The Cincinnati daily star. [volume] ([Cincinnati, Ohio]) 1875-1880, 1880-01-08
PERILS OF OCEAN.


PERILs OF OCEAN. A..
The foundering Of the steamship Bo.
russia at sea few days since, and the
probable loss of near two hundred lives
is a most fearful thing to think of, but
the frequency of these marine disasters
to steamers is becoming such as absolute
ly to demand something more than few
sensation head lines over double loaded
paragraph in the newspapers and public
Indifference forty-eight hours after the
news has been telegraphed over the coun-
try. A few years ago the plan of build
ing ocean steamers with water-tight COM
partments, that is, with water-tight
transverse partitions across the inside
of the hulls of ocean vessels, so that
leak in one from any chance disaster
would not necessarily lead to the filling
of the others with water, and the conse-
quent foundering of the vessel was
trumpeted abroad as a measure of abso-
lutte protection against the sinking of
sea-going crafts so constructed. But the
Borussia had this safeguard, and as we
know was not saved from foundering any
more than a score before her have been.
The general public have not, we venture
to say, any idea of the number of steam.
ships that have been lost within
the few months, and yet the
roster Of these is absolutely start
ling. A year ago, or possibly little more
than year since, the Homer, a stanch
iron steamer of 1,70O tons burthen, con-
structed but three years since and sup
posed to be perfectly safe and strong,
sailed away from Boston and has never
been heard from. Not long after this
another, the Zanzibar, of 2,245 tons, left
New York and has never arrived at her
destination, nor been heard from. The
Copia, which sailed from the St. Law
renee, met the same fate. The Herman
Ludwig, steamer of something like
1,5O0 tons burthen, left New York in
September, 1878, and is still sailing the un-
known seas. The Surbiton, another large
steamer, met like fate. The Bernina,
and again the Kensington, all stanch
English built vessels, and all thought to
be seaworthy, have gone down to the
caves of ocean with all on board, and
none to tell the sickening tale. "Just
three months ago, on the 1st of October
last" says the Tribune. "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 Antwerp, was built in 1877. The
friends of the sixty men who composed
the crew, who have probably been swal-
lowed up in the Atlantic, the owners and
consignees of the vessels, and few Off
GERS of insurance companies inter-
ested in the hulls and cargoes,
may still continue to search the shipping
news, although with scarcely spark of
hope, for some chance information about
the foundered ships" That paper gives
also list of steamers that have been
abandoned at sea in sinking co ndition
within the year while making transat-
lantic voyages, attended with more or
less loss Of life. These are the Yoxford,
the Bayard, the. Aberfeldy, the
Guilermo, the Semiramide, the Gutter
bay, the Roscommon and the Borussia,
Of which few of the passengers have
just arrived at Baltimore, the last, and,
perhaps, the saddest of the list. To
these might be added the Richmond and
the Hellespont, abandoned in tho North
Atlantic, but not while sailing
between American and European ports.
Clearly with such a chain of disasters
attending ocean navigation in craft sup
posed to be the perfection of human in
genuity as to comfort, speed and safety,
those who 60 down to the sea in ships
may well stand aghast at the disasters
that are likely to overtake them by the
way. II the stanchest of new iron
steamships are thus to fail in seaworthi-
ness, it will be- well if travellers and ship
pers of merchandise across the seas de-
mand that the old wooden walls that
rocked the mariners Of antiquity in COM
parative safety be restored, and that the
age of sailing vessels be called out from
the mists of the past to shield us and
our argosies from the nav Of the engulf-
ing ocean.