The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1913-06-26
OCEAN DERELICTS.
Floating PeriIs That Drift With
Winds and Currents.
A MENACE TO EVERY VESSEL.
These Vampires Of the Sea, Some Of
Them Wholly Submerged. Are Dread
ed by All Mariners OF 49,
eating and Destroying Them

Today. according to Popular Eie:
tricity. there are about 1000 derelictS
perils that go where wind aud currents
bid them. Every sea is made hazard,
Gus by their presence. They have crash
ed into ocean liners and into junks
of the China sea. TO them al 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.
So they go drifting on the seven seas.
More particularly they seem to swarm
eagerly in the gulf stream.
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. 1t is place where dcre-
licts borne by the sweep of the gulf
stream and the counterchurn OF the
Labrador current dart about like an
cry sharks. eager to fasten their mhws
on the hull of some ship.
In the photographic office Mt some
seaport the wireless is sounding
message is coming through the void
1t is Il message Of peril coming from
steamship. 1t warns that derelict
has been sighted squarely in the path
OF ocean travel. For days the men at
the station have been waiting for word
Of this derelict. Its position on the
chart that all photographic offices
keep has not moved for week. They
have lost track of it. Its driftingS are
as Il mystery The station men have
been unable to wire back over the
seas warning captains OF its where
abouts Any moment they may hear
that it has attacked and wrecked
But now the derelict has come into
the light The Baltic has sighted it
and sent Il warnin. hummins over the
seas. Now the men ut the station are
quick to act At word from their
chief they relay the message to the
commander Of the revenue cutter Sene-
Gil. lying by The Seneca has been
waiting for this mesS;t ge-waiting for
the derelict's whereabouts to be reveal
ed And now. knowing them. it gets
up steam and sails forth. IL purger OF
| the seas. OH destruction bent.
or derelicts there are two kinds
those that float observed and those that
float unobServed Most people imagine
that wrecked ships are ultimately driv-
ell ashore and that vessels reported
sinking at the time of abandonment 20
down soon after That is not true.
Abandoned ships breed vampires OF the
deep For months they float. Water
logged half sunken. pitched and torn
by storm, they yet somehow seem to
survive. They will live i'll gales that
send the stanchest vessels to the bot
tom Only time can destroy them
that is. unless electricity takes Il hand.
Too heavy to rise to the surface and
yet not water soaked enough to sink
to the bottom and remain there. they
crawl along just under the riding
sweils. Their abiding place is nowhere
From the untra veled tracks of the seas
they may be carried by Il storm direct
~ i'll the path Of navigation. Whittier
they go no word goes before them
They descend upcbserved. quietly
grizzly. Not until they nave struck i.
their presence known. Then they TAKE
their toll. They destroy Il ship. anf
from it another of their kind is made
1t Is their way Of multiplying ane
spreading the breed. That is why it i:
SD important that they be destroyed
But now the Seneca has steamed into
the province of the dereIict. High il
the mast the lookout Is casting his eye:
. on all sides. If he is not alert the dere
lict may attack those on board the Sen
ec;l. Self preservation is strong in +;
, vampire.
But now the tip of ii submerged mas:
rises above ii distant swell. Caught il
; Il sudden pitch of the sea. the derelic
has revealed itself. From the lookout!
nest the cry sounds. The speed of th'
, Seneca Is reduced. 1t moves Slowi,
toward its quarry. And now the worl
Of Harvesting electricity for the de
struction it must do begins. From tn
, magazines are brought mines charged
,, With sixty pound burdens Of guncot
ton From the storehol,ses are brough
insulated electric cables and II hant
. magnetic. A small boat is lowered. ant
tine Iulnes are taken Oh board TheI
the boat rides over the sea toward tn
derelict. IL risky ride If the sweIls ar
running high.
And the next comes the work of plat
ing the mines where they will Great
the greatest explosions, Ii the wrec
] More mines must be used. Exquisit
care must be employed i'll their placing
Finally the explosive charges are COZ
nected by means of the Insulated elet
= tric cables, and the wrecknS part
draws Off to safe distance. TIL" ma
}. with the hand magnetic provides tn
y necessary current. the decorators q
illuminate of mercury explode. tn
I primers of dry guncotton are dealt
4 harsh blow. the explosion is sufticiei
o to loosen all the heavy powers of tn
t masses OF wet guncotton. and then tn
4 derelict dies apart. it's back broken. i,
}, sides flying through the air Il s,'rlpin
: and rending Of pi,nks, the snud"
splash as they hit the water again
the sound OF vampire dying.
Qooooooooooooo
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