“I jumped to the wheel myself an’ helped the helmsman swing ’er over. Right up before us loomed the dim, black form of a vessel—her stern under water, an’ her bowsprit straight up. I tell ye, for about two minutes I was dead sure ’twas all day with the old Neptune, and us along with her.
“However she did it I dunno, but she answered her helm quicker ’n she did afore or since. She jest shaved the wreck, some of the cordage fastened to the upright bowsprit catching in our spars an’ being torn away, an’ we slipped by without any damage. But I don’t want to have a closer shave than that.”
“That was a close call, Cale,” said Mr. Pepper reflectively. “I’ve a man in my employ—Richards his name is; he sails this trip as captain of the Calypso—who came originally from New Brunswick. A regular ‘blue-nose’ he is, and a good sailor.
“Well, he was one of the crew of the ‘Joggins raft’ as it was called, that left the Bay of Fundy for New York several years ago.”
“And a mighty foolish thing that was, too,” interrupted Caleb, shaking his head. “It’s a merciful Providence that that thing didn’t occasion half a dozen wrecks; but it didn’t, as far as anybody knows.”
“Richards tells a pretty thrilling story of his experience,” the merchant continued, seeing that Brandon was interested in the tale. “Lumber and coal laden derelicts are considered the most dangerous, eh, Caleb? And this Joggins raft was probably the most perilous object that was ever set afloat.
“The raft was composed of 27,000 great tree trunks, bound together with chains, and it weighed something like eleven thousand tons. The hawsers by which it was towed, parted in a hurricane, and the raft went to pieces south of Nantasket. For a good many months the logs were reported as scattered over a great portion of the North Atlantic. As Caleb says, however, they did no damage, but the hydrographic charts during the time were plentifully decorated with them.”
“What are these hydrographic charts?” asked Brandon, with interest. “That clipping Leroyd lost and which I found, mentioned the matter of the Swan’s being reported to the Hydrographic Office at Washington. What did it mean?”
“Well,” responded Mr. Pepper, while Caleb, at the little merchant’s request, filled and smoked his evening pipe, “when these abandoned wrecks are sighted by incoming steamers, they are reported at once to the Hydrographic Office at the capitol, the latitude and longitude, name of the vessel if known, and her position in the water, being given.
“As fast as messages of this kind are received at the office they are posted on a big blackboard on which is inscribed an outline map of the North Atlantic. The position of each derelict is indicated by a pin stuck into the board, and thrust at the same time through a square scrap of paper.