Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1913-02-06
NEWS OF THE OLD DOMINION.
TALE OF THE SEA.
Deserted Bark Found Adrift Near
Azores Islands.


Newport News, Va, Feb. G.-An-
other mystery of the deep, practica1-
w paralelling the unexplained dis
appearance Of the crew Of the steam
err Marie Celeste several years ago
has come to port here with the Brit
ish tank steamer Roumanian. On
January 10, churning along ten days
out from Port Arthur, and near the
Azores, she picked up the Norwegian
bark Remittent; seaworthy, provis-
Toned and fully rugged, but without
a soul aboard and no indication OF the
crews fate. The Roumanian, after
towing the Renittent to within lOO
miles of Cape Henry, lost her in
Z violent gale.
The Marie Celeste was found at sea
with a pot boiling in her galley and
her captains papers on the cabin
table, and every indication that souls
were aboard within few hours Of
her discovery. But nothing was ever
heard of her skipper of crew. The
story of the Remittent is scarcely
less strange.
The Roumanian sighted the Remit
tent in latitude 30 degrees 80 min.
and longitude 81 degrees 80 minutes,
riding heavy swell without
a hand to guide her before re-
freshing breeze. The big tank steam
er's crows nest Immediately reported
her as ship out of control, and Cap
tain Claridge set out in pursuit.
While the Roumanian was coming
up On her the Remittent, with tiller
banging to and fro, and blocks a
trundling on her decks was running
wild in dashes and bounds, first to
one point of the compass and then to
another. The Roumanian lowered
boats to take line and capture the
bark. After more than an hours
jockeying. during which the Remit
i tent sailed in swoops and dashes,now
|1gtopping dead a tremble in the eye
Of the wind, and then bounding away
to the cracking of what canvas was
unfurled, the pursuing small boat
finally caught her coming around
broadside, on and boarded her.
sHer deck planks once swabbed and
holy to a glistening white, bore
the marks of many rect, but there
was nothing to explain the disappear
once of her master and crew. In her
Fcabilf some odds and ends rolled and
9clinked in the corners with the rolling
of the ship; the lockfast places were
Sundisturbed; her charts and papers
were quite secure. In her water
breaker there was a full supply Of
fresh water; salt junk and biscuits
{ were in her stores. A mainsail and
two jibs were snugly furled, and
her lifeboats swung and groaned in
the davits.
The Roumania's boarders sent
hawser to their prize and took her in
tow. The steamer and her salvage
bowled along in fairly favorable wea-
ther for several days, and in the first
blow which they met, 100 miles off
Cape Henry, Capt. Claridge lost the
Remittent. At the end of the long
hawser the bark plunged along in
the gale, first rising up as if she had
been stung, and then lying down as
if she were about to die, and in one
of her flights she snapped the line,
and blew away from her rescuer.
Twice the Roumanian attempted
to launch boats to carry a new line,
and each time they were crushed
against her side by the heavy seas,
and their crews narrowly escaped
drowning. Capt. Claridge finally
gave it up, and made Tor port, leav-
ing the Remittent riding out the gale.
No other ship has reported her since.
The Remittent was commanded by
Capt. Torgersen, and she sailed from
Rio Grande do Sui. October %, for
Liverpool. She was of 351 tons, a
comparatively small ship, and prob
ably carried, in addition to her mas
terra crew of five or six.