The Washington times., 1914-11-28
Ship, for Building of Which
Women of ConfederaCy
Raised Fund, Condemned by
Government as Junk.
Used Since 1867 by Coast Sur
vey. the Endeavor Has Pen
etrated Every Nook From
Maine to Gulf.

Sentence of official death has
been passed upon one of the Oldest
pessels in the United States Cop
eminent service.
She is the Endedpor, steamer OF
the Geodetic Surrey, sometime
! christened pariously "Tte Lady
Davis" and "The General Curtis. ="
She Was built NTH money col
Iected BY the Women Of the Con-
federacy, captured while still on
the stocks BY Federal troops, trans
formed into a United States Quar-
ternlaster Department steamer, and
later acquired by the men who
chart the sea coasts of the country.
Under an official order she will
soon be sold at Baltimore, and al
ready she has been officially
dropped from the Government
rolls.
By KENDRICK SCOFIELD.
With ships it is, as it is with the
men who go down to the sea in ships.
will re-
destroying will of them. Hardly a
year goes by but what some one of the
few remaining vessels which were early
year wanderers along the sea lanes of
adventure, dips her colors and drops
below the horizon of her usefulness.
And when one of these barnacled
argosies of commerce or war comes TO
her later and more inglorious days. she
falls into the hands of a board Of sur
vey. The board is not concerned with
the sagas of her voyages, or the long
dimmed glory of her adventurous
youth.
If she be a sailing ship. they test
her live oak strakes which In their
prime have withstood the poundings
and gatherings Of the angry seas when
they ran lash.ng and white, deviled into
tearing, destructive fury by the scourge
of tropic hurricane They look to the
standing gear Of her masts which have
torn through storm and weathered off
a thous and lee shores in every charted
and uncharted quarter of the globe.
They examine her running gear by
which the great sails were braced or
backed or stayed to meet varying winds
and changing courses.
Cold Figures Decide.
If she be a stamer, they seek among
the bed plates in her engine room for
weaknesses developed by the constant
racking of racing propellers over a
thousand water leagues They spy
among the stanchions and beams and
heavy knees which once were stout
enough to hold the skin Of the ship to-
gether no matter what the strain.
Then they begin to form their con-
clusions. which have to do only with the
cold cost Of refitting rebuilding:
and in most cases those conclusions
sign the death warrant of the ship.
The veteran of the seas. the ship
which has known the balm of Azores
summers, the reefs of the Mosquito
coast, TIE grinding threat of Arctic
and sub-Arctic foe. the pitch Of the
the Panama canal was a far-off dream
is Junk.
SO ii is that the ultimate destiny of
many a stanch craft is found in the Of
ficial sentence to sell her for "scrap."
ard if she is not actually broken uD, she
often wears out an ancient and dis
honorable age at the end Of d taut
tnWlne-a coal or lumber barge in the
cCastwiSe trade.
SO il is to be with the United States
,,lSsT
The board of survey sentence has been
I 1>sed She has been found unsea-
" wcrthy. and not worth repairs In
Baltimore a few weeks ago she was
sentenced Ia death She lies now in
~urtis bay. where she will remain until
sold to the highest bidder Her last
voyage in the service OF the Govern
'nent was completed only a short time
Boutelle ended survey about the on
and Cape, Henlopen,
Romance In Early History.
But the old Coast and Geodetic Sur
vev steamer which has been retired
from active service. was not always
known as the Endeavor, and her early
history was one of romance from tn.
time her stout keel was laid.
During the first year of the civil war
NOR tells. subscribed money for the !