The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1913-02-25
OCEAN DERELICTs.
Floating PeriIs That Drift With
Winds and Currents.
A MENACE TO EVERY VESSEL.
These Vampires of the Sea, Some of
Them Wholly Submerged, Are Dread
ed by All Mariners-Methods of Lo-
eating and Destroying Them.

mem Wnoiiy Supmer9eoy Are 0redo-
ed by All Observation-Disclosures of Lo-
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 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.
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-
Icts 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.
It Is 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 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 it 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 a 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. 1t gets
up steam and sails forth. purger of
the seas. on destruction bent.
OF 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 untraveled tracks of the seas
they may be carried by a storm direct
ly in the path Of navigation. whittier
they go no word goes before them
They descend uDobserved, quietly,
grimly. Not until they have struck is
their presence known Then they take
their toll. They destroy a 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 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 the dere-
lict may attack those on board the Sen
eca. Self preservation is strong in
vampire.
But now the tip of submerged mass
rises above distant swell. Caught In
a sudden pitch of the sea, the derenct
has revealed itself. From the Iookout'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 it must do begins From the
magazines are brought mines charged
with sixty pound burdens of gunc0t-
ton. From the storehouses are brought
insulated electric cables and a hand
magnetic A small boat is lowered, and
the mines are taken on board Then
the boat rides over the sea toward the
derelict. a 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. If 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 cleo
trio cables, and the wrecking party
draws of to a safe distance. The man
with the hand magnetic provides the
necessary current. the detonators of
illuminate of mercury explode. the
primers Of dry guncotton are dealt a
harsh blow, the explosion is sufficient
TO loosen all the heavy powers of the
masses of wet guncotton, and then the
derelict flies apart, its back broken. its
sides flying through the air, scraping
and rending OF planks, the sodden
splash as they hit the water again
The sound of a vamDire diving