Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-05-31
DERELICrS AND ICEBERGs.
Two Dangers That Threaten Those
Who Sail the Ocean Blue.

- NE OF the greatest dangers eneoun-
~ tered BY those who SAIL upon the
I'M ocean is found in the presence Of
~ wrecked or abandoned vessels hoat-
Ing about in the waste OF water
ready to be bumped into by any craft that may
chance to come along and perhaps to send all
Oh board of her to Davy Jones locker.
No one can tell how many good ships are lost
each year through collisions with these "dere-
licts," As they are called. Certainly the num-
Der is very large. They are apt to be account
able in those not infrequent cases where YES
sci leaves port stout and stanch, with good
crew OF able seamen aboard. and Is never heard
OF mote. She has vanished in the midst of the
ocean, though perchance no storm did so much
as threaten. and there il nothing 10 do but re-
port her as missing" There is whole
tragedy in the word.
The dangerous point about these derelicts is
that no one ever knows where TO expect TO
ma them. A floating wreck is here today and
there tomorrow; Il may drift this way and that
over the Atlantic for thousands of miles. I'M
PEELED by different currents. always a menace
10 1--we vessels that bear precious freight OF
human souls. Most frequent OF derelicts is the
waterlogged" type, which is simply the case
of craft that has filled with water. though
having a cargo sufficiently light 70 keep her
aiioat, so that she simply lies submerged, with
| her
| DECK on LEVEL WITH THE SEA.
Probably she has lost her masts, and ship
that comes across her is likely TO run into her
without warning. The submerged derelict is
most dangerous of all. Another very perilous
sort has been overturned in a storm and floats
| bottom up. May be 80 per cent of all derelcts
are found that way. In other instances the
| bows are in the air and the after parts sunk,
l or vice versa, while some lie on their sides.
vessel that has a heavy cargo OF iron or
| any such weighty material win sink at once If
| 1t is wrecked in midocean, as a matter of
| course. Likewise, ship entirely empty will
go down Immediately, filling with water and
| helped under by her always-necessary ballast.
| II Is the craft with the light cargo that floats
after it is abandoned and becomes derelict-
| more particularly lumber-laaen vessels. which
viii stay above water indefinitely. For IN
stance, take the case of the schooner
| W. L. White, which was wrecked of
the Delaware cape not long ago and
drifted the whole distance across the
Atlantic ocean TO the Hebrides, threatening
| other ships all the way. Ii is very natural that
you should ask why vessels that water
| logged and cannot help floating should be
| abandoned at all; but you would readily find
| the answer to your question if you were once a
passenger on a craft that had sunk TO a level
with the water all around and over which the
| waves were breaking, so as TO render it impos-
| slble TO get either TODD or drink. Under such
| conditions II is not surprising that captain and
crew should be glad to take to the boats.
| AN OCEAN MYSTERY.
Another remarkable instance Of drifting was
that Of the Marie Celeste, which was found
| abroad in the Atlantic ocean, with every sail
set, but not a soul on board. Everything about
her bore the aspect of occupancy, even to a
child's garment that was half-fnished in
sewing machine in the cabin. Nevertheless
not e. single human being was found in her,
| ana since the day she towed into Genoa
| no explanation of the circumstance has ever
been given and 1t has not been discovered who
owned the vessel or sailed her. The sea-noyel-
list Clark Russell has constructed a very enter
farming story on this basis of fact.
The Navy Department. so a STAB reporter
was told, Is constantly receiving reports from
many hundreds of vessels of the locations OF
derehcts as found in various parts of the ocean.
and from these reports are made up frequent
bulletins on the subject for distribution among
the shippers. Similar reports made and bull
letlns issued regarding icebergs, which are duly
located on the pilot charts published monthly
IN order that ships may know where to look
out for them. Now and then. in the case OF a
very dangerous dcrelict. a government steamer
Is sent out to blow IL up with a torpedo; but
such a. plan could hardly be made to work
with icebergs. 1t will not be long. however,
before the plan proposed at the recent mar
ltime conference held here for dividing the
ocean up among the nations into districts-each
country to keep Its own district free Of dere-
hcts-will be put into operation.
ABAD YEAR FOR BERGs.
As to icebergs, they have been more plenti-
full and dangerous this spring along the trans
atlantic path of steam ships for England and
France than has ever been known before This
route may always be considered a hazardous
one. comparatively speaking. In order to make
the shortest passages possible the Eteam ships
take certain percentage of chances OF collision
with bergs. and, if you will look on the pilot
chart issued by the photographic bureau for
any month. you will see that the path marked
out for these transatlantic lines just barely
passes the lower ice plotted on the same map.
The pilot charts referred to show all the
great sea routes as they should be followed for
the coming month, IN order to take the utmost
advantage of winds and other conditions All
the year round you will see on them an enor-
nous red splotch covering many hundreds OF
square miles of ocean north and east of Boston
This represents fog and when YOU look at it
you will perceive readily why it is that when the
wind blows from the east in the modern Athens
life becomes no longer worth living. The gulf
stream up there. flowing northward, meets the
ice and the cold Labrador current, the result of
which is continual fog bank. Ingenious per-
have suggested that the United States
might be cheaply supplied with ice by towing a
few icebergs into Boston and breaking them
up. 1t has even been shown by mathematics
that single Greenland glacier, l,s00 feet wide
$50 feet deep, and moving at the rate of AZ feet
q day, puts out enough ice in one year to give
every man. woman and child in this country
pounds Of ice each twenty-four hours for one
hundred years. The only trouble about max
Ing OF this fact is that an iceberg is always
at least seven times as deep under the water as
it is high above the water; thus its ''draught'
is too great to admit of its being towed any,
where near the Atlantic coast. Therefore the
price of mn.-juleps will remain unaltered for
the present
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