The morning call., 1893-03-31
THE FATE OF THE NARoNIc.

The expected bottle from the Naronic has
turned up, this time at the mouth of Chesa-
peake Bay. The ingenious eranks who en-
gage in the business of throwing derelict
bottles Into the water never seem TO &C
quaint themselves with the course of the
ocean currents, and are serenely uncon-
sciouS of the fact that bottle thrown from
steamer plying between New York and
Liverpool would turn up on the coast Of
France, Spain or Africa if anywhere, just
as a bottle thrown from China steamer off
Japan would be likely to turn up on this
coast, somewhere between Cape Flattery
and Cape ST. Lucas. Bottles have been
knoTn 10 do strange things in the worlds
history; but no bottle was ever known to
paddle up stream.
One cannot help letting the fancy roam
over the many possibilities. in one of which
the fate of the lost steamer befell her. The
more closely the marine records OF the At
lantic are studied the more impossible it
seems that she can have collided with an
Iceberg. In the month of February cebergs
are chained to the place of their birth. 1t
is not till the water in the fords begins to
run and the increasing warmth of the earth
diSin'egrates the lower strata of the ice that
they begin to detach themselves and get
ufoat, or cut hose from the mother foe. 1t
IS then, in April, May and June, that the
surface Of the Atlantic begins to be studded
with bergs floating south in search of the
equator and death; it s in June that ocean
steamers are most afraid of them. Nothing
is impossible in meteorolOgy; but that the
Naroaic struck an iceberg is one Of the most
improbable things in the world. Nor is II
likely that she eollded with water-lOgged
derelict. for if she had she would have
struck bow on, would have sunk the derelict
and would have escaped with no greater iu-
jury that the fracture and flooding of her
fore compartment.
The Sandy Hook pilots have been COM
pairing notes over the Naronic. They say
that she was the heaviest rolling ship they
ever knew; that in an ordinary gale she
would roll the ends of her bridge under
water. On this occasion she had 400 tons
Of freight on board. including a forty-ton
locomotive, and vet she only drew tw enty-
one feet Of water. Such ship would OBJ
viously be topheavy. If she were struck by
a squall on the quarter she would bend over
till nearly half her yards were under water,
and if another squall struck her before she
rghted she might capsiZe altogether.
In such case all the compartments would
fill gradually, and the vessel would only
turn deck up as she was sinking below the
waves. II this was the case, other waits
and estrays besides the lfebOats will some
day be found floating in the neighborhood
of Sable Island or further east, though in
the eternal fogs which Oyerhang the Banks
of Newfoundland objects may float for a
long time before they are seen.
dozen different accidents may have hap
pened 10 the machinery which may have
sunk her or crippled her. Some times line
of weakness develops in the frame of a ship
and she breaks her back, as the sailors say
in that case, both ends, of course, 90 to the
bottom without delay. 1t is always possible
that she may have broken both shafts in the
sleeve. This is what happened to the City
OF Picking. If this took place and her sail
power proved insufficient to prevent her
falling off into the trough of the sea, she
may be now drifting helplessly with the
gulf stream in the direction Of Norway and
SpiUbergen. 1t would be the merest accl-
dent if any vessel sighted her in that desert
ocean. She would float alOng-as the Great
Eastern once came near dOiDg-until her
provisions were exhausted, and then her
crew would die, and she would add one
more to The list of deserted vessels which
20 floating over the waters until they fall to
pieces.
The brightest view of the case is based on
the feeble chance that she may have met
with some accident which crippled her; that
before she completed arrangements for pro-
ceeding under sail she may have got out Of
the regular steamship channel, and she may
now be slowly and painfully numbering
along toward Newfoundland or the coast of
Ireland. So long as a ships plates hold to-
gether she will remain on the top of the
water for long time.
The story of the Nnronic is of Interest
here, because her first officer is well kn own
in this city, having sailed many voyages in
one of the Occidental and Oriental ships.
For his sake as for that of the other poor
fellows who went to sea in her, any authen-
tic news Of her would be inyfullY welcnmed.