The Wireless Operator—With the U. S. Coast Guard

by Lewis E. Theiss

“How wonderful wireless is,” thought Henry. “By means of it we can enlist every pair of eyes on the near-by ocean.”

But the search by wireless was quite as fruitless as that by steam. No trace of the lost schooner could be found. All day the Iroquois steamed along, yet night found her unsuccessful. When dusk came, the lookouts were ordered from the masts, the engines were stopped, and the Iroquois was allowed to drift before the wind, which had now considerably abated. The boat rolled and wallowed in the sea, but the waves were not now severe enough to be a menace.

“Do you think you’ll find her?” asked Henry, while he and the captain were eating supper.

“If she’s afloat I think we’re quite likely to find her. She’ll drive straight before this wind. But it may take us three or four days yet.”

“Three or four days!” cried Henry, in astonishment. “Why, I had no idea a derelict could float so far or so fast.”

“You see we’re in the Gulf Stream, Henry,” said the captain, “and both wind and tide will drive her. Why, the Iroquois once chased a derelict in the Gulf Stream that floated two hundred and eighty-five miles in four days. This one might go as far. And while we make a big total of miles, we don’t advance so very far in one day along the course of the derelict.”

It looked as though the captain’s prediction of a long search was to be realized, for the second day’s run was as fruitless as the first had been. Once more the cutter drifted with the wind during the hours of darkness, yet all the time she was gaining on the derelict, for, standing high above the water, she would drift twice as fast as a low-lying hulk.

At noon the next day the Iroquois had reached the point marked B on the diagram. Here the lookouts discovered three pine boards. They were floating almost exactly in the line the captain had drawn as the probable course of the derelict. Instead of standing on this leg of his grid as usual, the captain ran on for only three or four miles further, and then came about to starboard. This tack brought him once more across the supposed line of the derelict’s path. Here some bits of wreckage were seen. It now seemed certain that the wreck had come along the line indicated in the captain’s diagram, and must, therefore, be straight to leeward. A few moments later the matter was definitely settled, when one of the lookouts spied a floating hulk exactly in the direction indicated. The cutter was brought about and headed straight for the derelict. In less than half an hour the Iroquois was rolling upon the waves, only a few hundred yards from the derelict.

But how different this was in appearance from the craft Henry had been expecting to see. He had looked for a boat with its masts snapped off, riding low in the water, with the waves washing over its deck. Instead of that there lay before them about half of the hulk of a boat, bottom up. Evidently the craft had been broken in half by the storm. The after part had no doubt sunk, but the forward end continued to float, upheld by the air imprisoned within her. The broken midship section floated low under the waves, while the bow projected well above the water. Her bottom was dark and slimy, and Henry shuddered as he looked at the monster, for monster she was, a floating monster, lying in wait for other creatures of her kind. And Henry thanked fortune that the Iroquois had not run upon this lurking death in the darkness of the night and torn herself apart, to drop to the floor of the ocean, even as half of this derelict had already done, and as the other half was so soon to do.

For no sooner had the Iroquois lost headway than the gripes were unfastened on one of the small boats, the falls loosened, and the boat lowered level with the rail. Meantime, the necessary materials for destroying the derelict had been assembled. These were now lifted aboard the small boat and the crew leaped in after them. Then Lieutenant Hill, who was to command, took his place in the stern. Oars were gotten ready, and at a favorable opportunity the boat was dropped gently into the waves. In a moment she was riding safely at a little distance from the Iroquois, and her oarsmen were bending to their oars.