Idaho County free press. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho Territory) 1886-current, 1913-02-27
OCEAN DEREL|cTS,
Floating PeriIs That Drift With
Winds and Currents.
A MENACE TO EVERY VESSEL

""o"y submerged, Are Dread
90 oy Al Mariners-Methods Of l..
eating and Destroying Thorn.
Today. according to Popular Elec-
tricity, there are about 1000 derelicts
III the waters Of the world-fioating
periis that go where wind and currents
Did them. Every sea is made hazard.
GUS BY their presence. They have crash.
ed into ocean liners and into junks
Ut 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.
80 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
IN 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 at some
seaport the wireless is sounding. A
message Is coming through the void
1t Ia a message Of peril coming from a
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 a week. They
have lost track of it. Its driftings are
as 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 1t has attacked and wrecked.
But now the derelict has come into
the light. The Baltic has sighted it
and sent a 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 Sene-
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, on destruction bent
or derelicts there are two kinds
those that float observed and those that
doat unobserved Most people imagine
that wrecked ships are ultimately driv-
en- 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 yet 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 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 untra veled tracks of the seas
they may be carried by storm direct
~ in the path Of navigation. Whittier
they go no word goes before them
They descend unobserved. quietly,
grimly. Not until they have struck Is
their presence known Then they take
their toll They destroy ship. and
from It another of their kind is made.
1t is their way of multiplying and
spreading the breed That is why 1t IL
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. If he Is not alert tine dere
lict may attack those on board the Sem
eca. Self preservation is strong in a
vampire.
But now the tip Of submerged mass
rises above distant swell Caught In
sudden pitch of the sea. the derelict
has revealed itself From the lOokOut's
nest the cry sounds The speed of the
Seneca is reduced 1t moves slowly
toward its quarry. And now the work
of Harvesting electricity for the de-
struction 1t must do begins. From the
magazines are brought mines charged
with sixty pound burdens of guncot-
ton. From the storehouses are brought
insulated electric cables and hand
magnetic. A small boat Is lowered. and
the mines are taken on board Then
the boat rides over the sea toward the
derelict. risky ride If the swells are
running hista
And the next comes the work of plac-
ing the mines where they will create
the greatest explosions II 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-
nected by means of the insulated elec-
tric cables. and the wreckfng party
Ve,4 -