Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1899-07-27
TO DESTROY THE WRECKS.

New York Mail n Express: England
and the United States have agreed to
combine to keep the North Atlantic ocean
free from derelicts. Germany also has
been asked to lend her aid. Ambassador
Choate has been in communication with
the authorities at Washington on the
subject, the suggestion coming from the
marquis of Salisbury, who voiced the
wishes of the British board of trade. 1t
is stated on the highest authority that the
admiralty has decided to keep possibly
TWO English warships constantly en-
ployed to destroy abandoned vessels as
rapidly as reported, and that the United
states, through the secretary of the navy.
Will furnish probably a gunboat to assist
in the work.
preliminary arrangements only have
been undertaken, and no attempt has
peen made to map out a zone for each ma
ton to cover. One of Lloyd's agents who
was here a short time since. says that in
all probability England will have one of
her ships cover the Nova Scotian and
Newfoundland coasts, while another will
traverse the entire coast of the United
Kingdom. including the English channel
and Irish sea. The American doubtless
will have a territory from the eastward of
Nantucket shoals to the Gulf of Mexico,
an eXparse of ocean that yields more de-
rellcts yearly than all other oceans to-
gether. Should Germany decide to help.
she will turn her attention to the Baltic
and North seas. The dispatching the
other day by the English government of
the second-class cruiser Molampus and
torpedo boat Gosamer to destroy the de-
relict bark S.ddartha, which has been
drifting almlessly over the ocean since
February 2. is thought to be the initial
step in the international task.
One of the best known underwriting
firms of Londo and Liverpool declares
that fully 10 per cent. of the ships posted
as missing are lost through collisions
with derelicts, and says that water-log-
ged and abandoned sailing vessels ave
been known to wander over the ocean
years before going down. The American
schooner Wyer G. Sergeant dr.fted
around for five years after being DESERT
ed. In the last but one number of the
photographic Bureau issued by the
American na"y department The Siddartha
was sighted ten times in twelve days, the
steamer Br%emerhaven, American, Ar
menia, Ocean, Nederland. Chester, Ro-
land. Vedra. Montcalm. which furnished
the reports, showing that the hulk was in
the direct transatlantic steamship route.
On July 4 she was seen four times.
Millions Of dollars have been sacrificed
by collisions with these hulks, which float
near enough to the surface to be as dam
gerous as a ledge Of rocks. The Holland
line steamer Veendan. bound to
this city from Rotterdam, was lost last
year by running over a submerged wreck.
left Rotterdam February 3 and was
525 miles ives. of Scicily when she en-
the derelict on February 6. The
propeller was broker off and an immense
hole stove in the ships run. She was fast
going to the bottom when the American
line steamer st. Lou came along and
saved her 212 passengers and crew.
The Dubbledam. another boat of the
acknowledgements line, had a similar ex-
p%erience with a derelict, but managed to
reach port. |
The Clyde steamer Seminole was COM !
.ng along splend:dly between Jacksonville
and this port when a submerged wreck
took all the ambition out of her. and it
pronounced remarkable by the sur
veyors that she ever managed to get
again inside a land-locked harbor.
BY some the loss of the French line
Vile de ST. Nazaire. with its APP !
palng sacrifice of life, was attributed to
. tidal ave, but Captain Jagueneau,
among the few saved. said in his official
that a shock was felt before the
leak was reported, and that the steamer
must have run into a derelict in the
trough Of the sea.
Captain Cameron. who is making his
IaSt TIP TO TINS country as commander or
the White Star liner Teutonic. prepara-
to assuming charge of the Oceanic.
has frequently declared that he would
run into an iceberg than a d~erelict.
Official records show that fully 100 YES
sells d year, exclusive of a certain per-
centage CT "missing'' craft collide with
derellcts and submerged w~reckage. The
latter could not exist to any great extent
Were they blown up by dynamite by war;
ships shortly after being deserted.
Among the ships totally lost within a
comparatively few years through collis-
ION with derelicts may be mentioned the
Spanish gunboat Paz. the Hamburg liner
Colonia, steamers Craigside and Glenrath.
bark Jan PeterZoon Koen and schooners
Baylies Wood, Joseph Baymore, Francis
L. Godfrey, Seagull and the Orrie F. Dris-
co. Mariners have marveled at the long
life of some of these derelicts. The Fan
ME f.. Wolston drifted more than 10. 1000
miles before she finally disappeared.
crossed the ocean twice and was reported
no fewer thar As times in her travels. AL
together she drifted four years.
The Alma Cummings wandered tenant
less for $500 miles, and finally drifted on
the San Bias coast. The bark B.rgette,
after frequenting the steamship lanes for
MONTHS. was towed into Queenstown.
Other drifts of famous derelicts are: Ma
nantico, 1900 miles: VincenZo Perotta.
1905 and $50 days: W. l.. White. 5,91O
miles and 80 days: Ethe NJ. Davis. 4,40O
nv ru..-4 4 onn 49,