New-York tribune., 1880-01-01
FOUNDERED At 6EA.

FOUNDERED At SEA.
| Just three months ago on the same day, Octo'
Der 1, two ocean steamers sailed away from
this port, and no note nor tiding has been
heard from either since the pilots left them
| They were both new iron ships. The Joseph
| Pease, which cleared for Cette, was built in
| 1876. and the Telford, which cleared for Ant
werp. was built in 1877. They were vessels
of nearly the same size, one measuring 1,751
tons and the other 1,747 tons, and the ordi-
| nary crew for steamers of this grade would
| number about thirty souls. The friends OF
| these sixty men, who have probably been
swallowed up in the Atlantic, the owners and
consignees of the vessels, and few officers of
insurance companies interested in the hulls
and cargoes may still continue to search the
shipping news, although with scarcely spark
| of hope, for some chance fragment Of infor-
nation about the foundered ships; but outside
of this limited circle how many people ever
heard of the lossi
Now, disasters of such magnitude are GER
tainly worth some attention and comment.
and it is altogether depressing to reflect that
the main reason why 80 little notice IS taken
of these losses is the fact that they are so
frequent. Rather more than year ago the
Homer, an iron steamer Of nearly 1000 tons
burden and built in 1877, left Boston and
has never been heard from. little later,
another new iron steamer, the Zanzibar,
measuring 2,245 tons, left this port to meet
an unknown fate. After these followed the
COpia, from some st. Lawrence port, and the
Hermann Ludwig from this city, both steam
ers measuring more than 1900 tons Zone of
them four years old and the other only
eight, which started to cross the Atlantic in
the month of September, 1878, and have
gone no one knows where, while in the early
Spring the Surbiton and Bernina. and later
in the year the KensngtOn, all sailed and
sunk and made no sign. This list perhaps
imperfect, only comprises steamers which
have left some American or European port to
cross the Atlantic during the space of little
more than year, and have never been heard
from. It takes no note of wrecks from
stranding or collision, or foundercd vessels
which have been abandoned and some OF
whose crews Mt least have been saved from
the sinking ship to tell the story of her loss
Among the steamers foundered and abandoned
during the same time while on transatlantic
yoyagcs are the YOxford, the Bayard, the
Abcrfeldy, the GuilIermO, the Scmiramde.
the Curtubav, the ROsc0mmon and the BO-
russia OF these the greater proportion were
vessels Of good size and comparatively new,
some of them beng lost on their first vOy
age.
The laundering of tho Roscommon, month
ago, on her way to Havana from Liverpool
was noticed in THE TRIBUNE last Friday. 1t
nav be worth while to add that the firm
which owned the ROscOmmOn have lost two
other steamers, both new, during the year.
These were the SurbitOn, which went down in
March, while on her passage TO Liver pool
from New-YOrk. and the krnsingtOn, which
cleared from Cardiff for Havana, and is now
catalogucd among the missing. II we should
add to these the loss of other ocean steamers,
like that of the Richmond. which was
abandoned in the North Atlantic, and the
IIellcspont neither Of which chanccd to be
crossing the ocean between America and Eu
rope, the record of foundcred steamers for tho
year is appalling. Inasmuch rs these vessels
are nearly all of English build, it certainly Is
not inappropriate to repeat the suggestion that
the British Board of Trade would do well to
institute a searching investigation OF this mnt-
ter. The commercial world has a right to
know whether iron steamers cannot he 80 con-
structcd as to he comparatively safe in the
opcn sea, especially before they are strained
into unsea worthincss by years of stormy SER
vice.