Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1913-03-12
IN sARGossA SEA.
Vessel Captive for Weeks in Floating
Mass of Debris.

town, Barbsdos, recently after one OF the
strangest and most mysterious passages in
marine history. Although she had not
| travelled far, as the gull flies, she had yet
sailed, the child OF whimsical circum-
| stances, thousands OF miles.
The Herat, proper LOCAL bark, accord
| ing to Lloyd's, of 1884 tons net register,
| left Gulfport, Miss, on July 10, for Buenos
| Ayres. Her sailing route took her out
| over the gulf, through the Yucatan chan
mel, between Cape Catouche and Cape San
| Antonio, and across the Caribbean to the
| southwark of the Windward Islands, and
so on down the great highway for sailing
| craft to the mouth of the Platte, some
| 1000 miles away.
She had always been fair saiier. On
her last previous trip south she had made
| the passage from New York to Argentina
in only seventy-eight days, and there was
no reason to believe she would fall behind
her record. Capt. Bertolotto was daily
looked for at Buenos Ayres; he was ex-
| pected to make better time, in fact, for
| Gulfport, Miss, is not as far from the
| Platte as is New York by several hundred
miles.
Her agents were daily looking for her in
| the mouth of the Platte when they were
surprised to receive a cable that after 1874
days at ses she had reported at Barbados
for a fresh supply OF stores, all her pro-
visions having become exhausted and her
crew put on short rations.
Where had she been? What had she
been doing all this timer
Only Capt. Bartolotto could answer
these questions. He has answered them
in log OF surprising interest.
Only once after leaving Gulfport had
the Herat been reported. That was in
July in the gulf OF Mexico, but the lati-
tude and longitude were not given. Some
hundreds Of miles out from the lumber
port OF his departure Capt. Bertolotto,
after passing the 100 fathom curve. en-
countered a westerly blow, which bore
him, after a long delay, to but rarely
trsversed part of the gulf of Mexico.
which is directly to the northward OF the
Yucatan channel, between Cuba and
Yucatan.
After another terrific blow, which, how
ever, was OF short duration, the skipper
found himself with fore uppertop'sl
rszored by the gale into whipi shes, with
in the area of a sudden and unexpected
calm a sea within a sea-an astonishing
expanse OF dead water.
Outside the waves had been rolling and
unduisting like the froth on a boiling
kettle, but now the undertaken vessel
Ina e,tx-
ing in drift wood, weeds, trunks of trees,
overturned and haif-wrecked boats, logs
from Yucatan, orange trees from Florida,
ribs of wrecked ships with clingipg bar
nacles, and, most astounding of all, a
dereliet schooner, scarcely showing her
jibboomless bowsprit above the grassy
water, while her heavier stern, submerged,
dragged below the after part of the Shiny
hull, encrusted with shells and green with
sea growth. The dereliet, protruding its
snout like turtle from the liteiess water,
had been SO long creature of the cur
rents and stagnant areas in turn that ali
traces OF her name and hailing port were
obliterated.
Sea birds lowered around the awesome
backyard" of the gulf, while water SER
pents summed themselves upon the low
lying coigns OF ancient wreckage or slipped
splashing gruesomely into the almost
hidden waters.
The Italian seamen crossed themselves
in their trepidation, for never had they
beheld sights SO weird and awesome.
Clark Russell never imagined anything
more terrible.
The Herat began a remarkable circling.
Weather conditions arose the direct OPP
posite of those that had driven the lum-
herman into the dead spot-a dead, fat
calm. Two branches of the gulf stream,
| flowing about their business in opposite
directions, at that season Of the year in
which the Herat had been travelling, i'm
pinged upon the sdead sea- in such q
fashion that, even within the vast expanse
| of the stormy gulf, the waters whirled,
sweeping the poweriess ship around and
around.
The bark was in the little Sargasso sea,
the little known sCentral sea-, but
temporary in its semi-yearly existence,
but nevertheless q scientific reality. Last
August the Central sea- existed longer
| than ordinarily, with accompanying
calms whose serenity could not be broken
by the adjoining areas Of northers with
their rapid rise of barometer.
| The water in which the ship was now
caught was OF greenish, muddy tint,
| greatly discolored, and was cold. 1t
seemed as though the waters OF the Mis-
sissippi, while passing across the gulf, had
been collected and held imprisoned in the
circular sea by its enforced rotary move
ment. From it, for score OF days, there
was no escape for the imprisoned ship.
The two opposing branches of the gulf
stream waltzed the Herat between them
night and day. The northwest branch
flowed from Yucatan channel across the
| gulf almost to the delta OF the Mississippi
| OF which it mingled with the main gulf