Democratic Sentinel, Volume 20, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 September 1896 — Drifted Four Thousand Miles. [ARTICLE]

Drifted Four Thousand Miles.

On one of the coral reefs off the Marshall group, far away in the South Pacific, there rests a large railway transfer barge, which was carried by winds and currents from some point on the California coast to its present resting place. Its ownership, home port and the date of its loss are unknown. John Crowley, mate of the missionary brig Morning Star, saw the barge. Speaking about it recently, he said-“We ran into the Marshall group in September last in the course of our tour through the islands, and our intention was attracted to this huge barge resting on a reef. I made a careful examination of it, but the only marks of identification on it were the word ‘Transfer’ and the abbreviation ‘Cal.’ "There were narrow gauge tracks on it, and a couple of big cranes still Intact and very well preserved. The barge itself was pretty badly weather beaten, but it was still in very good condition. It was about 150 feet long, built of heavy timbers. The bottom had been copper covered, but the natives had stripped that off. They, had made an attempt to break the craft ho, too, but that was beyond their power. “The experiences of that barge would be hard to conjecture. It may have drifted the 4,000 odd miles which divide our coast and the Marshalls In a very short space of time, or it might have taken a remarkably long period.” Inquiry among shipping men as to the identity of the strange craft failed to throw any light upon the subject. There is.no record of the loss of any such barge, and the general Impression is that R . was.'probably swept away from one of the lower coast ports by a storm, and carried out to sea, to be guided by wind and sea to the Mari shalls.—San Francisco Chronicle.