The Brookhaven leader. [volume] (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1883-1891, 1883-09-20


his boat and row aboard his ship again.
A more romantic derelict was the
American brig Celeste, the story oil
which i read with interest in an Ameri-
can paper few days ago. She was
found in the Mediterranean and boarded.
All sail was on her, but not living
creature was to be seen. There was
fire burning in the galley; dinner was
set out untasted and not yet cold; there
was some child toys in the cabin, land
a piece of a woman's dress was still
nder the needle of the sewing
machine" What had become of the
peopleP Had they committed suicide
by jumping overboardP If so, why was
their dinner cooked and served, only to
be left untouchedp The easiest way
perhaps to solve the riddle is to disbe-
lieve the story. But if it be true it is
extraordinary, and should commend it
self as a marine problem very well
worth the notice of magazine-writer
on the lookout for subject.
Now and again, however, a derelict
is encountered that proves a wonder
fully rich prize. Such was the Falls of
Alton. At about 280 miles from Ma
deira a French vessel fell in with a
large iron English ship, abandoned, and
she was conveyed to the island by a
French squadron of inspection. She
proved to be the Falls of Alton, new
iron ship, loaded with $500 0tons of rail-
way sleepers, $50 tons of pig iron, $50
tons of smithy coal, and 200 tons of coke
"a nice little haul for Monsieur, as the
salvage afterward proved. 1t was
charged against the Captain that he en-
deavored to sink the ship by cutting
the suction-pipe and opening the sea-
cock in the after-peak; but this he de-
MED. and whether it was proved or not
and what became of the case can not
recollect. Encountering and bringing
to port few such Gerelicts as the Falls
81 SAfton would soon make mans fort
une, and if they were numerous we
might hear of public companies being
formed for the salving of such aban-
doned craft, with underwriters for
chairmen. But they are not numerous,
and this age of iron makes them rarer
every day. Even when a vessel that
looks worth preserving is met, life is
often jeopardized in sailing her; or if
she is to be towed, then, after a deal of
maneuvring and many hours of deten-
ton and the carrying away of hawsers,
the derelict has frequently to be
dropped, with sea-blessing on her
head and hearty regret on the skipper's $
part that he ever sighted her. The
struggle is sometimes a desperate one.
The abandoned craft, like an Irishman' s
pig, refuses to go ahead. She barely
answers her helm. The tow-rope parts
in a gale of wind, the wreck drives
away to leeward and is lost in the
thickness, and the little company of
men who have been put aboard of her
find themselves pretty much in the
same dangerous situation the vessel 5
first crew occupied before they were
succopd. If ever money is meritorious-
ly earned, it is by the men who receive
rewards for bringing wrecked vessel
to port.
1t is not very long since three men
were picked up in an open boat in the
North Sea by foreign bark. The
story told was this They belonged to
an English fishing cutter, and, while
cruising derelict vessel was sighted,
drifting. The cutter sent a boat with
IilEcc luoH W DOillu IlC NCooOl, anu
when they arrived they found her to be
brig. The wind was breezing up at
the time; it freshened into gale; the
tow-rope by which the smack was en-
deavoring to drag the brig parted, and
the cutter was blown out of sight. 1t
was impossible to stop aboard the water.
logged hull, so the three men got into
their boat and they had been drifting
about for forty-fve hours when the for
eign bark came across them. Out of
such stuff is the romance of the derelict
to be woven; and material for many a
wild and wonderful yarn may haply be
found at this moment among wrecked,
abandoned and drifting fabrics, over
whose deep sides the green seas are
rolling in foam, or whose hulls, with
the CLEAN of the black water in the hold
visible through the open matches, lean
wearily with the oil-smooth swell, like
drowned seamen, whose bodies have
escaped from the hammocks in which
they were sewn, and have risen to the
surface to look blindly up to Heaven
till decay scatters their dust through
ten thousand miles of ocean.-London
Telegraph.