Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1893-09-23

tom up and others mere water-logged
hulks. They are sailing on voyages which
have no other port than Davy Jones' lock-
er. Meanwhile any craft that runs into
them is doomed.
1t is reckoned that every year 2.172 YES
sells and 1900 lives are lost in the COM
merce Of the world. The value of these
ships and their cargoes is about $loo. ooo.o 600.
More wrecks occur now than ever before
In history. notwithstanding modern i'm
provements in ship building. light houses.
buoys, &c. because the number of vessels
afoat has increased so greatly. During
the last Ave years $50 vessels were wrecked
on the Atlantic coast of North America.
IN the same region and period 967 dere-
licts-.e.. floating and abandoned craft
were reported. The worst dereiicts are
coal-laden and undertaken ships. The
are particularly dangerous because they
are so heavy and solid. The average de-
relict floats thirty days.
To cross the ocean Is sort OF gamble.
strikes prize or a derelict. Then there
is another added to the record Of missing
ships gone to sea and never heard Of
afterwards. The wonder is that such ac-
cidents 80 seldom occur. The ocean grey
hounds. each bearing the population OF a
good-stzed town, rush across the waste
of water like railway trains. not paustrg
for storms nor Stacking the pace on ac-
count OF fogs. Until within the last few
years the time by rail from Chicago to
San Francisco was five days. That is
about 40 miles day. The fast ocean liner
makes 600 miles a day.
Dereiict Destroyer Wanted.
The photographic office wants an appro-
priation from Congress for the building of
a vessel of about S00 tons, especially for
blowing up. otherwise destroying or bring
ing dereiicts into port. such a craft would
have to be very strong. with unusually
large and staunch boats, because their SER
vices would be required most urgently after
storms. 1t has been suggested that the
ships or the navy might find good torpedo
practice at the expense of dereiicts. TWO
years ago the Navy Department sent the
Yantic to destroy twelve wrecks which lay
along the Atlantic coast. She found them
all and blew them into kindltng wood. The
usual method Is to approach a water-logged
hulk In a steam launch, drop over the stump
OF a mast a hoop OF iron with torpedoes at
tached and then fire the torpedoes from a
safe distance by electricity. This sort of
amusement is considered great sport by the
midshipmen.
The North Atlantic is the chosen drifting
ground Of such floating perils. Timber
traders bound from this coast to Europe
encounter cyclones on the way and are de-
serted by dozens. The vessels used in that
traffic are commonly of an Anticipated type
and 50 rotten that only good luck keeps
them on top of the water. Happy are the
crews to be taken OF when they meet with
disaster, before they. are drowned or forced
to cannibalism. as in the case of the Thekla
of Philadelphia, reported a few months ago.
Now and then II happens that somebody
finds a derelict with a valuable cargo and
lows her into port, netting large sum In
salvage. The most remarkable instance of
this sort was that of British ship called
the Resolute. which was one of three YES
sells sent to find Sir John Franklin. During
the winter of 1851 she was nipped in the ice
Of Melville bay-the great sheet of water
~ Hh.>r 49, 49, and
abandoned. Four years later she was found
by a New England whaler, frozen in a foe
and practically unintured. She was brought
to New London and Congress bought her
for 100000 from the salvors. After being
thoroughly repaired she was sent to Eng
land q gift and token of amity to her
majesty. Years later. when she was finally
condemned and broken up, the queen had a
desk made from her timbers and made 1t a
present to the President of the United
States. MIR. Cleveland uses it for his work
every day at the White House.
Fortunate Escapes.
When a ship strikes a derelict the oc-
currence is not reported. usually. because
no witnesses are left alive to tell the tale.
But there have been cases where vessels
have had the luck to hit such hulks and to
escape destruction. Only last year the de-
serted Fred b. Taylor was cut squarely
in two by the North German Lloyd steam
ship '"rrave" For many months the bow
and stern Of the abandoned craft ioated
about separately in the track of commerce,
the former presenting an extraordinary APP
pearance with bowsprit standing almost
perpendicular. Thus two dereicts were
made out of one. In April. 1889. the steam
er Cuban" Of Liverpool ran into a water
logged hulk in 3S north latitude 66 west
longitude, cutting into IL thirteen feet.
Happily. she escaped with small damage.
More than three-fOurths OF all derelicts
along the Atlantic coast of the United
States are created by storms OF Cape Hat
teras, and from that neighborhood most of
them start on their strange and objectless
voyage. Usually they drift eastward until
they get about half way across the ocean,
when they pause and swing aimlessly about
in circles. Out in the middle of the wide
seas 1t Is everybOdy's business to destroy
them. and therefore nobody's. So they
float about until they sink Many of them
find their way into the Sargasso sea, which
has been described as graveyard of
ships" That vast field Of growing marine
plants. In which many queer species of
fishes and other animals dwell. lies in a sort
of eddy made by the great revolving ocean
current. Finding their way into this vor-
tex, the wrecks go round and round until
they no longer have sufficient buoyancy to
keep them on the surface. Then they dis
appear.
Keeping Track Of Wrecks.
During the historic blizzard of March,
1885, 1873 vessels were wrecked Off the coast
The crop Of derelicts then was even bigger
than the present one. Whenever such aban-
doned hulks are come across by mariners
the latter report the facts to the hydro
graphic office at Washington, giving the
latitude and longitude. Messages of this
kind have been arriving in great numbers
during the last few days. AS fast as they
are received they are made note of on
big black board, which is inscribed with. an
outline map Of the North Atlantic ocean.
The position of each derelict is indicated
by pin stuck into the board and thrust at
the same time through a square scrap of
paper. On the paper is inscribed in red ink
the name Of the deserted craft, If 1t Is
known. together with a minute picture in
whether bottom-up, sunk at the stern or
what not. These little pictures will be re-
produced on the next pilot chart a month
ly publication. each of them pointing out
the situation in which that particular dere-
I lict was last seen.
Nobody can tell how many of the great
numbers of good ships which have sailed
away, never to be heard from again, have
been victims Of derelicts. For several
months during the early part of this year
an abandoned hulk called the Agnes Man
ming lay in the very track Of the trans
oceanic flyers. She was a four masted
schooner from Philadelphia carrying $40
tons of coal. On February % she was de-
serted, with her masts standing and sails
furled. Her crew was rescued, but the
| floating vessel remained a menace to thou
sands of lives. There would have been very
struck such an object.
t. &c