A Wanderer of the Sea.

A Ship in good condition after being deserted for over a year.

Information has reached Philadelphia that the clipper ship Rock Terrace, which was supposed to have gone down a year ago while bound to Japan, had drifted into the Gilbert group of islands in a sound condition and with only a few inches of water in her hold. The Rock Terrace sailed from Philadelphia on September 20, 1887 for Hiogo; Japan with a cargo with a cargo of oil and phosphate lime valued at $125,000. When near the Philippine Islands, Captain Atkinson; for some unexplained reason- but it is thought through trouble with his crew- left his vessel and landed on an island near which the vessel happened to be passing and left her to her fate.

Nothing more was heard of the abandoned craft until she was sighted off the Gilbert islands. She stranded on the coral reefs of Tarawa, and the natives succeeded in getting out nearly the entire cargo, which so lightened the vessel that she worked further upon the reefs and broke to pieces. Vice-Consul Blacklock, at Apia, has been authorized to send an agent to look after the cargo.

Nothing is known of what became of the crew but it is supposed they reached the Phillippine Islands and reshipped Captain Atkinson is said to be living in seclusion in Nova Scotia.

source: The Wellsboro Agitator.
location: Wellsboro, Pennsylvania