Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1912-10-08
DESTROYING VAMPIRES OF SEA
Government Carries on Ceaseless War
fare Against DANGEROUS DereIicts

LEO NV IINS NH"EInGS VI SGS
Government Carries on CeaseIess War
fare Against Dangerous DereIicts
On the wall of the Hydrographic Of
flee there hangs a large chart of the
North Atlantic. Across the pale blue
space that represents water lie dark
lines, the paths between our seaports
and those of another world. Always
these paths are the same-the same
lines in the same positions. Were you
to look at this chart another day,
though, you would find that a number
of dots clustered along the coast line
, had moved from one place to the 9TH
er. On no day will you find the dots in
the same position that they were the
day before For these dots indicate
wrecks and derelicts-the vampires Of
the deep, ever changing, now lurking
in the shadows of the coast, now drift
ing out to sea-deadly, sodden hulks
whose mission is to take by surprise
and destroy.
On the map they are placed as little
silhouettes which are moved according
to the reports sent in by wireless. Sea
captains are ever on the watch for the
peril, and upon sighting the dark hulks
creeping along the surface of the wa
ter they are quick to flash the news to
the photographic stations. And upon
the receipt of this news, trim, fast
moving cutters, whose commission Is
to destroy all the derelicts, steam from
the nearest port. By electricity, by the
wireless bearing the news, their mis-
sion is made possible. And by electric
ity, the working Of mines, their mis-
sion Is fulfilled. For the derelict, you
see, is blown through the water and
into the air-a vampire that can no
longer tear into the bodies of unsus-
pecting ocean craft.
Today there are. about 1000 derelicts
in the waters Of the world-fioating
perils that go where wind and currents
bid them. Every sea is made hazard
Gus by their presence. They have
crashed into ocean liners, into junks Of
the China sea. To them all vessels are
alike-something to be destroyed. They
crash against them in the dead Of
night, when inky blackness hides their
coming. Wrecks themselves, they
seem to strive to drag all others to
their own fate.
have said that they are drifting on
the Seven Seas More particularly they
seem to swarm eagerly in the Gulf
Stream. From st. Augustine. Fla, they
move north in its warm waters, silent,
sullen travellers that creep through the
waters unpleasantly like eels.
That is why there are so many dots
swarming the Atlantic coast on the
map in the Hydrographic office. From
Cape Hatteras reaching north to the
Grand Banks of Newfoundland is the
graveyard of the Atlantic" 1t Is a
rolling waste where many ships are
buried. It Is a place where derelicts
borne by the sweep Of the Gulf Stream
and the counter churn of the Labrador
current dart about like angry sharks,
eager to fasten their maws on the hull
of some ship.
In the photographic Office at some
seaport the wireless is sounding. A
message is coming through the void. It
is a message Of peril, coming from a
steamship. 1t warns that derelict
hoe oh Tod In,
of ocean travel For days the men at
the station have been waiting for word
of this derelict. It's position on the
chart has not moved for week. They
have lost track of it. It's driftings are
as a mystery. The station men have
been unable to wire back over the seas,
warning captains Of its whereabouts.
Any moment they may hear that it has
attacked and wrecked.
But now the derelict has come into
the light. The Baltic has sighted 1t
and sent the warning humming over
the seas. Now the men at the station
are quick to act. At word from their
chief they relay the message to the
commander of the revenue cutter Sen
eca, laying by. The Seneca has been
waiting for this message-waiting for
the derelict's whereabouts to be re-
vealed. And now, knowing them, it
gets up steam and sails forth-a purg-
er of the seas on destruction bent.
And as she Is steaming toward the
latitude and longitude given as the hid
ing place of the vampire the Seneca
keeps in wireless touch with the sta
tion. And now, while she Is racing to-
ward the wreck, let us see exactly what
her quarry is. Then we may better
picture the work of destruction.
OF derelicts there are two-the kind
that floats observed and the kind that
floats unobserved. Most people imag-
inc that shipwrecks are ultimately
driven ashore and that vessels reported
sinking at the time Of abandonment
go down soon after. That is not true.
Abandoned ships breed vampires Of
the deep. For months they float. Wa
ter logged, half sunken, pitched and
torn by storm, they yet somehow seem
to survive. They will live in gales that
send the stanchest vessels to the bot
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