The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-05-20
LONG TRIPS OF OCEAN WAITS.
DERELICTS THAT Cruise ron
THOUSANDS or MILES,.
Hundreds Of Them In the North Atlantic
Impcril the Ocean I incrS British and
American NaNlrs Occasionally NestrOy
Them Joint Action What Is Needed.

American NaNIrs Occasionally DestrOy
Them Joint Action What Is Needed.
ST. JoHN's, n. F., May IG,-1he quest
by British wa,ships and the Newfoundland
sealer Adventure for the derelict frcighter
Dunmore. adrift in the ocean shipping
track airce January, emphasizes the neces-
sity Tor sonic concerted mea sures by the
great marine Powers for Kidding the North
Atlantic Of these dangers to traffic.
When we recall how the Elbe was sunk
by collision with the collier Craithie after
leaving southampton on a snowy winter
morning in january, 1905, and when we
remember how the B%ourgogne went down
after striking the bark Cromartyshire OH
the Grand Banks IN y summer fog in 1898
II requires little effort of the imagination
to conceive Of similar, il not worse, dis
asters due To dereliots which roam at will
over the waters Of tho Western ocean:
il is not unreasonable to con clude that
through such a cause the Naronio vanished
la February, 1893, with seventy-two souls;
the Georgia passed from human ken IN
March. 1897, with hfty-tour; the huronian
was blotted oil the ocean In February.
1903, with forty-rtne, ol that a score OF
tramp freighters were sent TO the bottom
In the past fifteen years.
Spocial interest attaches to the Dunmore
because hers is one of the comparatively
rare Instances where a metal derelict has
remained above water any length OF time
after being abandoned, and because, more
over, she lies in the liner track and is thereby
a more serious danger to transatlantio
shipping than my other %tcnantless shell
OF modern times. Usually when q steel or
iron craft Is abandoned she Il on the point
OF sinking, The Dunmore left Cardiff on
December 20 FOR Newport News, was buff
feted by tempests tho whole way, had her
ehGfc broken and her hull so strained that
the leaks threatened speedy submerslon
Her crew were taken of and she was left
adrift, remaining. above water for three
months, teing sighted hy more than twenty
passing steamer thus far.
The complaints Of owners Of other ships
spurred the British Admiralty 20 action and
they ordered cruisers from Berinuda to
proceed in quest Of her, while the under
writer's had the Adventure sent out from
this port on a similar quest, to tow her to
port. The Adventure failed to locate her,
not POSSESSING wireless ~telegraphy, and
therefore~tet:g unable to learn where the
wreck was last seer, and the two cruisers
secured the ocean for a long while In the
endeavor to bring her aimless voyage to an
end.
The most common derelicts are lumber
carving vessels Of wooden build and mod
crate size which meet bad weather, be-
come dismasted, and having no steam
power are helpless waits in the Atlantio
fairway, sonnet lines drifting about for
months, il not for years, because their buoy
ant clrgoes will not let them sink.
One OF these, the Alma Cummings. an
American schooner from Boston, made a
record voyage of fifty-four days, during
which she covered 5000 miles, and was
sighted fifty times. She was caught In a
blizzard OF Cape May in February, 1899,
and her masts and rigging were carried
overheard, the Jagged stumps Of the spars
batteripR her sides apart. The seas swept
everything overheard, flooded her hull
and cabin, dreuched her foodstuffs with
three feet thick. The wretched crew, the
matches being all solked, could not max
n FIRE TO warm themselves until they fred o
rife into a can Of kerosene oil that Get the