The Republican journal., 1913-03-20
Mysteries of The Sea.
Strange Records of The Wait Ships
boston Sunday Herald. ]

ing Du!cDHdIl, VI IHe Weilu u az VI
Faikenberg, of the phantom Palatine
without modern parallels. Within
month that strangest of sailormen's
warns, the case of the Marie Celeste, was
brought to mind again by the finding of
two fully rugged, seaworthy vessels sail
ING the ocean crewless and masterless
waits.
Dereicts there are by the hundreds
threading the waves, to bring up after
months of voyaging on some lone fore
shore or in the silent wastes of the Sar-
passo Sea, but the derelict is after all
merely a sorrowful incident, silent
commentary on the ever-present dangers
of the deep. The battered hulk and
shattered masts, the mute record OF
tragedy and death. have become part of
the routine of the mariners life. lie
accepts them as matter of course.
The abandoned vessel, however,. is
something that no seaman can quite
understand. 1t fills him with wondering
and sets him EARNING as nothing else can.
He can never make out why good ship
should be left to its fate until the last
hope is gone.
SIGHTED A BARK RUNNING WILD.
Not many days ago the British tank
steamer Roumanian, blowing along ten
days out from Port Arthur and near the
Azores, sighted a bark running wild IN
heavy swell. To the practlced eye of
the captain everything was wrong. Now
the rover started away in cratic dashes,
only to stop again dead in the winds
eye Some of her canvas was unfured,
but her sails filled as no sensible sails
should
Capt Claridge of the Roumanian i'm
medlately set after her in pursuit and
after jockeying for an hour or so made
out that she was the Norwegian bark
Remittent. At last he caught her com
ing broadside-on and boarded. Her
tiller was banging from side to side and
her decks showed no sign of life.
Investigation revealed that she was
without master or crew and yet she was
all shipshape. Her mainsail and two
jibs We're snugly furled, there was water
in her braker and she was fully pro-
visioned. The lock-fast places were Sc
turbed. At the davits swung her life
boats. There was absolutely nothing to
explain the disappearance Of the men
who manned her.
The Remittent had sailed away from
Rio Gcande de Sui Oct 25 in command
of Capt. Torgerson with crew of a
half dozen men. Yet there she was
months after in mid-ocean, an unac-
countahle stray. The Roumanian pick ed
her up and lowed her to within 100 miles
of Cape Henry when she was lost again
in gale. The Remittent may be sailing
still and up 10 the present there is no
clue to the fate of her men.
cC1-on>rCp DR. ,rupJTpN pJCECn
A case hardly less strange is that of
the schooner j. S. Blackburn of Bath,
Me, which was found by the steamship
Esperanto a few weeks ago 116 miles
south of Cape Hatteras. Her plight
was evidently worse than that of the
Remittent. for her deck was Uttered
masts, but from all appearances she was
watertight. One of her lifeboats was
missing.
Owing to the heavy sea Capt James
r. Curtis of the Esperanza had some
difficulty in getting close to the wander
ing four-master, but after some ma
noevring he put Chief Officer Bald
WIN ana some OF his crew aboard. AS
they reached the deck the ships clock
struck cheerful eight bells
The cabins were locked and after
shouting IN vain to raise some sign of
life Baldwin broke in. There was little
confusion noticeable To be sure the
captain clothes and the ships papers
were gone. but the ship appeared normal
enough. In one o. he cabins was an old
quadrant and a seeman's library, and in
the forecastle hung lighted lantern.
OF the captain and II men of the
Blackburn nothing has been heard. The
Esperanza found it impossible to attempt
salvage and left the schooner where she
was found. The government has been
notified and has Instituted a search.
THE FAMOUS GLoRIANA.
These present~lay instances are but
repetitlons of a number Of similar mys-
t ries which maze the chapter Of aDan-
doEed ships one of the most absorbing in
the st rring annals OF the sea Perhaps
the most startling of all is the story of
the Gorana, With the passing years it
has become q sort Of legend and has
woven about itself a II ass of mythical
details to suit the Imagination of the
teller.
AS far as it can be authenticated the
tale goes thus: In the year 1775 the
captain of a Gree land whaler who was
dode1ng MS way through the ice fields at
n cegrees north latitude spied before
hin what seemed to be a spectral brig,
picking her way through narrow chan
mel between two immense icebergs
Her rigging was a hopeless tangle,
her frozen sails were hanging in shreds,
her decks piled high with the SHOWS of
many seasons and her hulk sheeted in
glittering white. She was a fearsome
sight, but the Greenlander at last
summed up courage enough to board her.
AS he pulled himself up to the deck,
he stopped to peer in at one of the port
holes. There he saw a man seated in a
chair before the cabin table. The log
book lay before him and in his clenched
hands was a pen. The man was stark
In death,
THIRTEEN YEARS UNNAMED
When the Greenlander looked at the
log he found that the last entry, made
even while the captain was awaiting
death, was dated Nov. 18th, 1862 For
Is years the Gloriana had wound in and
out among the ice foes with no hand to
guide her. Not tar from the captain
were found several other bodies, among
one of them woman.
In the record of creWless cruises there
is no more astounding than that of the
Marie Celeste. Forty years have passed
since she was discovered on her lonev