MYSTERY OF A DERELICT.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 144209, 27 September 1913, Page 6

MYSTERY OF A DERELICT.

GRIM STORY OF A LINER’S FIND. Found floating in mid-Atlantic tho derelict Glenmark, a Norwegian barque, has boon towed into port by H. 71.5. Donegal, and a grim story of tho sea is related in connection with her final disastrous voyage. The Glenmark has been a grave menace to Atlantic shipping for some time. She was sighted on June 23 by the C.P.H. liner Montezuma, and Captain Griffith, of that vessel, on arrival at Montreal, told a strange story of the incident. He was called to the bridge by tho watchman. A mirage-like imago of what looked like a four-masted barque was seen; but as the ship neared the place the phantom faded away, and a battered, rusty hull, shorn of everything above dock from stem to stern, ami drifting helplessly on her beam, was seen. Mr. Clewes, an officer of the Montezuma, was sent aboard the wreck. Her three masts had been torn from their sockets; every inch of spars, sails, and ship gear had gone overboard; two battered lifeboats forward were mute evidences of the gale through which the Glenmark had passed; from tho after davits ropes dangled into tho sea, suggesting that the boat which had hung there had been the one in which tho crew of the ill-fated barque had sought to escape death. Not a living thing was on tho dock: it was all ruin and rust. Captain Griffith said tho hull was still in good condition, and was well worth saving. He was, however, bound for Montreal, and so, after satisfying himself that there was nothing living aboard the derelict, ho steamed away. The Glenmark was built in Glasgow. She was a threemasted steel barque, 1357 gross tonnage, and 1200 tons net register. A year ago she was in charge of Captain Danillson, but no later papers were found to state whether he was in charge when tho wreck occurred. The papers found, too, have no dates later than last December, so it is likely that it was about the New Year that the Glenmark made her last voyage. She left Pensacola, Florida, in December, and probably was abandoned a few days later. Nothing is known as to what has happened to her crew. Captain Griffith thought a aadden squall stripped the rigging and masts from the ship, hurled her on her beam ends, smashed her lifeboats, and left her drifting helpicssfy in the trough of the sea. After that there was nothing to do hut issue the last order; “Abandon ship, everybody.”