Morning journal and courier., 1883-08-28

deck or below; looked as if some passing vessel had helped herself to all that was to be got Such statements are sometimes to be found in log. books. Here is one that at this moment light on: ssThs German bark Europa reports, March 26, sighted an un- known bark; all sails set, and on fire aft; found a Soft. Meboat adrift, which was taken aboard, in which were some tobacco, provisions and stone butter-pot" Doubt less the Dutchmen enjoyed the tobacco, and ate with relish the provisions and the batter
 But often the find" is g beggarly one. The Ocean Swell reported sighting vessel right ahead, with only 8 jurymast standing. ''The cargo was all gone out of the main hatch
 but her afterhold was full of casks She had no forehatch, but think her forehold must have been full of casks also. fancy that she had been loaded with rum and molasses the rum being stored in both ends, keeping the vessel afioat." She was full of water consequently the rum was not to be come at and so all that poor Jack of the Ocean Swell could do was to look yearningly down at the casks and then, with watering mouth, tum- ble reluctantly into his boat and TOW aboard his ship again.
 more romantic derelict was the American brig Celeste, the story of which read with interest in an American paper g few days ago. She was found in the Mediterranean and boarded. All sail was on her, but not a living creature was to be seen. There was 8
 fire burning in the galley; dinner was set out untasted and not yet cold, there Were some child's toys in the cabin, ''and piece of a woman's dress was still under the needle of the sewing machine" What had become of the people? Had they committed suicide by jumping overboard? If so, why was their dinner cooked and served, only to be left untouched9 The easiest way perhaps to solve the riddle is to disbelieve the story. But If it be true it is extraordinary, and should commend itself as marine problem o@ writer on the lookout for a subject.
 Now and again, however, 8 derelict is en- countered that proves 8 wonderfully rich prize. Such was the Falls of Alton. At about 2S0 miles from Madeira a French yes sel fell in with large iron English ship,
 abandoned, and she was conveyed to the is-
 land by a French squadron of inspection.
 She proved to be the Falls of Alton, new iron ship, loaded with 2,5O0 tons of railway sleepers, 150 tons of pig-iron, 150 tons of smithy coal and 200 tons of coke-a nice lit tie haul for Monsieur, the salvage after ward proved It was charged against the captain that he endeavored to sink the ship by cutting the suction-pipe and opening the sea cock in the after-peak; but this he de- nied, and whether it was proved or not and what became of the case I cannot recollect. Encountering and bringing to port 8 few such derelicts as the Falls of Alton would soon make mans fortune, and if they were
  nies being formed for the salving of such abandoned craft, with underwriters for chair men. But they are not numerous, and this age of iron makes them rarer every day. Even when vessel that looks worth pre- serving is met life is often jeopardized in sailing her; or if she is to be lowed, then, after deal of manoeuvring and many hours of detention and the carrying away of haw- serE, the derelict has frequently to be dropped, with sea-blessing on her head and hearty regret on the shippers part that he ever sighted her. The struggle is sometimes desperate one. The abandoned craft, like an Irishman's pig, refuses to go ahead. She barely answers her helm. The tow-rope parts in 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 pret- ty much in the same dangerous situation the vessels first crew occupied before they were succored. If ever money is meritoriously earned, it is by the men who receive rewards for bringing wrecked vessel to port.
 F It 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, sighted, drifting. The cutter sent boat with three men to board the vessel, and when they arrived they found her to be Q brig. The wind was breezing up at the time; it fresbened into gale; the tow rope by wbiah th0-smaek Ras Anaaazas;ng Ao-dm1g the brig parted, and the cutter was blown ont of sight. It 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 five hours when the foreign bark came across them. Out of such stuff is the romance of the derelict to be
 woven and material for many 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 gleam of the black water in the hold visible through the open hatches, lean weari- ly 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.