Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1882-12-27
DANGERS OF THE SEA.
Ships Lost or Injured by Coming Into
Collision With Abandoned
Vessels.
DEsTR GIVE SEA MONSTERS.
From the New York Times.l

of their presence until too late to avoid
collision. Besides the abandoned
wrecks, which are apt to become water
logged and sink just below the surface,
there are other floating obstacles which
are liable to prove dangerous to the YES
sells which run into them. Ships have
been crippled and even sunk owing to
their having come into fOrcible contact
with portions OF wreckage, logs, pieces
of timber. whales or other sea monsters
cr-bergs and drifting icetields. Doubt
less some of the vessels which left port
in an apparently seawOrthy condition
but were never afterward heard from
went down with all on boa rd after com
ing into collision with water-logged
wrecks which had not been observed by
the men on lockout. Such obstacles
are not as apt to sink large iron steam
ship, but with small craft it proves very
different. A large iron steamship is
now built with double bottom, and with
at least one bulkhead forward This
would enable her to go over almost any
floating obstacle without sinking after
ward. Although her bows might be
stove IN and her outer bottom badly torn,
the bull6head and the inner bottom would
yet save the ship. Two years ago
steamship Of the Monarch Line left
London for this port on her first trip.
Soon after passing the English Channel
she struck submerged wreck and
passed completely over it. Her pro-
peller WAS broken off but she did not
leak badly. She put back TO the near
est port for repairs, but owing to her
great strength it was found that her
bottom had not been greatly injured.
Some years before q smaller steamship
ran over su Emerged bulk in the same
neighborhood, and went! to the bottom,
but her passengers and crew were saved.
Iceberg5 and icefelds have disabled and
sunk many fine vessels. But although
a great source of danger the mariner is
usually warned of their presence III the
1eighborhood by lowering of the tenn
perature of the atmosphere or the water.
1.-The water-logged wreck is the most
dangerous of these floating obstacles"
said all old sea captain. "Many yes
sci has been lest owing to those aban-
| dOned hulks. And the worst of it seems
to be that it Is almost impossible to get
rid of them. They are mostly the
wrecks of Undertaken vessels. Al
most any other cargo would sink ship
when she became full of water The
longer such wreck drifts about the
mora dangerous it becomes, for it grad
ually sinks below the surface, but re-
mains Just high enough to knock a hole.
IN the bottom of the first ship that
| comes along. a great many sailors are
altogether too apt to give up ship be-
tore there is any real reason for such a
course. And then they leave danger
Gus obstacle floating about which may
sink half dozen other vessels before 1t
| goes to the bottom itself. [ remember
the case of a three-masted lumber-laaen
schooner named Louisa BirdsalI, which
was abandoned about five years ago.
! Her crew were taken off the wreck by
! passing vessel, and were landed at some
! port along the coast. The abandoned
! vessel drifted about off Hatteras, where
| once passed close to her and where
she was sighted by number of vessels.
You couldn't pick up paper printed in
any large American, British, or cont
mental port without reading that some
| ship which had just arrived had passed
! the wreck of the Louisa Birdsall. Quite
number of craft ran foul of her, and
were more or less crippled in conse-
| qUence. For over a year that water
| logged hulk drifted about in the track
OF shipping. Scarcely a dark night
| passed without some vessel running into
| her. 1t got SO that whenever q ship
would be tOWed into one Of the ports
along the coast with her bows well stove
| III, the captains in that harbor would
say: well, that Louisa BirdsalI has
| been proving about off Hatteras
again. At last, after long Watching
and waiting, the insurance underwriters
received cable dispatch from Burmuda
! by way of Halifax, which announced
that the Louisa Birdsall had at last
! drlfted into shallow water and had sunk,
leaving her masts sticking out of water.
! The whole maritime world reioiced at
this intelligence. A good many cap
tainS made it a rule to set fire to every
waterlogged wreck which they came
across, but even then the chances are
that the hulk will merely burn to the
waters edge. 1t is now almost as dan
gerous an obstacle to run against as it
was before, but as long as it is burning
there is little danger that it will be run
into. No one can say positively how
the Inflated City of Boston, with her
uuuuf0uS Oh lives, was 1OSG some years
ago. But the disaster was probably
caused by some floating obstacle. It
may have been that she ran into an ice
berg or that she ran over some hulk
which was floating just beneath the sur
face of the water.
When timber-Iaden wreck goes to
pieces It's material will still float about
and may prove dangerous. A small
Craft will be brought to stand-stiu with
blow which will shake her from stem
to stern, and cause her to leak badly if
| she strikes against quantity of wreck
age or timber from some wreck which
has gone to pieces. A friend OF mine
was master OF brig which was bound
from the West Indies to one of the Eng
lish ports about 10 yearsago One dark
night, when in the neighborhood of the
Western Islands. the brig ran into a
quantity of wreckage, and although her
bows were not much torn the shock
caused her to leak, The pumps were
kept constantly goingf for "a hours while