The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-03-05
WRECKED OFF HATTERAs.


 After Weathering Many Terrific Gales the General S. P. Merwin Lies a Wreck.
 After weathering through terrific Win ter gales and when within fifty miles of her destination, the three-master General S. E. Merwin, of this port, on Sunday night was blown out of her course and ran ashore on the treacher- ous shoals near Hatteras and there lies beyond aid, doomed to be prey to the waves. The fate of the three-master is told in a few lines of a telegraphic dis patch received yesterday by exLieu- tenant Governor DeWell, agent for the vessel. The dispatch from Frank Rut- ledge, the mate of the vessel, stated that the schooner had gone ashore near Gull's Island station, about Twenty-Five miles north of TIatteras and south of Hampton Roads. Captain Rutledge says that the MerWn is a total loss, but that with earnest attention some material might be saved from the wreck. The crew of seven men were all landed by the life-saving crew from Gull's Island.
 The owners notified Captain Rutledge to use his best judgment in saving the vessel, or if this Is hot possible, to get what he can from the wreck.
 The Merwin was twenty-elght days out from Everett, Mass, and because of her long delay in getting to Hamp- ton Roads it had been decided by her owners that the vessel had been blown probably several hundred miles off the coast, and that with unfavorable winds to help her she was having a hard time of it in getting back again. This was just what happened to the vessel. The schooner was loaded with 300 tons of pyrties cinders from the Everett Chemical Works, taken aboard instead of ballast on the trip south. Mate Rut- ledge was in command of the schooner in place of her regular master, Captain E. H. Smeed, who was at his home in East Providence, R. l., attending sick son.
 The Merwin was valued at about 0,000; but to replace it with new ves- sel of the same build would cost about $6O 000. She carried no insurance. Some of the stockholders, however, had their interests insured. The MerWin was built at West Haven in 1884 by the late Henry Sutton, and ever since she was built has been engaged almost exclu- sively in the coal carrying trade. She was running between Norfolk and Bos- ton.
 The Merwin was of 1906 gross tons and 1,19S net. She was 218.9 feet long, 40 1-2 feet breadth of beam, and 1892 feet depth of hold.
 The gross earnings of this vessel in 1897 were $14,S6541; in 1898 s15.945,1, and 1899, $19,167.22. The dividends for the same years were in 1897, s2600. 1898. s2, 400, and 1899, s4,S0o. She was launch ed November 1g, 1884, and was conse- quently little Over sixteen years old. The cost of the craft was $49, S54.69. She had been kept in thorough repair. She had paid in dividends Il pto January 1, 1900. the handsome sum of s65, 6939s and had consequently paid for herself and about S160oO over.
 This fleet of vessels have earned good money although several have been lost. The last vessel that was lost was the w Wallace Ward, which cost $6,000 to build, and was abandoned at sea.
 The stockholders of the Merwin were about forty in number and for most of them their interests were quite equal. General Merwin was one of the heaviest owners, holding one-eighth interest in the vessel
 Nothing has been heard of the schoon- CTS Benjamin w. Cramp Sarah w. Lawrence and Nathaniel T. Palmer, all of which left Hampton Roads the same day that the Mefwin sailed. They are probably working their way back to the coast after having been blown out to sea.
 A dispatch from Norfolk yesterday ! states that the schooner Robert Ora | ham, from Darien, Ga, to Rockland, | Me. which has been out for forty days, arrived there yesterday morning in dis | .ress. Her sails are torn and her steer ng gear damaged, About ten days ago he schooner was provisioned by pass Ing steamer