Years before the beginning of the Great War I took passage from New
York for Liverpool in one of the most beautiful examples of marine
architecture of that era. When we were about a thousand miles from
Queenstown, our port of call, we sighted a vessel in distress,
dismasted and water-logged, crowded as we thought with passengers. Our
course was changed to carry us nearer the vessel, when we perceived
that what we thought were human beings on deck were the bare ribs of
a barque from St. John's, New Brunswick, loaded with timber, and that
the dynamic force of the sea had broken away the vessel's bulwarks,
leaving the frame standing, which resembled a crowd of men. A derelict
abandoned upon the wide ocean, staggering like a drunken man on the
heaving bosom of the sea, a menace to every vessel upon the great
highway of commerce, this mass of unwieldy timber was a greater danger
in the darkness than any other peril of the ocean.
To my surprise and indignation our captain turned away from the wreck
without attempting its destruction by dynamite as he was in duty bound
to compass. We were one of the famous flyers of that day and could not
afford, he said, to reduce our record of speed by any delay.
Three months after this incident I was returning homeward on the
same steamer, and when we were at least 2,000 miles from Queenstown
I sighted, through a powerful binocular, a wreck ahead, and as we
approached nearer I said to the first officer, "That is the derelict
we passed three months ago." He laughed at the idea of such a thing.
"Why," said he, "she is thousands of miles away in another current if
she is still afloat." But my observation was correct. We ran close to
the same vessel that we had seen three months before. What destruction
of life and property she had wrought meantime, no one could tell, and
we again disgraced the service by leaving her untouched.
The meaning of a derelict in law is a thing voluntarily abandoned or
willfully cast away by its proper owner; especially a ship abandoned at
sea.
Mr. William Allingham, author of _A Manual of Marine Meteorology_, whom
I quote at length, says in _Chambers's Edinburgh Journal_, February,
1912:
"Every storm that travels over the waters which divide, yet unite, the
New World and the Old, leaves in its wake some sailing ship abandoned
by her crew. As a rule these dreaded derelicts are of wooden build
and laden with cargoes of lumber. Often they have carried costly
cargoes under every sky with credit to themselves and profit to their
owners, but the increasing infirmities of age have caused them to
engage in the lowliest forms of ocean-carrying. Under the adverse
influence of a careering cyclone these gallant craft meet their fate.
The savage sea opens wide their straining seams; the pumps, clatter
as they may, are quite unable to cope with the ingress of sea water;
and the disheartened crews seek safety in a passing ship at the first
opportunity. Thus it happens that many a lumber-laden sailing ship
drifts deviously at the will of wind and current, a menace to safe
navigation, until her hull is driven into fragments by the combined
forces of Æolus and Neptune, or reaches land after a solitary drift of
many weary leagues of sea.
"Quite naturally, the North Atlantic holds the record for drifting
derelicts, inasmuch as it is the great ocean highway of the nations.
During the five years 1887 to 1891 not fewer than 957 derelict ships
were reported to the Hydrographer at Washington, then Capt. (now
Admiral) Richardson Clover, U.S. Navy, as in evidence between the
fifty-second meridian of west longitude and the east coast of North
America. Of this large number 332 were identified by name, and the
remainder were either capsized or battered out of recognition. On
an average there were about twenty derelicts drifting in the North
Atlantic at any instant, and the life of each was one month. The
Washington Hydrographic Office receives reports from shipmasters
under every flag setting forth the appearance and the geographical
position of every derelict sighted during the passage across, and this
information is published in the weekly Hydrographic Bulletins and the
monthly Pilot Charts, which are freely distributed among navigators
visiting American ports by the branch offices of that department of
the United States Navy. The British Board of Trade also furnishes
shipmasters in United Kingdom ports with similar printed information,
and the British Meteorological Office has followed suit by graphic
representation on their monthly Pilot Charts of the North Atlantic.
"Many derelicts disappear within a few days of abandonment, but some
drift several thousand miles before the end comes. A vessel left
to her fate near New York, for example, may drift southward with
the Labrador current until not far from Cape Hatteras. Thence she
finds a way into the relatively warm waters of the Gulf Stream, and
may eventually drift ashore on the west coast of Europe. Should the
derelict happen to get into the Sargasso Sea, an area in mid-Atlantic
of light winds and variable currents, made memorable by the pen of
Julius Chambers, she will probably travel in a circle for a long series
of days.
"The schooner _W.L. White_, abandoned during the blizzard of March,
1888, just eastward of the Delaware Capes, made tracks for the Banks of
Newfoundland; there she remained for many days, right on the route of
palatial passenger liners; then she got another slant to the northeast,
and eventually drove ashore at Haskeir Island, one of the Hebrides,
after traversing 6,800 miles in 310 days. Her timber cargo was salved
by the islanders in fairly good condition.
"Metal ships are seldom left derelict; but there are not wanting
remarkable verified drifts even of this class. In October, 1876, the
British iron barque _Ada Iredale_ was abandoned, with her coal cargo
burning fiercely, when 2,000 miles east of the Marquesas Islands,
South Pacific. She moved slowly westward with the south equatorial
current, traveled 2,500 miles in 241 days, and was then picked up by
a French warship, which towed her to Tahiti. After the fire had died
out the hull was repaired; she was fitted with new masts and rigging,
and has ever since been known as the _Annie Johnson_ of San Francisco,
Cal. On her being boarded some time ago, she was still doing well and
quite a handsome vessel. In April, 1882, the _Falls of Afton_ was
precipitately abandoned while on the way from Glasgow to Calcutta with
a valuable cargo. A few days later she was picked up by a French vessel
and taken to Madeira. Since that time she has had many successful
voyages; but the master at the time of her abandonment suffered
severely under the finding of a court of inquiry.
"Ships which have been abandoned more than once in their career are
not unknown. In November, 1888, the iron ship _Duncow_ stranded close
to Dunkirk Harbor during heavy weather. The crew sought safety on
shore, and the ship afterwards floated. Belgian fishermen boarded the
derelict, obtained the services of a tug, and took her to Terneuzen,
thus assuring for themselves salvage payment, which could not have been
legally claimed had she reached a French port. In 1897 this vessel,
while carrying timber from Puget Sound to Australia, went ashore not
far from her destination. She again floated off after abandonment; and
once again a tugboat earned salvage by bringing the derelict into port
uninjured.
"Derelict ships add to the difficulties of trans-Atlantic navigation;
hence the demand of the shipping industry for specially constructed
derelict destroyers, such as the American _Seneca_, to patrol the
Atlantic, experience having shown that a derelict is not nearly so
impossible to locate as is sometimes alleged. The barque _Siddartha_
was abandoned near the Azores in February, 1899. She drifted slowly
to the northeast until within 400 miles of Queenstown, and there she
hovered over the liner tracks for several successive weeks. Moved by
a joint appeal of the White Star and Cunard Companies, the British
Admiralty sent out two warships in quest of the derelict, and she
was soon anchored in Bantry Bay. This vessel, while derelict, was
reported to the United States Hydrographic Office by more than sixty
ships. In February, 1895, the barque _Birgitte_ was abandoned on the
western side of the Atlantic: and on the 1st of March she was sighted
about 1,000 miles west of Cape Clear. Drifting slowly eastward,
almost continuously on the routes followed by the large trans-Atlantic
liners, this derelict was found by a tugboat and towed into Queenstown.
Forty-three vessels had reported her to Washington during the interval.
At nighttime and in thick weather such dangers may be passed quite
close without any one's having an inkling of their proximity. About
the same date, but more to the northeast, the Russian barque _Louise_
was abandoned. She apparently went north as far as the Faroe Islands,
under the influence of the Gulf Stream extension; thence proceeded
eastward; and was picked up by two steam trawlers when sixteen miles
from Aalesund, Norway, and thence towed into that port, after a drift
of approximately 1,400 miles. The American schooner _Alma Cumming_ was
left to her fate in February, 1895, off Chesapeake Bay. After the end
of May nothing was heard from her until March, 1896, when she was about
800 miles off the Cape Verde Islands. She was then totally dismasted,
had evidently been unsuccessfully set on fire by some passing ship, and
her deck was level with the sea surface. In August she was observed
ashore on an island off the San Blas coast, Isthmus of Panama, with the
natives busily engaged annexing all they could from the wreck. On the
1st of March, 1911, in 53 deg. N., 28 deg. W., the Russian steamer
_Korea_ was abandoned by her crew; and two days later, about a degree
farther east, the steamer _Ionian_ sustained considerable damage by
collision with the derelict.
"Some of the reports of alleged derelict ships are as thrilling as a
nautical novel. In May, 1823, the _Integrity_ fell in with a derelict
close to Jamaica, the decks and hull of which were showing a rich crop
of barnacles. Her cabin was full of water, but a trunk was fished up
which contained coins, rings, and watches. This salvage realized 3,000
pounds. In August, 1872, the schooner _Lancaster_ sighted a dismasted
derelict, the _Glenalvon_, on board of which several skeletons of
men were discovered, but not a morsel of food. An open Bible, it is
reported, lay face downward on the cabin table alongside a loaded
revolver and a bottle containing a piece of paper on which was written:
"Jesus, guide this to some helper! Merciful God, don't let us perish!"
All the bodies were reverently committed to the deep, and the derelict
left for whatever the future had in store for her.
"In 1882 the Nova Scotia barque _L.E. Cann_ was towed into a United
States port by a steamship which had found her adrift. Later on in
dry dock, fifteen auger holes were located in her hull, below the
water line. They had all been bored from the inside, and subsequent
inquiry revealed the fact that her former captain had conspired with a
resident of Vera Cruz to load the vessel with a bogus cargo, insure it
heavily, scuttle her when in a suitable position at sea, and divide the
insurance money. Unfortunately for these partners in crime, the barque
did not lend herself to their nefarious operations nearly as well as
was expected.
"In 1894 the Austrian barque _Vila_, carrying a cargo of bones, which
were said to have been gathered from the battle fields of Egypt, was
found derelict by a Norwegian steamer and towed into New York. Not
a word has ever been heard as to the fate of this vessel's crew.
Presumably they took to the boats for some reason, and disappeared
without leaving a trace. About the same time the sailing vessel _C.E.
Morrison_ was fallen in with, a drifting derelict and set on fire. The
crew of a destroyer first salved a bank-book, a sextant, fifty charts,
and some pictures, all of which were eventually returned to their
rightful owner, Captain Hawes, who had been compelled to leave his
vessel without standing on the order of his going. In 1895 the derelict
and burning barkantine _Celestina_, bound from Swansea to the Strait
of Magellan, was boarded by a boat's crew of the barque _Annie Maud_. A
written message was found on the cabin table stating that she had been
abandoned in open boats. The fire having been partially subdued, sail
was made on the prize, and volunteers navigated her to Rio Janeiro.
"The _Marie Celeste_ is a mystery of the sea. This brig left America
for Gibraltar; and nothing more was heard of her until she was sighted
approaching the Strait in a suspicious manner, when she was found to
be derelict. Her hull was sound, there was no sign of an accident
aloft, and her boats were in their appointed places. Some remains of
a meal on the cabin table were still fresh, and a watch was ticking
unconcernedly; yet her captain and his wife and daughter, together with
the crew, had disappeared forever.
"Nautical novelists have made moving pictures of drifting derelicts,
and hoaxers have also utilized them. In 1893 some witty person closely
copied parts of a soul-stirring yarn by Clark Russell, and the alleged
modern experience was telegraphed round the world, appeared in the
press, and was then decisively contradicted. It was asserted that
the Norwegian ship _Elsa Anderson_ arrived at Galveston with an
English-built brig in tow, which had apparently been burned and sunk
more than a half century previously. A submarine seismic disturbance
was invented to account for the vessel's return to the surface. The
hull was covered with strange sea shells, and in the hold were chests
containing many guineas bearing date 1800, several watches, and a
stomacher of pearls! One of three skeletons was said to be that of
a man over seven feet in height. This hoax was successful until it
reached Galveston. Then the authorities denied that the story had
the slightest foundation in fact. Six years later a similar hoax was
perpetrated, which ought immediately to have been recognized as merely
a variant of _The Frozen Pirate_, by the above-mentioned eminent
nautical novelist. It was gravely asserted that the barque _Silicon_,
on her way from the United States to Greenland, had picked up an
old-fashioned derelict ship near the Greenland coast. When access to
the hold was gained, the salvors, so ran the hoax, discovered that she
was laden with furs in good condition; and her log book showed that she
had been abandoned by her crew in 1848. Like the ship imagined by Clark
Russell, she was said to have been fast in the ice in the far North.
One of the most ridiculous derelict-ship hoaxes of the past century
had quite a boom in 1896. A burning derelict, read an astonished
world, had been passed between the Cape of Good Hope and Australia,
with her lower holds full of coal and petroleum, and the between-decks
portion crammed with the dead bodies of people who had met their fate
by suffocation while on their way from Russia to Brazil. The burning
cargo had generated gas which suffocated the emigrants; the bodies
had swollen out of human shape, and subsequent explosions had torn
many limb from limb! This tissue of falsehoods appeared in many of the
world's daily papers without comment.
"H.M.S. _Resolute_, since broken up, was one of the most famous of
derelicts. She was abandoned in 77 deg. 40 min. N., 101 deg. 20 min.
W., drifted southward in the center of a solid sheet of ice, and was
eventually picked up by an American whale-ship off Cape Mercy, in 65
deg. N. After having been refitted by the United States Government,
she was presented to England with impressive ceremony. A desk of
the President of the United States, in the White House, Washington,
D.C., was made from the timbers of the _Resolute_, and sent by Her
Majesty Queen Victoria in memory of that courtesy and loving-kindness
of America to England. It is a substantial token of the good will
existing between the two kindred peoples."
The gifted editor of our National Geographic Society's admirable
magazine, Gilbert H. Grosvenor, in the September number, 1918, page
235, says on the subject of "Strange Stories of Derelicts," "How hard
it is sometimes to send a ship to the bottom is strikingly shown by
the experience of the _San Francisco_ in destroying the derelict
three-master _Drisko_ a decade or so ago. That derelict was only 248
tons, but she was lumber laden. The officers of the _San Francisco_
first tried to tow her to port, but found that impossible. Then they
attached three 30-pound guncotton bombs to her keel and set them off,
but still she floated. Five more bombs were set off; these broke her
back and frames, but still she refused to go to the bottom. Then the
_San Francisco_ rammed her amidships and broke her in two, releasing
the cargo; but even after that it took several shells to drive the
afterpart of the staunch old schooner down into the jurisdiction of
Davy Jones.
"Even in peace times ships are often reported missing, and appear
to have been 'sunk without trace.' It is believed that most of such
catastrophes are the result of collisions with derelicts. How many
more such collisions there will be in the future may be imagined when
it is stated that for two years the number of derelicts has greatly
increased and the steps for their destruction have been much reduced.
"In peace times," continues Mr. Grosvenor, "there is no other menace
to navigation as dangerous as the derelict, unless it be the submerged
iceberg, such as sunk the _Titanic_. Refusing to stay in one location,
yielding to no law of navigation, hiding most of her bulk beneath the
waves, the lonely, desolate, moss-covered, weed-grown derelict, with
deck or keel all but awash, comes out of the night or through the fog
as an assassin out of a lonely alley, and woe to the sailor who has not
detected her approach.
"Drifting hither and yon, now forced on by the wind of a stormy
sea, now caught in a current and driven along, these rudderless,
purposeless, wanderers cover many a weary mile, with only screaming
sea birds to break the monotony of the roaring gale or the soft surge
of a placid sea. Sighted frequently for weeks together, now and again
they disappear, often reappearing suddenly hundreds of miles away. As
many as a thousand have been reported in a single year in the North
Atlantic. The majority of them frequent the Gulf Stream.
"Examining the records of the Hydrographic Office, one finds that in
six years twenty-five derelicts were reported as having drifted at
least a thousand miles each; eleven have 2,000 miles apiece to their
credit, while three sailed 5,000 rudderless miles.
"The classic story of the wanderings of a derelict is that of the
_Fannie E. Wolston_. Abandoned October 15, 1891, off Cape Hatteras,
she traveled northward in the Gulf Stream. When off Norfolk, Va., she
changed her course and headed across the broad Atlantic toward the
shores of Africa. On June 13, 1892, she was sighted half way across.
Then she headed southward for more than 300 miles; then shifted her
course to the northeast for another 200 miles, retraced her track for
several hundred miles, turned again and went in the opposite direction,
like a shuttle in the loom instead of a ship upon the sea. Then she
took another tack and headed west for nearly 400 miles; then shaped her
course north for 300 miles, and then headed east again for 700 miles;
so that in January she was almost in the same latitude and longitude
that she had been in the previous June. In the following May she was a
thousand miles away from where she had been in January, on the border
of Cancer and midway between Florida and Africa. Again she headed
toward America for 600 miles, and repeated her shuttle-in-the-loom
performance. Then followed many long months of erratic zigzags and
she was sighted for the last time 250 miles off Savannah, Ga. She had
remained afloat and had out-generaled the waves for two years and a
half, during which time she had sailed more than 7,000 aimless miles.
"In normal times," continues Mr. Grosvenor, "the Hydrographic Office of
the Navy Department keeps careful check on the derelicts. Every ship
that sights one of these menaces to navigation reports its location.
The names of some of them remain visible, while others are susceptible
of identification by their appearance. The Hydrographic Office gives
each wreck and derelict a serial number and plots its position on a
map. Each report is registered with an identification number. In this
way, by a system of cross checking, it is possible to identify each
derelict, to determine the direction of its drift, and usually to get
it so well located that the Coast Guard cutters may run it down and
sink it."
On January 16, 1919, I addressed an inquiry to the Coast and Geodetic
Survey, Washington, on the subject of international protection of
commerce in the destruction of derelicts, ice observation, etc., to
which I received the following courteous reply from Commodore Bertholf,
dated February 7, 1919:
"1. Your letter of January 16, addressed to the Coast Geodetic
Survey, seeking information on the subject of an arrangement between
our Federal Government and the Government of Great Britain prior to
the Great War for the protection of commerce in the destruction of
derelicts, has reached this office by reference.
"2. In reply I beg to state that Article VI of the International
Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea, which was signed by the
delegates of the various countries on January 20, 1914, provided for an
international service of derelict destruction, study and observation of
ice conditions, and an ice patrol.
"3. Article VII of this convention invited the United States to
undertake this international service, and provided that the high
contracting powers which were interested in this international service
contribute to the expense of maintaining this international service in
certain proportions.
"4. While Article VI of the convention provided that the new
international service should be established with the least possible
delay, the convention, as a whole, could not come into force until
July 1, 1915, and if the organization of the international service
were deferred until after that date, the consequence would be that
the two ice seasons of the years 1914 and 1915 would not be covered
by the proposed international ice patrol, and, therefore, the
British Government, acting on behalf of the other maritime powers,
requested the United States to begin this international ice patrol and
observation without delay and under the same conditions as provided
in the convention. The President directed this to be done, and the
Coast Guard undertook the work and performed the ice patrol during
the seasons of 1914, 1915, and 1916. It was intended that the Coast
Guard should also undertake the international service of derelict
destruction at the conclusion of the ice patrol each year, but owing to
the outbreak of the war in Europe in 1914, the international service of
derelict destruction was never begun.
"5. As pointed out above, the international ice patrol and ice
observation service was begun in 1914 and was continued during 1915 and
1916, but for obvious reasons the patrol was discontinued in 1917 and
has not as yet been resumed.
"6. Of course, as you are aware, the various Coast Guard cutters
recover or destroy such derelicts as may be found within a reasonable
distance of our coast.
"7. I am sending you under separate cover a copy of the International
Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea, also copies of Revenue-Cutter
Service Bulletins Nos. 1, 3, and 5, covering reports of ice patrol for
the years 1913, 1914, and 1915, respectively. The report of the ice
patrol for 1916 has not yet been published.
"Respectfully,
"(Signed) E.P. Bertholf,
"_Commodore Commandant_."