The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1913-11-21
VESSELS APPARENTLY ABAN-
DONED FOUND FLOATING AT
THE MERCY OF THE WAVES.
CASE OF THE MARIE CELESTE
Brought to Mind by the Recent Find
ing OF Two Fully Rugged SeaWor-
thy Vessels Sailing the Ocean Mas
tarlaSs and CreWIeSS,

Not all the sea s romantic myster.
is of the past. Even the tales OF tn
Flying Dutchman, OF the wierd Graf
of Falkenberg, of the phantom Pala
tine and the stored New Haven sh1l
are not without modern parallels
That strangest of sailormen yarns
the case of the Marie Celeste, wal
brought to mind recently by the find
ing of two fully rugged, seaWorth!
vessels sailing the ocean, creWles
and masterless waits.
Derelicts there are by the hun
dreds threading the waves, to brin&
up after months of Voyaging on some
lone foreshore or in the silent waste!
of the Saragossa sea, but the derellcj
is. after all, merely a sorroWful incl
dent. silent commentary on the eV
ev-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. He accepts them
as a matter of course.
The abandoned vessel, however, is
something that no seaman can quite
understand 1t fills him with won
dering and sets him yearning as moth
ing else can. He can never make out
why a good ship should be left to its
ate until the last hope is gone.
Not many days ago the British tank
steamer, Roumanian, blowing along,
ten days out of Port Arthur and near
the Azores, sighted a bark running
wild in a heavy sea. To the prac-
ticed eye of the Captain everything
was wrong. Now the rover started
away in erratic dashes, only to stop
again dead in the winds eye. Some
of her canvass was unfurled but her
sails filled as no sensible sails
should.
Capt. Claridge, of the Roumanian,
Immediately set after her in pursuit,
and after jockeying for an hour or SO
made out that she was the Norwegian
bark Remittent. At last ne caught her
coming 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 were snugly furled, there
was water in her breaker and she was
fully provisioned. The lock fast
places were secure and her charts
and papers undisturbed. At the da"
Wits swung her lifeDoats. There was
absolutely nothing to explain the dis
appearance of the men who manned
her.
The Remittent had sailed away
from Rio Grande di Sui October %
in command of Capt. Torgerson with
a crew of half dozen men. Yet
there she was, months after, in mid
ocean, an unaccountable stray. The
Roumanian picked her up and towed
her to within 100 miles of Cape Henry
where she was lost again in a gale.
The Remittent may be sailing still
and up to the present there is no
clew as to the fate of her men.
A case hardly less strange is that
of the Schooner ]. S. Blackburn, Of
Bath, Me-, which was found by the
steamer Esperenza 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 with sails, booms and splint-
ers of her masts, but from all appear
ances she was watertight. One Of
her lifeboats was missing.
Owing to the heavy sea Capt Jas.
R. Curtis of the Esperanze had some
difficulty in getting close to the wan
dering four-master, but after some
maneuvering he put Oh eff officer
Baldwin and 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 lit
tie confusion noticeable. To be sure
the captains clothes and the ships
papers were gone, but the ship ap-
peared normal enough. In one of the
cabins was an old quadrant and a
seamans library, and in the forecas-
tie hung a lighted lantern.
Of the captain and twelve men OF
the Blackburn nothing has been
heard The Esperenza found it i'm
possible to attempt salvage and left
the schooner where she was found.
The government has been notified
and has instituted a search.
These present-day instances are but
repetitions of a number Of similar
mysteries which make the chapter
of abandoned ships one of the most
absorbing in the stirring annals oil
the sea. Perhaps the most startling
of all is the story of the Gloriana
With the passing years it has become
a sort of legend and has woven about
itself a mass of mythical details t.
suit the Imagination of the teller.
AS far as it can be authenticated
the tale goes thus: In the year III;
the captain of a Greenland whale
who was lodging his way through thu
ice fields at II degrees north latitud
spied before him what seemed to be