The St. Johns herald., 1892-06-09
A BUOY'S TRAVELS.
Brought to Port After Being Tossed About for Five Years.
Breaking from Its Anchorage in Charles ton HarbOr 1t Makes an Extensive Ocean Tour and Is Recaptured
 Unlnjured.

was a derelict whlstling buoy of huge proportions that the ship had picked up during its voyage north. On the moon less night of October 10 the Armestry was a hundred miles cast of the Ber- mudas. She was laboring through the heavy swells that remained from the storm that had ragged for the two pre- ceding days. The night was still, noticeably so from contrast with the day preceding, and for hours the swash of the waves against the vessels side was the only sound that came to the ears of the men on duty. About midnight a faint murmur like the moaning of a person in distress came floating over the waves and was reported by the man on watch. 1t was heard again and again and apparently originated ln a point al- most directly in the course the ship was pursuing. An hour later the sound, so strange in midocean, came with great distinctness from the starboard bow of the vessel and apparently not far off. The captain ordered the engines stopped and the ship to lay to till morning. The Armestry was kept near the spot where the signal was ut tering its notes, and all through the remaining hours of the night the sound continued at regular intervals.
 The sailors thought they had solved the mystery before morning broke, and when it dawned score of eyes recog- nized the familiar iron head of har- Dor whistling buoy rising on the bil- lows and uttering its sad note as it fell. The sea had calmed sufficiently to ad- nit of capturing the wanderer and a boat was sent out to attach rope to the iron cage that covered its whistle. A tackle was rigged on the yardarm and the hollow monster was hoisted on to the vessels deck. The iron air cylinder, surmounted by the whistle, and the sixteen-inch tube that ex- tended from this cylinder to keep it upright in the waves gave length of nearly fifty feet to the buoy. To the long tube was attached several fur longs of the heavy chain that had held the buoy to its anchor until some acci- dent had released it.
 The buoy was undamaged, even to its
 
 done many years of service. As it lay on her decks when the ArmeStry put into port the strange object excited much curiosity. Unloaded on the dock it was a well-patronized free show, but no snowman was there to relate its remarkable history. All that could be told at first was that the buoy was of an American pattern, and that it had heretofore wandered from some point on the shore of the United States to it's place far out in the ocean, where final ly it had secured its own capture by its melancholy signalings. A search among marine records disclosed its story.
 The Atlantic Pilot Chart for Septem- Der, 1890, says the New York Record. honored this lost property of the light house board with an official mention. On November %, 1886, the Port Royal buoy in Charleston harbor broke from its moorings and started towards the ocean on its career of adventure. Drift ing out into the gulf stream it fioated in the warm waters of that current dur ing the remainder of the year. It moved northward in zigzag course under the influence of conflicting winds. Its signaEngs attracted the attention of many passing vessels. On Christmas day of 1886 it was last seen in the gulf stream. Three months went by and then it was discovered floating serenely along some two hundred miles north of the Bermudas. After that it started for still more southerly latitude, and during May it was sighted very near the coral reefs of Bermuda.
 For more than a year it had been lost sight of when on June 9, 1888, it was heard and seen six hundred miles north west of the Bermuda islands. During this time it must have howled sadly along the very track of the great hur- ricaneS.
 The buoy made this part of the ocean a favorite headquarters for two years. 1t was sometimes reported by incoming vessels as having been heard and some times as having been sighted always within one hundred miles of this spot. 1t crossed its own track repeatedly, but never wandered far away until the summer of 1890, when on September 15 it was not seen below the latitude of the Bermudas, but five or six hundred miles to the eastward of the islands. The derelict was then reported to be in good condition, and its mournful warn- ing of danger that it had left one thou sand miles away was still as strong as when it was doing honest duty in Charleston harbor. In the year follow ing the buoy for the most part kept out of the track of ocean travel, and it was again nearly forgotten when its weird voice reached the ears of the watch on the deck of the Armestry.
 They Are After Him.
 One man in this town is fond of citing L.