The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1913-01-24

!
eating and Destroying Them.
Today, according to Popular Elec-
tricity. there are about 1000 derelicts
in the waters of the world-foating
perils that go where wind and currents
bid 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
are something to be destroyed
They crash against them in the dead
of night. when inky backness 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 a 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.
message is coming through the void.
1t is a message of peril coming from
steamship. 1t warns that a 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 a 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 warning humming over the
seas Now the men at the station are
quick to act At n word from their
chief they relay the message to the
commander of the revenue cutter Sene-
On, 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. purger OF
the seas, on destruction bent.
or derelicts there are two kinds
those that float observed and those that
float 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 untraveed tracks of the seas
they may be carried 10y a storm direct
ly in the path Of navigation. Whittier
they go no word goes before them.
They descend upobserved. quietly,
grimly Not until they have struck is
their presence known Then they take
their toll They destroy n 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 he destroyed.
But now the Seneca has steamed into
the province at the derelict High in
the mast the Iookout Is casting his eyes
on all sides I be- is not alert the dsre-
lict may atul,k those on board the Sen
eca. Self preservation Is strong in
vampire
But now the rip of submerged mass
rises above a distant swell Caught in
n sudden pitch Of the sea. the derelict
has revealed Itself. From the lookouts
nest the cry sounds The speed Of the
Seneca is reduced IL moves slowly
/ toward It's QuurrN Ana now tne WORK
Of Harvesting electricity for the de-
struction II must do begins. From the
magazines are brought mines charged
with sixty pound burdens OF guncot-
ton. From the Storehouses are brought
insulated electric 80 nles and a hand
magnetic A small boat is lowered. and
the mines are taker on board Then
the boat rides over the sea toward the
lerelict. risky ride If the swells are
running high
And the next comes the work of plac-
ing the mines where they will create
the greatest explosions II the wreck
is submerged the trsk Is more difficult
More mines must bc used Exquisite
care must be employed I'm their placing.
Finally the explosive charges are con
nected by means of the insulated cleo
tric cables. AM the wrecking party
draws or to safe distance. The man
NTH the hand magnetic provides the
necessary current. the decorators OF
illuminate 81 mercury explode. the
primers ot dry cuncotton are dealt
harsh blow. th- explosion is sufficient