  Title: Derelicts An Account of Ships Lost at Sea in General Commercial Traffic and a Brief History of Blockade Runners Stranded Along the North Carolina Coast 1861-1865 Author: James Sprunt Language: English Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 E-text prepared by deaurider, Graeme Mackreth, |
| Note: | Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive. See https://archive.org/details/derelictsaccount00spru |
DERELICTS
lilian
THE CHASE OF THE LILIAN
DERELICTS
AN ACCOUNT OF SHIPS LOST AT SEA IN GENERAL COMMERCIAL TRAFFIC AND A BRIEF HISTORY OF BLOCKADE RUNNERS STRANDED ALONG THE NORTH CAROLINA COAST 1861-1865
BY
JAMES SPRUNT
Author of "CHRONICLES OF THE CAPE FEAR RIVER"
anchor
WILMINGTON, N.C.
1920
Copyright 1920
BY
James Sprunt
The Lord Baltimore Press
BALTIMORE, MD., U.S.A.
To
J. G. deROULHAC HAMILTON
ALUMNI PROFESSOR OF HISTORY
UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA
WHOSE GENIUS FOR THINGS HISTORICAL INSPIRED ME WITH A DESIRE TO CONTRIBUTE SOME REMINISCENCES OF A STRANGE TRAFFIC THROUGH A BELEAGURED CITY TO THE HISTORY OF THE LOWER CAPE FEAR.
"Some night to the lee of the land I shall steal,
(Heigh-ho to be home from the sea!)
No pilot but Death at the rudderless wheel,
(None knoweth the harbor as he!)
To lie where the slow tide creeps hither and fro
And the shifting sand laps me around, for I know
That my gallant old crew are in Port long ago—
Forever at peace with the sea!"
The Song of the Derelict.
Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae.
FOREWORD.
About twenty-five years ago I wrote for the Southport Leader a series of stories of the Cape Fear blockade from my personal experiences as a participant in the blockade runners Advance, EugÉnie, North Heath, Lilian, Susan Beirne, and finally in the Alonzo, which greatly interested the Cape Fear pilots who had taken part with me in this hazardous service and were found entertaining by some other readers. Later, in the year 1901, I contributed at the request of Chief Justice Walter Clark for his admirable North Carolina Regimental Histories an account of my personal adventures and observations in the North Heath, Lilian, and Susan Beirne, in the capacity of purser, or paymaster, at the age of seventeen and a half years, and as prisoner of war on the Keystone State and the Glaucus, Federal cruisers, and later prisoner of war in Fort Macon and in Fortress Monroe.
Again, in 1914, I wrote in the Cape Fear Chronicles at some length on this interesting phase of Cape Fear history, in the form largely of personal reminiscences, which have been most generously commented upon by eminent writers and historians; and now, at the end of the skein, I have endeavored, in this unpretentious little volume, to reveal some secrets of old ocean which it has kept hidden in its bosom for more than half a century. I have desired to refrain from repetition, but in several instances it was unavoidable. This compilation of new stories and twice-told tales is now presented in more portable form than in the original bulky volumes. The title, Derelicts, is general, but much space has been given to blockade runners destroyed or left as derelicts along the Cape Fear coast during the War between the States. Some space has also been given to a few sea tales not dealing directly with derelict ships.
The Northern Navy doubtless contributed more than any other arm of the Federal forces to the final defeat of the Southern Confederacy, and this was because the South at the beginning of hostilities did not possess a single ship of war.
A dozen such ships as the ironclad Merrimac, which type originated in the South during the war and later revolutionized the navies of the world, could probably have entirely destroyed the Federal fleet of inefficient ships in the second year of the war, raised the blockade, and compelled the recognition of the Great Powers. The errors of the Confederacy were numerous, but its failure to buy or build promptly an efficient navy proved irremediable and fatal. "Yet with its limited resources," says Chief Justice Clark in concluding his history, "the Confederacy was on the very eve of success, but some unexpected fatality intervened. At Shiloh within half an hour of the capture of the Federal Army with Grant and Sherman at its head, a single bullet, which caused the death of Albert Sidney Johnston, changed the history of the continent. At Chancellorsville, one scattering volley, fired by mistake of his own men, took the life of Stonewall Jackson, when, but for that fatality, the capture of Hooker and his whole army was imminent. The unexpected humiliation of the Federal Government in surrendering Mason and Slidell to British threats avoided a war with that power, and, with it, the independence of the South, which would have come with the command of the seas, within the power at that time of Britain's fleet. If Stuart's cavalry had been on hand at Gettysburg, or even a competent corps commander, to have held our gains of the first two days, in all human probability the war would have ended in a great Southern victory at that spot. Had Mr. Davis, when he sent his commissioners to England to negotiate a loan of $15,000,000 acceded to the pressure of foreign capitalists to make it $60,000,000, not only would the Southern finances not have broken down (which was the real cause of our defeat) and the Southern troops have been amply supplied, but European Governments would have intervened in favor of Southern independence ere they would have suffered their influential capitalists to lose that sum."
Notwithstanding the increasing effectiveness of the blockade and the serious reverses which followed Chancellorsville to Appomattox, a buoyant optimism as to the ultimate triumph of the Southern cause prevailed among the blockade runners; and it was not until the failure of Wilkinson in the Chameleon, and Maffitt in the Owl, to enter Charleston, which was captured after the fall of Wilmington, that hope gave place to despair, for then, to quote Captain Wilkinson, "As we turned away from the land, our hearts sank within us, while the conviction forced itself upon us that the cause for which so much blood had been shed, so many miseries bravely endured, and so many sacrifices cheerfully made, was about to perish at last."
James Sprunt.
Wilmington, N.C., January 1, 1920.
MARINE WANDERERS.
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."
LOST LINERS.
About forty years ago the fine British barque David G. Worth, commanded by Capt. Thomas Williams, and owned by the writer, James Sprunt, sailed from Wilmington, N.C., with a full cargo of naval stores bound for the United Kingdom. The owner had spent $10,000 for extensive repairs in London on the previous voyage, and the ship was in every respect staunch and strong and classed A1 Lloyd's and 3/3 II French Veritas. The captain's wife accompanied him, and the crew numbered sixteen.
From the day of her departure from Wilmington bound to Bristol up to the present time, not a word, not a sign of her, has ever come to light. As Mr. Joseph Horner said in Lost Liners:
"We only know she sailed away
"And ne'er was seen or heard of more."
"Lost absolutely, in the fullest and most awful sense of the term! Swallowed up wholly, mysteriously, by the devouring sea! Such has been the fate of many gallant ships; no single survivor to tell the story; no boat or piece of wreckage, no bottle, not a sign or syllable from the vasty deep to reveal the nature of the awful catastrophe by which vessel, cargo, crew, and passengers were blotted out of existence! There is a weirdness, an awful terror, in such mysterious disappearances. They fill the imagination with horror, and cause mental tension in the minds of relatives of the lost far harder to bear than when the fate of a wrecked vessel is told by survivors. The sinking of the Royal Charter, or of the London, or of the Northfleet, though gruesome and harrowing, does not produce in the mind that sense of pain which comes with the recollection of the fate of the President, or of the Pacific, or of the City of Boston."
Continuing, Mr. Horner in Chambers's Journal says: "The number of vessels which have so mysteriously disappeared at sea that not a trace of them or of their crew or passengers has ever been found is larger than most people imagine. In the North Atlantic service alone, from the year 1841, when the President disappeared with 136 souls, to 1890, when the Thanemore of the Johnston Line, with 43 lives, never came to port, there have been, inclusive of these, no fewer than 24 big steamers absolutely and completely blotted out of human knowledge, together with their crews and passengers, numbering in all 1,453. At a very moderate estimate, the value of these vessels with their cargoes could not have been less than £5,000,000. The sum of human agony involved is terrible to contemplate. And every year vessels are posted up as missing.
"The President, one of the earliest Atlantic liners, was the first steamer to be lost and never heard of again. She sailed from New York on the 11th of March, 1841, with 136 souls on board. She was a nearly new vessel, having left the Mersey on her first voyage on the 17th of July, 1840. The commander was Lieutenant Roberts, R.N., a man of iron will and resource. He had taken the Sirius on her first voyage from Queenstown to New York in 1838 in eighteen and a half days. The Sirius was the first steamer owned by an English company which crossed the Atlantic, and but for the determination of Lieutenant Roberts the crew would not have proceeded; they became mutinous, and said it was utter madness to go on in so small a craft. He insisted and had resort to firearms, and so brought the little vessel to her destination.
"After the loss of the President in 1841, thirteen years elapsed in which only one life was lost by the wreck of an Atlantic steamer. It is a curious coincidence that, after the President was lost and never heard of, the next great loss of life, which occurred in 1854, was also that of a vessel which disappeared without leaving a trace. This was the City of Glasgow, which sailed with 480 souls on board. The Pacific, of the Collins Line, left Liverpool on the 29th of June, 1856, and with her living freight of 240 was never more heard of. In the year 1859 an Anchor liner, the Tempest, mysteriously disappeared with 150 souls. The City of Boston of the Inman Line, with 177 persons, was never heard of after leaving port on the 28th of January, 1870. A board stating that she was sinking was found in Cornwall on February 11, 1870. The Allan liner Huronian left Glasgow in February, 1902, for St. John's and disappeared. The British gunboat Condor was lost in the Pacific in 1901. Besides these, the names of many lesser-known vessels swell the long list of tragic disappearances.
"The White Star cattle steamer Naronic, with a crew of sixty hands and seventeen cattlemen, was lost in February or March, 1893, while on a voyage from Liverpool to New York. She was a month overdue before very much anxiety was felt, as it was known that heavy weather had been experienced in the Atlantic, and it was thought that she might have broken down and was making for the Azores. A boat with the name Naronic on it was subsequently found half full of water and abandoned. In this case the vessel was a new one, launched in May of the previous year. She was built with bulkheads and all modern improvements, was 460 feet long, and had engines of 3,000 horsepower. Yet she disappeared, perhaps 1,500 miles from New York, that being the location of the abandoned boat."
Probably the most mysterious disappearance of recent times is that of the United States collier transport Cyclops, which sailed from Barbados for Baltimore March 4, 1918, and has not been heard of since. The official information respecting this important vessel is fragmentary and disconnected. In December, 1917, she reached Bahia, Brazil, and was ordered to take on a cargo of manganese at Rio de Janeiro for the return voyage. The Navy Department exchanged several messages regarding her cargo with the commander in chief of the Pacific fleet, and, on February 7, the latter sent the following message concerning damage to one of her engines:
"Starboard high pressure engine found to be damaged on board U.S.S. Cyclops during passage Bahia, Brazil, to Rio de Janeiro. Board of investigation reports accident due to loosening of nuts on follower ring studs, resulting in breaking of follower ring. Cylinder is broken into two parts by plane of fracture passing from inboard upper edge down and outboard at angle of about 45 degrees. Cylinder cover and piston ring broken and piston rod bent just below piston, which is damaged. So far as now determined, responsibility seems to be upon engineer officer watch Lieut. L.J. Fingleton, who did not stop engines nor report noise. Board recommends that new cylinder, piston rod and piston, piston rings and follower be manufactured. That cylinder cover be repaired by welding upon return United States. Repair of cylinder by welding believed possible. Can not be made here. Engine compounded and vessel will proceed thus when loaded."
She reached Barbados safely and began her voyage from there to Baltimore. Being overdue, the Navy Department sent the following message to the naval stations at Key West, Charleston, Guantanamo, Navy Radio San Juan, and the U.S.S. Albert:
March 22, 1918.
"U.S.S. Cyclops sailed from Barbados March 4 for Baltimore. Now about ten days overdue. Endeavor communicate Cyclops by radio and ascertain location and condition."
The following day the Navy Department sent a similar message to the commander of Squadron I, Patrol Force, Atlantic fleet. On March 24 the station at Charleston, S.C., reported that at intervals for twenty-three hours messages by radio had been sent in an endeavor to locate the Cyclops, but without success. Commander Belknap directed that calls be continued, and on March 26 the Navy Department sent the following message to the Governor of the Virgin Islands:
"U.S.S. Cyclops sailed from Barbados March 4 for Baltimore. Has not yet arrived. Have you any information regarding this vessel passing St. Thomas?"
The reply was "No information regarding U.S. S. Cyclops."
Every station within radio communication of her route and every ship within call during the time of her passage, including foreign ships, was asked for any fragment of information. The search was continued as long as it seemed possible to gain news of her, but nothing definite was ever heard. The only suggestion of how she may have been lost is contained in a message to the Navy Department from the First Naval District, received June 6, 1918:
"Mr. Freeman, now in Boston, telephone address held in this office, states log of U.S.S. Amalco shows that on night of March 9 U.S.S. Cyclops was about five miles distant. March 10 heavy gale damaged the Amalco. Capt. C.E. Hilliard, of the Amalco, now at 2876 Woodbrook Avenue, Baltimore, Md."
On April 22 the commander in chief of the Pacific fleet sent to the Navy Department the following statement of her cargo:
"U.S.S. Cyclops had by tally of bucket 10,604, by draft in feet 10,835 tons manganese, distributed number one hold 10,614; number two hold 1,995; number three 2,250; number four 1,875; number five 2,870. Cargo stowed direct on wood dunnage in bottom of hold. Reports differ as to whether cargo was trimmed level or left somewhat higher in middle. Incline to latter belief. Reported also vessel had 4,000 tons of water, mostly in double bottoms. So far as ascertained, no steps taken to prevent increasing of metacentric height, and this must have been considerably increased."
What caused the catastrophe will probably never be known, but with one of her engines reported out of order she was not in the best condition to weather the storm reported by the Amalco, and it is not unlikely that a sudden shifting of her cargo caused her to capsize and to be instantly engulfed.
Exactly one hundred days from the date of her sailing the following order was issued:
"From: Secretary of the Navy.
"To: Bureau of Medicine and Surgery
(via Bureau of Navigation).
"Subject: Re official declaration of death of men
on board the Navy collier Cyclops.
"I. The following named enlisted men in the U. S. Navy and Marine Corps should be officially declared dead as of June 14, 1918, deaths having occurred in the line of duty through no misconduct of their own:"
(Here followed a list of the crew and passengers of the Navy collier Cyclops at the time of disappearance.)
"(Signed) Franklin D. Roosevelt,
"Acting."
In his annual report for 1918 the Secretary of the Navy states "Cyclops was finally given up as lost and her name stricken from the registry."
Causes of the Destruction of Lost Ships.
Since the veil that conceals the catastrophes that sent the missing vessels to their doom can never be lifted, a wide field of surmise is open. We can only guess at the causes of these losses by considering what has taken place in the case of vessels which have received serious injuries the nature of which is known. I quote Mr. Horner in giving the following as the possible causes which may account for the total disappearance of liners: "Capsizing; damage from within, as explosion, breakdown of machinery, or fire; damage from without, as collision with an iceberg or with a derelict hulk; and mysterious causes.
"In reference to explosions, there are two possible causes. One is due to the steam boilers, the other to coal gas generated in the bunkers. Accidents from both causes have frequently occurred; and though it is not easy to see how the force could be sufficiently great to rend a vessel asunder without affording time for the use of boats or life-saving appliances, yet the possibility must be admitted. Boilers are always in the bottom of the vessel, and it is quite conceivable that one or more boiler explosions would rupture the sides and let the water in in large volumes. In the case of a tug in the harbor at Cardiff this actually happened. And although the loss of no big vessel has been traced to this cause, it must be admitted that the cause would be sufficient, and the end would be sudden.
"Explosions of coal gas have occurred; and in past years, when less attention was paid to ventilation than at the present time and when vessels were built of wood, it is within the bounds of possibility that an explosion might have torn a hole or started planks, or might have given rise to a fire of large extent. If to this is added the terror of rough weather at night, when most of those on board would be asleep, the chances of any vestige remaining would be slender.
"Breakdowns of machinery alone would hardly account for the loss of vessels, but they might do so indirectly—first, by leaving a vessel exposed to the mercy of rough weather; secondly, by damaging the hull and letting the water in. Fractures of propeller shafts or of propeller blades are not infrequent occurrences. Neither is damage to a rudder. It is quite conceivable that a vessel disabled thus for several days and encountering exceptionally heavy weather, might be overwhelmed by the sheer force of the waves. In rough weather the chance of a disabled vessel being seen in mid-Atlantic if she drifts out of the regular routes is very slender. Steamers for many years past have been entirely dependent on their machinery, having no sails to fall back on. Only in recent years have the most modern and best liners been fitted with twin screws and double sets of engines, one of which remains available if the other is damaged. A disabled vessel might, therefore, in the past have suffered badly if she drifted out of the trade routes, and might have gone down in bad weather.
"Damage to machinery may also be sufficient to explain the loss of a vessel by causing her to sink at once. The City of Paris, of the Inman Line, had a big smash in one of her engine rooms on the 25th of March, 1890. She was coming home in fine weather, and when she was near the Irish coast the starboard engines broke down in consequence of the fracture of the starboard propeller shaft, and the sea filled the engine room. Then the massive fragments of the wrecked engine hammering against the bulkhead smashed that and allowed the water to flow into the engine room, completely filling that also. In about ten minutes both engine rooms were filled with water, adding 3,000 tons to the vessel's weight. Yet she still floated securely, and the outer skin was not damaged in the least. The water-tight compartments kept the City of Paris afloat for three days until help came to tow her into Queenstown. At Queenstown the openings in the sea connections of the vessel were closed with the assistance of divers. The water was pumped out of the engine rooms, and with her port engines and one screw the vessel renewed her voyage and went on safely and quietly to Liverpool without harm to anyone. In the case of the P. and O. steamer Delhi, which stranded on December 12, 1911, off Cape Spartel, on the Morocco coast, all the passengers were rescued, including the Duke of Fife and the Princess Royal and her daughters.
"Capsizing is not so likely a cause as some others, but it is possible. The Captain capsized, with the loss of hundreds of lives. The type was, however, very different from that of the liner. But the draught of a vessel diminishes toward the close of her voyage, as coal is reduced. Some vessels are unsteady, and it is conceivable that heavy weather, shifting cargo, and insufficient ballast may cause a vessel to roll over on her beam ends and capsize. There is little doubt that the Wartah capsized by reason of top-heaviness. One of her life buoys was reported as being found (December, 1911) at Waiuku, New Zealand.
"But the most probable cause of unexplained losses of ships at sea is fire, or it is one, at least, which divides probabilities with explosions and icebergs. Even on the supposition of an explosion, it seems almost inexplicable that no trace of a sunken vessel should ever afterwards be seen. A missing liner or other large vessel is a source of interest to all seafaring men, and a keen outlook is kept on the track which the vessel was known to have taken. Any stray spar or belt or bit of wreckage, therefore, could scarcely escape observation. If a vessel sinks in mid-ocean some portions float. But if a vessel is burned everything would probably be consumed, as the vessel would burn to the water's edge. Boats might or might not be launched, according to the rapidity of the rush of the flames, the state of the weather, etc. If boats are launched, say, a thousand miles from land, the chances of rescue or of making land are remote. Fire, therefore, seems adequate enough to account for the loss of some of the numerous vessels which have never been heard from after leaving port.
"Considering other possible external causes of the total disappearance of liners, heavy weather must be regarded as a probable reason in some instances. Although we do not admit that the roughest weather would harm a modern liner, we must remember that the older vessels were not as large and powerful as those of the present time. The Pacific, for example, which disappeared in 1856, was not nearly half the length of the latest vessels. Bulkheads had not been brought to the perfect condition of security which they have now attained. Not infrequently even now steamers become water-logged and reach a sinking condition and their crews are happy if rescued. It may well have happened that vessels have foundered in mid-ocean in consequence of not being able to receive assistance, while the sailors could not take to their boats with any hope of living in the tempest.
"Uncharted rocks also cause the loss of vessels, as in the case of the Pericles. But her captain was a man of resource and no lives were lost.
"Icebergs are a probable cause for the loss of some vessels, especially of liners running to Canadian ports. The damage to the Arizona may be instanced, and many other vessels have had hairbreadth escapes. A vessel insufficiently secured by bulkheads would stand a poor chance in collision with an iceberg.
"Tidal waves are probably accountable for some unexplained losses. There are three classes of such waves—those due to submarine seismical disturbances, solitary waves occurring in an otherwise calm sea (the origin of which is obscure), and cyclonic waves. Each is very dangerous, the first and last chiefly in the vicinity of coasts, the second out at sea. It was a seismic wave which wrought such havoc at Lisbon in 1755 and in Japan in 1896, when 30,000 people were killed. But the effects of these do not usually extend far out to sea, as do those of solitary waves. Many records of the latter have been given where the decks of vessels have been swept of all hands and of all deck erections. In 1881 all hands were washed off the decks of the Rosario. In 1882 the master and half the crew of the Loch Torridon were swept off the deck by a tidal wave. In 1887 the Umbria was flooded by two great waves. In 1894 the Normania was struck by a solid wall of water reaching as high as the bridge, smashing the cabin on the promenade deck, and carrying away the music room and the officers' quarters. The height of tidal waves ranges from forty to eighty feet. The Cunarder Etruria was struck by a tidal wave on the 10th of October, 1903, when a Canadian gentleman was killed and several wounded. The captain's port bridge and stanchions were carried away. Though such waves would not greatly endanger the huge modern liners, they might have swamped their predecessors by breaking through the decks or rushing down hatchways and skylights. Many vessels have been lost by being pooped by vast storm waves, which are not as high as many tidal waves.
"In reference to mysterious agencies, these can be dismissed in the present state of knowledge. The secrets of the sea have been investigated so well that no destructive agent is likely to exist that is not known to science. Collision with a whale would not damage a liner, though it would be bad for the whale. The sea serpent may be dismissed without comment. The eruption of submarine volcanoes may be dangerous to small vessels, but the idea of harm from them can not be entertained in connection with the Atlantic service. So that, after all, we are driven back for the solution of these disappearances to the same causes which are known to have wrecked so many vessels. Among these must be included collision with derelict wrecks, which have been known to drift about in the Atlantic for over a twelvemonth, and unhappily the malicious placing of explosives among the cargoes of liners, as was done at Bremerhaven in 1875."
During the War between the States, on the 24th of August, 1864, the writer was captured after bombardment for five hours while serving as purser of the Confederate steamer Lilian, engaged in running the Federal blockade off Wilmington, N.C., and made a prisoner of war. Subsequently he escaped to Halifax, Nova Scotia, and reported to a prominent citizen of that town who was acting as the Confederate States representative. He was one of the most popular Southern sympathizers; a man of fine presence, good business qualifications, courteous and amiable to a degree. He was trusted by all, and he acted as banker for nearly every Southerner who came his way. Halifax was then the center of large Confederate interests. Several Confederate war steamers were there, among them the Chickamauga and the Tallahassee. It was the rendezvous of blockade runners who had escaped from confinement or who had been discharged after detention by the Federals for several months. K—— was attentive to all of them. When the war ended K—— suddenly disappeared with the cash entrusted to him by confiding Confederates.
Several years after, there was a great explosion upon the dock where a German mail steamer was loading for sea which produced a sensation throughout the world. An infernal machine intended to wreck the liner had prematurely exploded on the quay and killed and maimed a large number of persons, among whom was the shipper, under an assumed name. This man, mortally wounded, was eagerly questioned by the police as to his diabolical plans and his accomplices; the only clue they obtained from his incoherent ravings was an intimation that he had been connected in some way with the Confederacy, and strangely enough he said something about Captain Maffitt and my ship the Lilian. The authorities took photographs of him, which were imperfect because of the reclining position of the dying man. Further investigation after his death revealed one of the most fiendish plots in commercial history; large shipments of bogus goods had been made by the liner, and heavily insured by this stranger, who had designed a clock machine intended, it was said, to explode three days after the sailing of the steamer, and sink her with all on board. For many months the secret service detectives were working on this case; at length one of them came to Wilmington and questioned me about the man, whose picture was exhibited. Neither I nor any of the pilots at Smithville could identify him, although his face was strangely familiar to me. The detective went away, but returned in a few weeks and asked me if I had known a man named K——. "Yes," I at once replied, "and he was the author of this awful crime." Such proved to be the case. It was the old story of depraved associates and the downward road to ruin.
TO THE RESCUE.
I have said in Chronicles of the Cape Fear River, pages 525-527, that a public service which measures its efficiency by the number of human lives saved from the perils of the sea is to be classed among the highest humanities of a great government, and that an important arm of great reach and efficiency is the admirable service of the U.S.S. Seminole on this station.
The activities of this ship in assisting vessels in distress are so continuous as to be classed by her efficient commander as all in the day's work. In the four months from December 1, 1912, this ship assisted nine vessels in distress at sea and destroyed a tenth, the Savannah, a dangerous derelict.
A typical case is described in the recent rescue in a gale of wind three hundred miles off Cape Fear, of the British mail and passenger steamer Korona, bound from St. Thomas, West Indies, for New York, whose boilers broke down, rendering the ship helpless without motive power, wallowing in a heavy sea which threatened to engulf her.
The story of this splendid rescue of a hundred human lives is told in the matter-of-fact official report of Capt. Eugene Blake, jr., of the Seminole, and in the letter of thanks to the Secretary of the Navy, which follows, with the Acting Secretary's reply:
"Wilmington, N.C.,
"April 2, 1919.
"Seminole.
"From: Commanding Officer.
"To: Commandant, Fifth Naval District.
"Subject: Report of search and tow of Canadian S.S. Korona.
"1. At 1 a.m. on the morning of March 25, the following message was transmitted to the Seminole from the communication officer at district headquarters:
"'March 24, 1919: Korona boilers out of commission. Needs assistance. Position, latitude 31-48 N., longitude 72-12 W., noon, today. Signed, Doyle, Master.'
"2. The Seminole left the Berkley oil docks at 7 a.m. the same morning and proceeded at top speed for the reported position of the Korona, passing through the Gulf Stream from 2 a.m. to 8 a.m. of the morning of March 26.
"3. At 8 a.m. in the forenoon of March 26, intercepted a radiogram from the Porto Rican S.S. Co.'s steamer Coamo that she had the Korona in tow, and was proceeding with her to the westward. Communication by radio was immediately established with the Coamo, and the position, course, and speed ascertained. It was also learned that as the Coamo was bound to the southward for Porto Rico, she was anxious to be relieved of the tow. Arrangements were therefore made to meet the Coamo at the nearest possible meeting point and at 10 that morning the course of both vessels was changed to effect this meeting at about 7 that evening. The Seminole was run under forced draft in order to take advantage of the weather, which was then favorable to picking up the disabled vessel.
"4. At 6.45 p.m. March 26, the Coamo with Korona in tow was sighted bearing almost dead ahead, and at 8.15 p.m. the Coamo had been relieved of the tow and the Seminole's hawser shackled into the starboard chain of the Korona. The Korona's master stated that his port of destination was New York and requested to be towed to the northward. Hampton Roads was accordingly selected as the port of destination and the course shaped for Diamond Shoals buoy.
"5. The weather, which up to this time had been fine, commenced to show signs of a decided change, and the storm warning received the following morning, March 27, confirmed the prediction of an approaching gale. The wind, however, was from southwest to south, and, being favorable, good progress was made, at an estimated speed of five or six knots from the time the Korona was picked up until midnight of March 27.
"6. By this time the wind had shifted to west and was blowing a strong gale, and the Seminole was unable to hold up to her course with the tow. We were shipping heavy seas at frequent intervals and were practically hove to and drifting to leeward. About 2 a.m. March 28, the wind shifted to northwest with slightly increased force, and the Seminole was put before the gale with engines turning over at dead slow speed, sufficient to keep the Korona astern, to act as a drag. This is an unfavorable position for the Seminole because she rolls to a dangerous angle in a following sea and takes much water in the waist, but it was the best that could be accomplished under the circumstances. The tow seemed to be fairly comfortable.
"7. During the night of March 27 and daylight of March 28, the Seminole with tow lost about 60 miles in a general southeasterly direction.
"8. On March 28, picked up an S.O.S. call from the steamer Alapaha in our immediate vicinity; in fact this steamer reported herself in sight at one time during the day, but as she was going to leeward faster than the Seminole and reported no immediate danger to her crew, there seemed no reason for abandoning one vessel for a doubtful chance of picking up the other. It was also learned that the Coast Guard cutter Yamacraw was proceeding to her assistance.
"9. The weather moderated slightly during the afternoon of March 28, and at 5.40 p.m. the Seminole with tow was brought up head to wind and sea on course northwest, making little if any progress. The gale increased again in force from 8 p.m. to midnight, and at 3 a.m. March 29 west was the best heading that could be held.
"10. During the worst of the gale this night the Seminole's air pump stopped, and the two vessels fell off into the trough of the sea and at one time were in imminent danger of collision. The Seminole being the lighter and naturally in the weather position, drifted faster than the Korona, but was worked clear by setting the staysails and getting a few turns out of the engine at the critical moment. As soon as the Seminole was to leeward of the Korona, the engine was stopped and in the course of an hour the air pump was repaired.
"11. The northwest weather continuing throughout March 29 with gale force, it was decided to make Wilmington, N.C., and a westerly course was maintained throughout the day.
"12. About 2 p.m. on March 30 the Korona managed to get a small head of steam on one boiler, and, after coupling up propeller, which had been disconnected on taking up the tow, was able to turn her engine over at slow speed. This materially lightened the weight of the tow and we were able to make way at a speed between four and five knots.
"13. Continued at this rate of speed through March 30 and 31 with very slowly moderating weather, and at 1.40 p.m. on the 31st got on sounding, sighting Frying Pan Shoal buoy at 5.30 p.m. that date.
"14. During the night of March 31 a moderate northerly gale developed, but the tow, being under the lee of Frying Pan Shoal, was easily manageable. Speed was regulated to arrive off Cape Fear River entrance at daylight, and upon reaching that point the heavy hawser was unshackled and the Korona towed up the river to Wilmington with a lighter line and short scope.
"15. Arrived off Wilmington at 2.30 p.m., where Korona was turned over to her agents, Alexander Sprunt & Sons Co., the Seminole proceeding to her wharf at the custom-house.
"16. A Coast Guard statistical report of this assistance is attached.
"Eugene Blake, Jr."
"April 2, 1919.
"Sir: As agents in Wilmington, N.C., of the Quebec Steamship Co., owners of the British steamer Korona, as agents of Lloyds, as agents of the London Salvage Association, and as official agents of the British Ministry of Shipping, and in behalf of Capt. Austin Doyle, his officers and crew and passengers of the British steamer Korona, numbering in all a hundred persons, we desire to express to you and to Captain Blake, his officers and crew of the U.S.S. Seminole, through you, our deep sense of gratefulness for the rescue from imminent peril in a heavy sea of the disabled steamer Korona while on her voyage from St. Thomas to New York; and for their splendid seamanship in averting collision and in towing her under great difficulties to this port of refuge.
"Tossed upon a raging sea without motive power, the Korona was in great danger, and her rescue after four days' continuous assistance adds another high record of splendid achievement by the U.S.S. Seminole and her devoted men.
"Permit us, Sir, to thank you cordially in the names of all concerned for this added admirable and effective example of the highest degree of humanity and efficiency in an important arm of the U.S. Navy.
"Yours very respectfully,
"(Signed) Alexander Sprunt & Son.
"To the Honorable Josephus Daniels,
"The Secretary of the Navy,
"Washington, D.C."
"Navy Department,
"Washington, April 7, 1919.
"Dear Sirs: Receipt is acknowledged of your letter of April 2, expressing gratitude for the rescue of the disabled steamer Korona by the U.S.S. Seminole.
"Your letter of appreciation has been forwarded to the commanding officer of the U.S.S. Seminole via the Commodore Commandant of the Coast Guard Service and the Commandant of the Fifth Naval District, under whose orders the U.S.S. Seminole is operating.
"It is a great pleasure to know that the work of our salvage and rescue ships is appreciated, and I thank you very sincerely for your expression of thanks and recognition of the excellent seamanship and devotion to duty shown by the captain, officers, and crew of the U.S.S. Seminole.
"Very truly yours,
"(Signed) Franklin D. Roosevelt,
"Acting Secretary of the Navy.
"Messrs. Alexander Sprunt & Son,
"Wilmington, North Carolina."
DERELICT BLOCKADE RUNNERS.
For many years the summer visitors on Wrightsville Beach have looked out upon the hurrying swell of the broad Atlantic and have felt the fascination of the long lines of crested breakers like Neptune's racers charging and reforming for the never-ending fray; and, when the unresting tide receded, they have seen the battered hulks of some of the most beautiful ships that ever shaped a course for Wilmington in the days of the Southern Confederacy. They represented an epoch that is unique in our country's history, for, in the modern art of war the conditions which then prevailed can never occur again.
Some of these wrecks may be visible for a hundred years to come, and, as nearly every one who knew these vessels and of their last voyage has passed away, I have thought it might interest some of our people, and perhaps future generations, to know something of these ships, which I still remember distinctly and with whose officers I was more or less familiar. So that I have noted from memory and from official records of the Four Years' War, the tragedies which involved the destruction of these fine vessels between Topsail Inlet and Lockwood's Folly. These will comprise about thirty ships, nearly all of the steamers that were stranded on our coast during the war while running for the Cape Fear Bar under a heavy bombardment by the Federal cruisers.
Many millions were lost with the destruction of these blockade runners, and possibly valuable metal might be recovered now, in the present high prices for all war supplies. The average cost of one of the blockade runners was $150,000 in gold. They were mostly built of thick iron, which does not corrode like steel in salt water.
The cargoes comprised perishable and imperishable goods, and they were often as valuable as the vessels which carried them. When these ships were stranded so high upon the beach that neither Federals nor Confederates could salve them, the guns from both sides were used to destroy them, so that neither could profit by a rescue. The bombshells set some of the ships on fire, but none were totally destroyed, because the breakers extinguished the fires when the superstructure was burned away, so it is very probable that some of them still contain cargoes of value.