The Republican journal., 1905-04-13
DEREIc1s ON the NORTH ATLANTIC.

Quite naturally, having regard to the
enormous preponderance Of tonnage in
the North Atlantic and the severity of
the weather not infrequently expert
enced there, the number of derelict
vessels drifting hither and thither is
greater than on any other ocean, says
American Syren and Shipping. Their
danger to navigation was well exempll-
fed by the serious damage to the steam
ship Zambesi, which was obliged to put
into this port in distress the other day
through having collided with one of
these deadly Nightmares of the naviga-
tor. A less stanch ship, one perhaps
even as good as the Norge, which only
had her bow smashed in, would have
quickly and wholly succumbed to the
shock sustained by the Zambesi. The
United States photographic Office, by
means of its monthly pilot chart and
its weekly bulletin, keeps navigators
posted up to date as to the approximate
position of these hindrances to safe
passages; and it has been found that,
on an average, there are nearly twenty
derelict craft numbering the surface of
the North Atlantic at any instant, each
of which may be expected to hold to-
gether for thirty days.
Collisions Herewith occur at times,
as might rightly be predicted, but they
are not nearly so numerous as would
seem probable to the uninitiated. AS
a matter of fact, many of these aban-
dOned vessels are fOre-and-a aft wooden
schooners, left to their fate within 200
or 300 miles of the Atlantic coast of the
United States, and it is open to argu-
ment whether the number OF such
derelict vessels is not greater than
would be the case if steamships were
less numerous. Any way, under pre-
vailing conditions of the coaSting trade,
a derelict destroyer under the American
flag is an almost absolute necessity.
Nearly every " est India hurricane, as
it passes to the eastward of the Allan
tic seaboald from Florida to Newfound-
land, leaves long list of derelicts in
its wake, some of which actually travel
right across the higher ATTITUDES of the
ocean before wind and current. After
an exceptionally severe cyclonic storm
the number of derelicJ ships, indicated
by means of symbols on the hydro
graphic Office pilot charts, sometimes
amounts to not less than fifty. Some
break up shortly after being abandoned
by their deSpairing crews, who seek
safety on board passing steamship;
but quite large proportion of them
linger atloat for many days.
American schooners hold the record
for long ocean drifts in solitary state.
The Wyer G. Sargent, abandoned with
cargo of mahogany not far from Hat
teras. covered $500 miles in 615 days;
the Twenty-one Friends, left neal
Chesapeake Bay, travelled right across
to within few miles of Cape Finis-
terre, taking 260 days to cover ], 525
miles; the W. L. White, abandoned
during the biting blizzard of March,
1888, drifted ashore on one of the
Hebrides some 80 days later, and her
cargo of lumber was saved by the fish
ermen there; and the Fannie E. VOLS
ton was drifting dereict for thirty one
months, during which she made CON-
plete tour of the North Atlantic. Occa-
sionally the same derelct is passed by
a steamship on her eastern passage and
again on her western passage some
three weeks later, although not in ex-
actly the same geographical position.
The steamer Earnmoor rescued the
crew of the water-logged schooner
William E. Cloves and sighted the
derelict just seventeen days later, when
making the return passage. Very sci
dom, indeed, is ship purpoSely cast
away for the sake o. her insurance, yet
it must be admitted that such cases are
not altogether unknown.
! The bark L. +. Cam, bound from
Vera Cruz to New York in 1882, sud
denly sprung a leak and had to be
abandoned at sea. A month later she
was picked up and towed into a southern
port, where it was found that she had
been purposely scuttled by boring augel
holes from the inside below the water
line. Underwriters refused to settle,
but the courts decided against them, as
the owners knew nothing of the fact
that she was carrying a fake cargo
under an agreement between the cap
tain and the shipper at Vera Cruz A
curious derelict was the Austrian bark
Villa, Just ten years ago. This YES
sci had sailed from Egypt with cargo
of bones, alleged by some to have been
gathered from battleields, and nothing
further was heard of her until she was
picked up with no one on board and
towed into New York. 1t was supposed
that the vermin and gases from the
bones compelled the crew to abandon
her. Her salvors experienced rather a
difficulty in getting the $4,000 allotted
to them by the courts
The four masted schooner Agnes
Manning, coal laden, with ten feet of
water in the pump we'll, had her crew
taken off by the steamer Nestoria and
week later the derelict was fallen in
with by the liner Exeter City and lowed
to New York. A wooden ship, the
Fred B. Taylor, was cut in two by the
steamer Trave and the resulting drifts
of her two portions is sometimes urged
as an argument against a derelict des-
troyer being able to accomplish her
mission. This ships stern travelled
northerly and drifted ashore at Wells
Beach, while the forepart went south
ery until destroyed opposite the
Carolinas. A knowledge of the pre-
vailing currents would probably have
been sufficient to predicate the proba-
bility of the two portions following
quite distinct tracks. The New Bruins