42 THE OCEAN 



done in destroying these dangerous floating 

 hulks is most important and few people realise 

 how many are annually destroyed and re- 

 moved. In the space of a few years as many 

 as seventy-five derelicts have been sent to the 

 bottom by torpedoes, ramming and fire, while 

 twenty or more are yearly towed into port. 



Sometimes even a war-ship finds it a dif- 

 ficult matter to destroy a derelict which, 

 months before, had been abandoned by her 

 crew as in a sinking condition. On October 

 22, 1893, the abandoned American three- 

 masted schooner Drisko of two hundred and 

 forty-eight tons, lumber-laden and water- 

 logged, was sighted by the U, S. S, San Fran- 

 cisco. The officers found it was impossible 

 to tow the derelict and three thirty-four-pound 

 guncotton torpedoes were attached to the 

 wreck's keel and exploded, and while these 

 inflicted a great deal of damage the derelict 

 continued to float. Five more torpedoes were 

 then exploded under the keel and the back 

 and frames of the hulk were broken. Still 

 she floated and the San Francisco rammed the 

 Drisko amidships. This broke her in two and 



