Smyrna times., 1886-01-20
For the Sm1Tna Times.
For the Smyrna Times.
The Wonderful Drifting of the
Schooner Twenty-Five
Friends"


petuated in this monumental schooner
TOenty-One Friends, of Philadelphia.
And yet it was so, for one night in
March of 1885 a vessel of this name,
lumber laden and inward bound for the
Capes of Delaware, was run into along
the Jersey coast by another schooner
and badly hurt, barely allowing time
for the master and crew of the IIUenty
One Friends, to board the other vessel, |
when she disappeared in the darkness.
The papers made the usual terse re-
port of the accident and which was as
quickly forgotten by those who read it,
until attention was again directed to |
her from being reported aflOat and in |
the track of vessels Grabbing" along !
shore. The insurance companies with |
held payment on both vessel and cargo |
because although abandoned and at |
the mercy of the waves, she was a
" derelict," and a derelict is liable to |
be picked up and brought into port at |
any time. Again the vessel was re-
ported ahOat holding on to the low
line of Jersey coast and dangerous
wreck" Captains of revenue cutters
were ordered to blow her up if they
met her while cruising. Still the YES
sci was being reported ahOat and drift
ing, weeks after these orders were
given, now in the way of bluff old
Norwegian barks, bringing over potash
OF in ballast, now in the track of steam
ers out of New York making a smart
run to the Southern States. German
steamers touching at Baltimore COM
planned of her being a helpless wreck in
the blight of the Capes," in the Ches-
apeake.
July was passed and nothing more
was heard of the TiCenty- One Friends,
with the probability, inclining strong to
a possibility, that she had gone down
out of harms way, when she was re-
ported at New York as being met at
sea, drifting towards the Banks Of
Newfoundland, this being not the first
notice of drift not only the most re-
markable on record, but one where the
proof is wanting of having been
ended, as she was seen off the coast of
Ireland last September.
1t was clear now that the IlUenty-
One Friends, without a guiding hand
at the helm, had worked her way out
of the blight of the Carolina coast and
had made "easting" enough to get
within the current of the Gulf Stream
and would 90 North as far as the
Grand Banks, where the iceberg-bear-
ing current of the Arctic ocean turns
the Gulf Stream to the East, bringing
the wreck in the lane routes of Lieut..
Maury and threatening the safety of
| the Royal Mail steamships, which use
these routes exclusively. No report,
however, was made concerning the
wreck by any of the Royal Mail steam
/ ers arriving at New York and nothing
more was known of her until she was
reported by an Allan Line steamship at
Halifax as having been seen drifting
among the ice bergs of the North At
lantic. 1t has been cOnjectured that
4 $4,000, 100000 tons of ice are yearly
brought through Davis Straits from
the Arctic into the Atlantic by the cur
rents setting South through these
straits, and as these weird spectres of
the frozen North deplOy and take up
their march South, a helpless wreck
like the TUeRty-Oae Friends, or even
the stoutest ship goes down if brought
in contact with them. But there is
a check to the march. Many of these
ice bergs are grounded and immOvable
in thirteen fathOms of water, on the
Banks of Newfoundland and are then
anegative danger, giving timely warn
ing, even in the thickest fOgs, by the
loud noise made by the sea in breaking
against them, although they soon dis
appear by the attritiOn of the waves
over and around them. Others, again,
that make IA detOur of the Banks to
the eastward are met by the northeast
trade winds and hurried to the warm
equatorial waters, when they disappear
with the surface of the sea at a temper
ature of 80'. Others hug the shore, y
in the two or three hundred miles in
tervening between the coast of North
America, and the Gulf Stream, as far
North as Cape Cod, and occasion that
delightful drop" in the thermometer
so refreshing to the sea-board States in
sultry weather, when the wind hauls to
the eastward and blows fresh from the
icebergs' excursion South. This is not
chance; the hand of Him who bids the
waves sing in unison with the stars so
ordered this to beas it is in that sublime
economy of Nature, which is always
seeking to restore a disturbed equilib-
rum and then we see God in it and
through it. We see Him with tender
care, causing the currents of the ocean
to be the common carriers for the little
cOralline insects at work bringing uI
from the depths of the ocean the
grandest masonry mans eye has ever
seen. We see these same currents
bringing to them tons of the ingre-
dients of magnesia, lime and iron, that
the rivers of the earth throw into the
sea, and which these little workers
must have to rear above the waters
their coral monuments. We see in the
vast SargassO Seas, on each side of the
equator a meadow of tangled weeds
in the ocean, the home of millions o.
meduse and the feeding ground of the
right whales from the Arctic and Ant
arctic oceans, and not here does it end
for we see in the mysterious uprising
! of this same Gulf stream a changefu
river in the ocean, and end alike tC
mars research and reasoning; fol
whether the Gulf of Mexico is thu
cauldron wherein these waters are
heated by subterranean fires, ol
whether they are forced out by tn,
: southeast trade winds that concentrate
their force in heaping up the waters o
the caribbean Sea will never be known
Nor will it ever be known how thes,
,, same trade winds, in sweeping acrOs
I vast areas of sea, licking up moisture
, as they go, can cross the great cain
/, belts of the equator, and pour thei
treasures of rain in the lands beyond
These are the tangible proofs tina
| nothing is left absolutely to chance
and if the sea-worn schooner TtOenty
One Friends, abandoned to her fate j
> yet, from being last seen off the cOas
: of Ireland, working her way Nortl
; under the influence of the winds ant
' currents of the sea, to that open waite
I at the North Pole, whence all thes
currents trend, there to lay her bones
: it would be fitting ending for so re
= markable a drift of nearly around tn
globe. Raising the mind to the adOr
:, alton of Him who created these force
! and convincing the sceptic that
4 "There is no unbelef-
= That he who plants a seed beneath the SOD
y And waits to see it turn the clod,
j Does believe in God"
Governor Sherman, of Iowa, in hi
o message to the Legislature, delivere
n recently, says, on the prohibition que'
Nan A