Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1913-02-16
OCEAN OEREL|CTS.
Floating .Perils That Drift With
Winds and Currents.
A MENACE TO EVERY VESSEL.
These Vampires Of the Sea, Some Of
Them Wholly Submerged, Arc Dread.
ed by All Mariners-Msthods Of 10.
eating and Destroying Them.

eating and Destroying Them.
Today, according to Popular Elcc-
tricity, there are about 1000 derelicts
in the waters Of the Notwithstanding
perils that go where wind and currents
old 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 all vessels
arc alike-something to be destroyed.
They crash against them IN tile dead
of night. when inky blackncss 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 Il rolling waste where many ships
are buried. 1t is a place where dere-
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 maws
on the hull of some ship.
In the photographic office ut some
seaport the wireless is sounding. a
message is coming through the void.
I + ic u un IF tn,,t1 nnnNiNp fv'nIn -
steamship. 1t warns that a derclict
(,as been sighted sQuarcly in the path
of ocean travel. For days the mel 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 Il week. They
have lost track Of it, It's driftings are
as a mystery. The station men have
been unable to wire back oye 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
he light. The Baltic has sighted it
md sent Il warning humming over the
teas. Now the men at the station are
luick to act. At a word from their
chief they relay the message to the
commander Of tpe evenue cutter Scne-
ca, lying by. The Seneca has been
waiting for this message-waiting for
the derelict's whereabouts to be reveal
ed. And now. knowing them, it gets
up steam and sails forth, a purger Of
the seas, OH destruction bent.
OF 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 go
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 vet somehow seem to
survive. They will live in gales that
send the Stanchest vessels to the bot
tom. Only time can destroy them
that is, unless electricity takes a 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
swells. Their abiding place is nowhere.
From the u%ntraveled tracks of the seas
they may be carried by Il storm direct
~ in the path Of navigation. Whittier
they so no word goes before them.
They descend unobservcd, quietly,
grimIy. Not until they have struck is
their presence known. Then they take
their toll. Tllcyi destroy Il ship. and
from it another of their kind is made.
1t is their way Of multiplying and
spreading the breed. That is why it is
so important that they be destroyed.
But now the Seneca has steamed into
the province of the derelict. High in
the mast the lookout is casting his eyes
on all sides. II he is not alert the dcre-
lict may attack those on board the Sen
eca. Self preservation is strong in a
vampire. ~. St,a q,a ..t aa.a .
But now the tip of a submerged mass
rises above 4 distant swell. Caught In
Il sudden pitch Of the sea, the dcrclict
has revealed itself. From the lookout's
nest the cry sounds. The speed Of the
Seneca is. reduced. It moves slowly
toward its quarry. And now the work
of Harvesting electricity for the de-
.struction it must do begins. From the
magazines are brought mines charged
with sixty pound burdens of guncot-
ton. From the ~stQrchouses are brought
Insulated electric cables and a hand
magnetic. a smalI! boat is lowered. and
the mines are taken on board. Then
the boat rides over the sea toward the
derelict, a risky ride IL the swclls are
running high.
4.nd the next comes the work Of piac-
ing the mines where they will create
the greatest explosions. If the wreck
is submerged the task is more difficult.
More mines must be used. Exquisite
care must be employed in their placing.
Finally the explosive charges are con-
by means Of the insulated cleo
trio cables, and the wrecking party
draws off to a safe distance. The man
with the hand magnetic provides the
necessary current. the detonators of
illuminate of mercury explode, the
primers. Of dry g%uncOtt0n are dealt a
harsh hlOW fhp cxDlOSiOn is sufficient |