“Poor lad! he’s doubtless heart broken by Cap’n Horace’s death, and won’t feel much like goin’ into this ’ere treasure huntin’ business; but for his own good I’ll have ter rouse him up. It would be what the cap’n would wish, I know.”
He let the paper lie idly on his knee a moment, and a mist rose in his eyes.
“Never mind if the old brig has gone to pieces before we get there,” he muttered. “I’ve got a little shot in the locker yet, an’ the boy shan’t come ter want. I’ll do my duty by him as though he was my own son, that I will!”
He picked up the paper again, and turned naturally to the shipping news, which he ran over carelessly, smiling the while. Finally his eye was attracted by something near the bottom of the column.
“Eh, what’s this?” he exclaimed. “What’s this about the Silver Swan?”
With great excitement he read the following news item, following each line of the text with his stumpy forefinger:
Captain Millington, of the English steamer Manitoba, which arrived here yesterday from Brazil, reports that he passed a very dangerous wreck in latitude 22:03, longitude 70:32. It was the hull of a brig, apparently in good condition, but with her masts snapped off close to the decks, and all her rigging carried away. The name on her stern was Silver Swan, Boston.
This is the same derelict reported by the steamer Montevideo at Savannah several weeks ago. According to Captain Millington, the wreck of the brig is a great menace to all vessels plying between this and South American ports, as its course seems to be right across the great highway followed by most of the steamship lines.
It will be remembered that the Silver Swan was wrecked over two months ago on Reef Eight, southwest of Cuba, grounding, according to the report of the survivors of her crew, upright on the rock. The captain of the Montevideo sighted her not far from the reef, from which she was doubtless loosened by the westerly gale of February 13th; but since that time she has floated some distance to the north and east, and if she follows the same tactics as many of her sister derelicts, she may zigzag across the course of the South American steamers for months.
The cruisers Kearsarge and Vesuvius are both lying in port at present, and it will be respectfully suggested to the Navy Department that one or both of those vessels be sent to destroy this and several others of the most dangerous derelicts now floating off our coast.