FAMOUS DERELICTS

Greymouth Evening Star, 23 June 1923, Page 8

FAMOUS DERELICTS

MENACE TO SHIPPING. Many are the stories told of vessels abandoned by their crews when all hope of salvage was given up, derelicts floating about, often in the busy steamer lanes, and yet managing to keep out of tile way of the ocean liners, to which they form the greatest danger. One such derelict was the Canadian schooner B. B. Hardwick, which, after a. terrific batte-ing from the huge waves of a very violent gale, was abandoned by her crew on October?, 1910, when it appeared impossible for her to hold together for more than a few hours longer. Yet over a year later she was still afloat, and was sighted by a Spanish steamer on October 27, 1920. She was abandoned just south of the New York trade route, and it is wonderful that she contrived to pass right through the busy steamer lane between England and the Panama Canal without being sighted, and, pparently, without causing any disaster. When last reported she was in an unfrequented area, but was so low in

the water that it was difficult to sight her until the approaching vessel was dangerously near. The movements’ of these derelicts are surprisingly irregular. Take, for instance, the notorious Wyer G. Sargent, which was abandoned, a total wreck, off Cape Hatteras on March 31,, 1891. By May 4 she had travelled over 6CO miles to the eastward, then doubled back 300 miles, and was again sighted on June 8, and two days later she was within 150 miles of the spot where she was abandoned by her crew. On July 2*Bllo had made a. further 900 miles’ voyage to as far north as latitude 40dcg. During the next thirteen days followed another voyage of 800 miles, ami then there came a maze of weird turning movements in which she doubled on her tracks at least five times, and reached mid-Atlantic at the beginning of 1893 before she was ultimately sunk. There are other derelicts just as famous, such as the Fanny E. Wolston, which wandered aimlessly about the Atlantic from December 15, 1891, to February 20, 1394. ? Then there -was the Richelieu, a derelict that caused tremendous excitement in Great Britain. She was a French -warship, which had been sold out of the I'rench navy, and was lying towed from Toulon to Rotterdam. In a storm she broke loose from her lugs when off Brest, and became at once a drifting menace to the traffic at the mouth of the Channel. Once she touched the Retarrier Rocks, off the Scillies, got afloat again, and once more drifted in among the Channel trade. It was at this moment the Admiralty, alarmed at the menace of this great steel hulk smashing about uncontrolled in the crowded Home seas, sent the battle-cruiser Inflexible to search for her. Tn a fierce Channel gale she was ultimately found, and by a. magnificent piece of seamanship steel hawsers were carried on board. The Richelieu was then taken in tow and ultimately once more handed over to the care of the tugs, and, well under control this time, was towed to Holland and finally broken up.