The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1901-09-04

yellow fever and took OF the crew, five
/ in number The fever ship, Spanish
bark, thus also became derelict, but
she was never heard Of again.
The Katisha paid heavily for her
charity. One by one the crew went
down with fever, and corpse after
corpse was dropped over the side to a
hurried burial service. There was a
doctor aboard, an Englishman, but he
could not check the raging. scourge
and at last the undermined boat
drove near the Brazilian coast not far
from Bahia.
By that time the only man left alive
and untouched was the second mate.
Doctor and all had succumaod He
took the ships jolly boat, beinS unable
to launch the long boat, and reached
the coast two miles from Bahia. A ter
rible story of suffering was his.
The Katisha did not run 3shore how
ever, for a westerly wind took her to
sea. She was next seen 80 miles south
of Natal, having in some way drifted
round the. Cape. At that time she was
dismasted, but seemed sound as far as
the captain of the Merryweather,
Yankee steamer, could judge when he
passed.
Nineteen weeks later a trading
steamer, the Throstle, saw her only
few miles from the Ceyl0n coast, and
another steamer that came into Colon
DO in a damaged condition reported
having collided a score of miles out
with a derelict bearing the name Kati-
sha on her stem in Russian characters,
so it was said. So it seems the Katisha
made a long voyage of it.
All this time she must have drifted
round with the skeletons of some of
the fever slain crew lying below, for
the escaped mate had not been able to
throw them all overheard by himself.
1t is a grim story, the abandoned death
ship drifting from ocean to ocean with
her grizzly freight, terror that walks
in darkness" to all that plOw the seas.
And in all likelihood she is drifting
yet, for not many months since an
Australian trading brig fell in with her
off Sumatra and nearly ran her down
into the bargain.
Another Katisha derelict, a small
Danish coaster, was seen not long ago
near the Shetlands by a Norwegian
timber bark, so there are probably two
Katishas roaming the salt water at the
present moment. It is to be hoped they
will soon 90 to the bottom.
OF the scores and hundreds of YES
sells that sail and are never heard of
again it is likely a large number meet
their fate by running into derelicts in
midseas. Governments do what they
can, but to hunt for an abandoned yes
sci is a thankless task.
The bark Grundel, after a long and
honorable life in the deep sea trade,
was put to timbering, caught fire, was
abandoned and drifted about the North
sea for a year, sinking one ship and
damaging another so much that it was
with the greatest difficulty her crew
could get her to port without losing
her.
Another timber bark, the Vulfrega,
was in the North sea eight months and
was collided with in fog by collier.
The collier was SO injured that she had
to run for the nearest land and was
beached on the coast Of Holland near
HARLEM, for there was no time to run
for a port.
| Derelict steamers are rarer by long
way than sailing ships. They generally
manage to get somewhere and are usu-
ally of more value for the sake of their
lyings. However, the Wildgans, Ger
man tramp steamer, broke down in the
Pacific off New Zealand and soon after
sprung a leak.
The skipper and mates thought they
might as we'll accompany the crew.
and after a rough time in the boats
lasting six days and nights they made
the coast of New Zealand without loss
and landed.
! The steamer drifted into a southerly
current, then a northerly and was seen
by a trader who was flying to the
Friendly isles. After that the Wildgans
J lobbed south again. then right away to
the west coast of South America, even
tually going ashore at Cape Horn and
| breaking up.