Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1904-06-02
MENAC|NG DEREL|CT
a SUBJECT FOR INTERNATIONAL
CONSIDERATION.
our OWN SHORTCOMINGS
Drifting Hulks-Disasters That Re-
suIt--anerica's New War on Dere-
Iicts an Example to Other Maritime
Powers.

Translated from lie Movement
Maritime-The steamer Irishowen
Head, Captain Smith, on the eleventh
of last November, sighted the aban-
doned schooner Frank o. Dame in
latitude 81 degrees north, longitude
II degrees west; twenty-four hours
later the same vessel encountered
iismantled, water-logged wooden
ship with only her mizZenmast show
ing, and but for this single cireum-
stance and the fact that it was broad
daylight at the time, the Irishowen
Head would certainly have struck the
obstacle that lay in her path, Late
/ in the afternoon of the same day,
I the lookout reported a third derelict,
two masts still remained standing and
shreds of canvas hung Tapping from
The yards, but no living thing was
.und aboard.
On the fifteenth of the same month,
the steamer Specialist discovered-in
35 degrees North latitude, SO degrees
West longitude-the wreck of the aban-
doned schooner IT. J. Cottrell; her
bowsprit stuck out of water and alone
betrayed her presence. The wreck,
which was laden with lumber, disap-
peared after few moments, swallow
ed up in the waves of high sea- A
few days later the same steamer saw
two derelicts at once, the wrecks be-
ing about half a mile apart; their
masts had been carried away and their
battered hulls showed themselves only
intervals.
During the period we are speaking
of, there had been a long stretch Of
rough weather; the shipwrecked crews
of twenty-three vessels were picked
up within few weeks; and as usual
most of. them were Scandinavians.
why so many Scandinavians? you
ask. Because the Scandinavians
make a specially of exploiting old
ships, the cast off hulks of the mer-
chant marine of other nations, so that
Scandinavian seamanship has to
cope with almost impossible condi-
tons.
Steamers traversing the regions
where derelicts are drafting about
don't always escape disaster, and more
than one navigator has persisted as the
result of a collision which surpasses in
its horror any collision with a vessel
which still carries a crew and there
fore is sometimes able to rescue the
seamen aboard the sinking craft. Here
the obstacle often lies unseen in the
way; occasionally only the roar of the
waves as they break against it betrays
its presence. II the first ship lacks
d strong prov and a firm forward
bulkhead she is doomed, and even
the best built ships sometimes sue
cumb to such misadventures.
On the twelty-third of last January
the English steamer Maude had an
accident of this sort. So tremend-
Gus was the shock that her bows we're
steven in and her masts and funnel
fe! crashing to the deck, the brig
" G. T. met with a similar expert
ence. close to grief. and was totally
wrecked; and besides there is the
case of the schooner Wanderer, which
was abandoned at sea under like con-
ditions, and also the case of the full
rugged ship Carrick, which persisted
in collision with a derelict while
rounding the Horn.
! Our Flemish mariners have vivid
memories of just such catastrophes
they have suffered not a few Of them
For instance, in 1897 the Ostend fish.
ing smack Iris when under full sail
ran into the abandoned steamer Tye
and went straight to the bottom. The
| fishermen had just time to spring on
board the derelict, which, thanks to
her cargo of lumber, still kept afioat
One of her lifeboats remained unin-
jured and in this the fishermen sue
ceeded in reaching Lowestoft
The steamer Glendower was serious
" damaged by collision with dere-
lict: her bow was completely ripped
open and her crew owed their escape
from watery grave to the stoutness
of the forward bulk-head, which. by a
miracle, resisted the shock More
than twenty guineas to the hundred
had already been paid for insurance by
the time the vessel reached port.
| Of course it is not fer the mere fun
OF the thing that seamen abandon a
ship to the mercy of the waves; they
do so because they think it better to
take the chance of being picked up by
Some passing vessel than to stick by
their own. when wind, fire or other
cause has rendered her existence pre-
carious. But could we not require
them to destroy their abandoned ship
completelys This raises the question
as to why the maritime nations have
not ere this convened an international
/ congress, whose decisions would after
ward be ratified by their several par
liaments. to compel mariners to dyna-
mite their vessels before they leave
them, As it is. the records show that,
on the Atlantic alone. nineteen ships
SIRE abandoned every month and left
rting hither and yon.
Lately a petition signed by 1900 cap
-.