Morning journal and courier., 1882-12-22

i will shake her from stem to stern, and cause I her to leak badly if she strikes against 1 quantity of wreckage 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 English ports about ten years ago. 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 mnch torn the shock caused her to Ieak
 The pumps were kept constantly going for twenty four hours while she headed for the Western Islands, but her hold filled and she went to the bottom, leaving her crew to make for the land in an open boat. A large iron steamship can brush aside such wreck age but even then it is liable to strike the propeller if the obstacle happens to pass under the steamship it is more than likely to come up under the propeller, which 1t IS apt to break. Steamships sometimes come to standstill at sea in order that some slight de- feet in the machinery may be remedied. In such case wreckage may drift up close to her propeller, which is the most vulnerable portion of the vessel, and when that is start ed up again it is liable to strike against the obstacle and break. A few weeks since the Gelert, of the Hamburg Line. was obliged to put back to Plymouth with two of the blades of her propeller gone. These were supposed to have been broken off by striking against some pieces of floating timber. The Gulf Stream distributes floating logs and debris
 
 in the track of vessels sailing between this country and Europe The quantity of these dangerous floating obstacles is constantly on the increase, owing to the fact that the wrecks and floods supply the material faster than 1t can become sufficiently water-logged to sink to safe distance below the surface
 "There are also dangerous floating obsta cles of animate nature. Whales and oth- monsters have sunk or disabled vessels in number of instances. Captains of steamers have reported losing blades of their propellers by coming in contact with whales One of the Havana steamships was caught in a large school of whales about year ago when thirty-six hours out from this port. Several of the plates in her bows were driven in by striking against the monsters, and in order to save the propeller the ship was forced to lay to until the school had passed There was time when mariners stood in great fear of the cut throat swordfsh, which l used to go about 'knifng' inofensive mer- chantmen without the slightest provocatiou. | This led to the placing ofs copper on the bot l toms of vessels. Tho iron ships of the pres ent day are perfectly secure from such at tacks. When a Guion four master, which l prefers cutting through an iceberg to the | trouble of going around it, appears, the l sword-fsh which has been on the lookout for | prey is forced to realize it's own l1ttleness and to devote itself to the destruction of whales | and such other small creatures as it can find. | Other sea monsters have been known to as- l sauit vessels. It is said that devll-fish have l seized the cables of small crafts and dragged | them out to Some years ago vessel 1 bound for the East Indies put into St Helena in distress and reported having been run into by huge monster. Afterward, when she was placed in 8 dry-dock, an immense horn was found imbedded among her tim bers This doubtless had belonged to the monster and had been broken of when it at tackled the ship. There is peculiar breed of whale which, instead of using it's tail as weapon of offense or defense, plunges head long at whatever approaches it. This was recently christened by friend of mine the Sullivan species owing to it's slugging' propensities. It was probably full grown Sullivan that sank the Norwegian bark Go lunlbia in the fall of 1879. The bark was somewhere near the banks of Newfoundland and was sailing due west under full spread of canvas. It was fine, bracing morning and the whale was getting it's blood in circu- lation by little run of few hundred miles toward the eastward. The result was vio- lent concussion. Thewhale's blood dyed the water a deep red, wh ile a large hole was knocked iu the Columbias bow beneath the water mark After ths whale had splashed about for moment he disappeared. When the captain went below to examine the condi tion of the bows, he found that daylight was visible through the hole which the whale had made The hold began to fill rapidly, and soon afterward the crew were obliged to take to their boats. They had barely done this when the bark sank. They were picked up the same afternoon by Rotterdam steam ship These marine enemies of ours rarely is apt to prove very serious for both par