New-York tribune., 1900-07-08

which was highly valuable, consisting mostly
of brandy. The salvage on the brandy amount
ed to $4,000 so his company did not lose by
the venture after all
QUEER THINGS ON sHIPBOARD.
That queer things are done aboard some ships
which We're never intended to be discovered is
well known to saIvors. Take the case of the
steamer CarranZa, which sailed from Rotter-
dam for London in 1854 loaded with steel rails
and manned by thirty-three hands Suddenly
water was discovered coming into her engine
ROOM and shortly after it was reported to have
come up to the stokehOe plate and to be in
creasing rapidly that the pumps worked by
the crew even when assisted by the donkey
gine could make impression on it. Her
speedy laundering seemed so certain that the
crew took to the boats and abandoned their
15S3-ton ship. Along comes the steamer CIer-
den from Riga to Newport. a few hours after,
and, sighting the abandoned steamer, sends
boats crew aboard her. A little inspection re-
Vealed the fact that some one had opened the
cock of the donkey pump, and the donkey
engine had been pumping the sea into the ships
hold faster than the men could pump it out
lgain. No leak had been sprung at all The
sea cock was shut by the Clierdens men, the
hold pumped out and salvage to the extent OF
$50 900 was paid by her owners.
for saving the ship on which he is voyaging, but
this occurred in the of the world famous
steamer Great Eastern, which, with four hun
dred passengers, a large cargo and Of
four hundred hands, proceeding from Liver
pool for New York, and encountered a heavy
storm about two hundred and eighty miles west
of Cape Clear. The storm disabled her paddle
wheels and small boats, and broke her rudder
shaft She fell into the trough of the sea, and
" captain set all the sail he could upon her
,nster hull in the hope Of regaining control of
r. But the sails were blown away as if they
Fad been made of mosquito netting, her crew
became exhausted, her officers were at their
wits ends, and the passengers in a panic
In the emergency one of the passengers a
mechanical engineer ornered his services, and
the captain accepted them. Under the instruc-
tions of this skiIful passenger a temporary ap-
paratus. fashioned with singular ingenuity was
attached to the rudder shaft though not with
out great labor and danger BY means of this
cOntrivance the vessel could be steered in a
fashion, she got Of the trough of the
mighty pillows, and eventually came safe into
port. AS the Great Eastern was valued at
S500000 the long headed mechanical engineer
put $4,000 in his pocket for that neat little Job
FINDING CLEOPATRA's NEEDLE
1T is hard matter to astonish an old salt.
ne mas seen so many queer things in his daV
that the sensation Of amazement has been al
most paralyzed in him; but it is not too much
to say that the which found Cleopatra :
Needle stopping about in the Bay of Biscay in
1871 experienced a genuine feeling of surprise.
Mr Vanderbilt had at great expense caused
the famous old obeisIl to be boxed up on a
strange looking craft, rather the craft had
been built around the obelisk. She was of a
nondescript shape, and the lookout on the
steamer F.. which sighted her could not say
what sort of a vessel she was. The captain
cursed him for fool and climbed into the rig
ging himself to take a view. He had to ac-
knowledge that she looked more like whale
than anything he sighted before and a
boats crew was sent out to examine and report.
THE Needle had been abandoned some DAYS
before and the vessel which served to float her
was now on her beam ends with her bridge
Pwash, and was pitching about in a most pc
}lliar manner, having both a circular and a
rolling motion. She was being towed when she
was abandoned, and part of her old toWIine
still trailed from her 1t had become so en-
tangled, however, with the rolling that il svas
only at the imminent risk of their lives that the
salyors got it untangled some of the men being
often wholly submerged in the water for min
utes at time by the ode motion of the Needle
Eventually however, they toWed the vast mono
Hth in safety to Ferrol, thereby putting $4,000
into their pockets and adding that much
to the cost of Mr. Nanderbilt'S Gift To America