The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1899-01-12
How Neptune SnuftIes the Sailors.

When Davy Jones gets pulling the leg
OF ola Father Neptune, the way that ship
ping gets mixed up at sea is something
like the shuffiing of pack of cards, and
mariners are dealt out TO ports that they
never started for in most promiscuous fash
Ion. The great last of November gales,
OF which reports in detail have only with
In the past week or two come to hand
from the wide ocean, We're an illustration.
1t seemed strange coincidence that the
frst report OF disaster to the steamer
Londonlan, from Boston for London,
should have reached us by steamer
which arrived in England from Demerara
and had passed the LondoDian derelict 1t
was several days later before any tidings
OF the missing crew reached land Then
a steamer arrived at Baltimore with As of
them, and it was rather remarkable that s
more of the 26 others, who were all sup
posed to have been lost, should also reach
Baltimore five days later. Had all hands
remained on their wreck until a day after
| the last batch had been taken off. they
would all have reached England by the
! steamer from Demerala much sooner than
If they had seized the FIRST chance of res
cue. But it is the FIRST chance that the
mariner generally takes.
1t is with sailing craft, however, that
the hurricanes at sea play special havoc
and I'D spite Of the best of seamanship
man who starts out in Il ''wind iammer''
never car tel just where or when he is 90
ing to ''fetch up" A schooner leaves
jacksonville, Fla, for Philadelphia. Size
is passed three days later making GOOD
weather OF il. The next report Of her she
is derelict wreck. Ten days afterward
her crew turn up in Rotterdam, All safe on
a rescnlng steamer A steamer arrives at
Baltimore from Rotterdam with two SUI
Vlvors OF a Dutch fishing smack lost ia the
North Sea and the first report is then made
of disaster to the smack and tile loss of
three men. schooner leaves 4 port on
the Nova Scotia side of the Bay Of Fundy
for New York, a trip that with a good
slant of wind may be made in a couple of
days 10 within the entrance of Long Island
Sound. But the schooner is found dis
masted, drifts a wreck for week and is
then towed into another port. One man
is found drowned in her cabin and all the
Others are missing. Next day eablegram
comes that three of them have been land
ed safely at Greenock, Scotland. The
daughter of a ship owner in St John. \.
b., decides to acc mplny captains
daughter on pleasant voyage to Santos
South America, and the two pack their
trunks for six months cruise. The yes
sci is knocked helpless in midocean and
all hands, including the young ladies, are
landed in New York by steamer from
the Mediterranean which stood by four
days to effect the rescue
These are only a few instances of the
way that things get mixed by the wild
waves of the North Atlantic. If there are
more disasters now days, however,
there are also more rescues, for there are
more brave seamen atloat to make them,
md in the regular routes of this old ocean,
at least, wreck is always liable to be re-
ported within a few days. But whether
those rescued may be landed in England,
America, China or Australia, nobody ever
can tell. The Marine journal