, the 'Shipping Gazette' recording the finding of the ring had reached Nordanhamn, and one of its readers there had recognised the name inscribed upon it; communications were opened with the farmer, and in due time he repossessed his ring. In the chapter on 'Ring Superstitions' allusion is made to the marvellous stories of rings found in the bodies of fishes. An instance, however, of this character was mentioned in the newspapers lately, as having occurred at St. John's, Newfoundland. It is said that a signet-ring bearing the monogram 'P.B.' was discovered by a fisherman in the entrails of a cod-fish caught in Trinity Bay. The fisherman, John Potter, kept the prize in his possession for some time, but, the incident getting known, he was requested by the colonial secretary to send or bring the ring to St. John's, as he had received letters from a family named Burnam, of Poole, England, stating that they had reason to feel certain that the ring once belonged to Pauline Burnam, who was one of the several hundred passengers of the Allan steamship 'Anglo-Saxon,' which was wrecked off Chance Bay (N.F.) in 1861, the said Pauline Burnam being a relative of theirs. The fisherman, in whose possession the ring was, brought it to St. John's, and presented it at the colonial secretary's office. After a brief delay he was introduced to a Mr. Burnam, who at once identified the object as the weddingring of his mother, and which she had always worn since her marriage at Huddersfield, in the year 1846. The ring was accordingly given up to Mr. Burnam, who rewarded the fortunate finder with fifty pounds.