Northern tribune. [volume] (Cheboygan, Mich.) 1875-1885, 1884-05-15

right ahead, with only . jurymass
standing. "The cargo was all gone
out of the main-hatch, but her after
hold was full of casks. She had no
forehatch, but I think her forehold
must have been full Of casks also. l
fancy that she has been loaded with
stored in both ends, keeping the vessel
afoat." She was full of water, conse-
quently the rum was not to be come at,
and SO all that poor Jack OF the Ocean
Swell could do was to look y%earningly
down at the casks and then, with wa.
tering mouth, tumble reluctantly into
his boat and row aboard his ship again.
A more romantic derelict was the
American brig Celeste, the story of
which l read with interest in an Ameri-
can paper q few days ago. She was
found in the Mediterranean and boarded.
All sail was on her, but not q living
creature was to be seen. There was a
fire burning in the galley; dinner was
set u untasted and not yet cold; there
was some child's toys in the cabin, ''and
a piece of a woman's dress was still
under 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 t o 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 a magazine-writer
on the lookout for o. 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 q French vessel fell in with a
large iron English ship, abandoned, and
she was conveyed to the island by q
proved to be the Falls of Alton, o new
iron ship, loaded with $500 tons 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 s~uction-pipe and opening the sea-
cock in the a~fter-peak; but this he de-
MED. and whether it was proved or not
and what became OF the case | a not
recollect. Encountering and bringing
to port a few such Gerelicts as the Falls
of Alton would oon make a mans fort
une, and if they were numerous we
might hear of public companies being
formed for the salving of such ADAM
doned craft, with underwriters for
chairmen. But they are not numerous,
and this age of iron makes them rarer
every day. Even when q vessel that
looks worth preserving is met, life is
often jeopardized in sailing her; or if
she is to be lowed, then, after a deal of
man9uvring and many hours of deten-
ton and the carrying away of hawsers,
the derelict has frequently to be
dropped, with a sea-blessing on her
head and hearty regret on the shippers
part that he ever sighted her. The
struggle is sometimes a desperate n
The abandoned craft, like IN Irishman's
pig, refuses to 90 ahead. She barely
answers her helm. The tow-rope parts
in q 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 vessels
first crew occupied before they were
succored. If ever money is meritorious-
ly earned, 1t is by the men who receive
rewards for bringing a wrecked vessel
to port.
1t is not very long since three men
were picked up in an open boat in the
North Sea by a foreign bark. The
story told was this: They belonged to
an English fishing cutter, and, while
cruising a derelict vessel was sighted,
drifting. The cutter sent a boat with
three men to board the vessel, and
when they arrived they found her to be
a brig. The wind was breezing up at
the time; it freshened into a gale; the
tow-rope by which the smack was en-
d~eavoring 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-five 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
YEARLY 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
y All I~~o- .o.%to~. xL.s~ I,,ok %I,o,I