The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-03-04
@bosfjp DereNei
OF De NfIdnfje.


There is a class of ghostly craft float
ing the ocean wave that are a menace to
all sound vessels ploughing their regular
way across the great high seas.
They are known as ocean derelIcts
once they were even as those noble
ships they now endanger, but now, dis
masted and disrupt, abandoned of crew
and passengers, they are only floating
hulks or sinking wrecks that the world
wishes speedy burial in the bottom Of
the sea- Tossed hither and thither by con-
trary winds, driven along by masterfuI
ocean currents, obscured by fog and par
tally submerged in water, they ara q
real danger to the mariner, tnasmuch az
only omniscience itself could accurataIv
know their position from day to day.
The schooner Alfaretta s. Snare. which
was sighted on Friday, Feb. 9. by the
German steamship Schleemilch. on ita
way from Hamburg to New York, Is one
OF those unburied wrecks, Thirteen times
1t has confronted more fortunate vessels
on the lonely seas to remind them of tn.
danger and death that wait on all. Thu
Afaretta s. Snare was three-masted
schooner Of 241 tons, built In 1880 by Tho
firm of Rogers. in Bath, Me, and owned
by parties Of Bangor, Me. It was worth
from 5000 to $1,000.
On its last voyage It was bound from
st. John, N. B., to- New York with q
cargo Of spruces It was abandoned Nov.
IL sixty miles east OF Cape Cod. Can't.
Lawson and the crew were taken off by
the Joseph J. Johnson
SipOa ita
about like & lost soul, only occasionally
showing itself. That happened first on
Nov. 10, twice on Dec g. twice on Dec
10, once Dec. 15 once Dec. "a. once Dec. %
once JAN 4. once Jan. 5. once Jan. 1S. and,
hnaily on Feb 8, the derelict was sight
ed Dy the Schleemilchs captain in latitude
40;03, longitude 60:20, about GOO miles due
east of Sandy Hook
The derelict life OF this spruce-Iaden
schooner may prove record breaker. So
far 1t Is strangely similar to that OF the
Fannie e. Wolston, q restless dereIict
that holds the record for drift on the
Atlantic. The ghostly Fanny was three
years and six days adrift, and there is
none to say that she has vet found q
rest from her wanderings, but as sha has
not been seen since Oct. q, 1894 # ia
supposed that her treasure is at last
merged In that OF the ocean She was
period OF her drifting is supposed to have
covered 5000 miles OF sea. She was last
seen about 100 miles southwest Of where
the Alfaretta 8. Snare now lies Like the
Snare, she was three-masted and timber
laden. The fact that the Snare has q
cargo OF spruce will tend to keep her
longer .afloat than If she bore cargo
of greater specific gravity
For over seventeen years the United
States photographic office has gathered
and published information pertaining to
the wrecks and derelicts that menace nav
igation. The main Office Is at Washing
ton. but there are fifteen branch offices.
seven on the Atlantic. three on the Pa
ciflc and five on the Great Lakes The
photographic office receives reports on
wrecks and derelicts from about ! 900 ma
riners, representing nineteen different ma
lions. The material they send in is put
into shape at the main Office and sent out
In the form of a weekly bulletin and a
monthly chart About 2,4OO copies OF these
are given out through the branch offices
to seamen and shipmasters, who use them
for guidance across the perilous deep.
Observations are confined mostly to the
North Atlantic and the North Pacific,
where traffic of course, Is liveliest. Tho
dereiicts in other parts OF the world are
few; even in the North Pacific they are
not many. Other countries have SINH. -
bureaus to that OF the United States hy-
geographic Office. but they depend chiefly
on reports from their men-of-war. The
United States has found that observations
made on the great ocean liners are quite
as reliable as those taken on board men
ofwar. The German observers are per-
haps the most exact.
The United States government takes no
invariabfe action in the removal of dere-
licts. Only when the wrecks are an I'M
doubted danger to navigation does the
government undertake to destroy them by
torpedoes and ramming. 1t usually costs
more in time and coal than the destruc-
ton of the derelict is worth. The work
Is done by men-of-war. When the cost
of tho fitting out a man-of-war for that
purpose is estimated; the work OF sink
ing the wreck is enormous, but If tho
men-of-war must be commissioned In
any case, no more than the coal and tor
pedo bill can properly be charged to the
work OF destruction.
Queer P0Iiteness.