Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1884-07-18
Disasters at Sea.

nyiously avail lno aliir"i VI OH oVer-
,,e ship on board of which some one
uor to them has taken passage from .
ts cant mort. On the llth Of March,
s,, the President-one of the finest
's ,.snoer steamers of her time-left
ssw York for Liverpool with many
%ss"enoers on board. Three or four
a~s after her departure she encoun-
,mred a terrific tornado not far to the
nth Of Cape Race, and was seen by a
E,onch sailing vessel to enter q thick
E1ond or rain-storm, which brooded up
y The face of the deep and obscured
ke heavily-laboring vessel from view.
T. half an hour or so the cloud lifted,
lnt no President met the anxious eyes
: the gazers. who, in the phrase of
Erpnch mariners, ''interrogated the
E~orizon'' in search of the missing OBJ
sct. There was no possibility of her
Coyino run into an iceberg or come in
= collision with another ship; but
(gainst her name in the underwriters
Eooks were inscribed those melancholy
lords which, we are told, ought never
q he employed in connection with a
Epll -built and well-manned craft of any
ind. .sfoundered at sea-" No trace Of
ar existence was ever found, except a
ew spars and part of a boat believed to
ave belonged to her, which were
Washed ashore after some weeks upon
he coast of North Wales. Among many
lther passengers of note whom she car.
led we're included Tyrone Power, Che
,ell-known and universally popular
FISH comedian, and Lord Fitzroy
7harles George Lennox, second son Of
he late and brothero of the present Duke
4 Richmond. Lord Fitlroy Lcnnox
ras an officer in the guards, and was
bn his way home from Canada in the
lxpectation of passing his twenty-tirst
birthday on the following 18th of June
With his attached parents. He was his
mothers favorite son, and was named
liter Fitzroy Somerset, subsequently
ord Raglan. who had been his fathers
riend and fcllow-soldier on the Duke
bf Wellington's staff during the PENN
E,lar War. There are many still living
and among them nom tells the story
with more feeling than the venerable
bnd much-respected Earl of Stafford
Who we'll remember the long and pro-
racted agony of hope and suspense
which the late Duchess OF Richmond
ras doomed to endure. Some of those,
indeed. who knew her best, and were
beluainted with the singular depth and
Warmth OF her affections, held the opin-
Jon that, to erdying hour, the bereayed
mother refused to give up all hope that
she might one again be blessed with a
eight of her lost son. That hope was
bot destined to be realized; but among
The mourners who year after year await
tl that message from the sea" which
was never to be received, the late
Duchess of Richmond will always occu-
y 4 foremost place.
Steam voyages backward and for
yard across the Atlantic have latterly
been performed with such marvellous
Safety, and in some cases, with such
stonishing rapidity, that the present
Eencration of residents in. the old and
Few woslds are far less prepared than
Ler predecessors for the loss of a pas
niger steamer at sea. Yet the records
b that greatest highway of maritime
Nions, the North Atlantic Ocean,
5claim that during the first thirty
liars of steam navigation voyages were
Fprv far indeed from being as safe as is
now the case. Thus we learn from the
Nwticol Gazette, of New York, that
from the beginning Of 1s41 to the end
bf 1873 no fewer than f%orty-eight At
antic steamers persisted at sea, the
President being the first and the Vile
lu liayre the last victim. During these
three the Cunard Com
pany lost the Africa and the Tripoli,
but in each case without the sacrifice Of
life or a letter; while, between 1851
Fnd 1873 the Inman line lost six, the
most melancholy case being that Of the
lily Of Boston, whose fate is still a
MYSTERY. The Allan line, again, which
commenced in 1852. was so unfortunate
Is TO lose seven vessels before 1874. The
lollins line, built and owned in the
nitcd States, ran four vessels between
s52 and 1857, of which they lost two.
Inc German companies OF Hamburg
md Bremen, established in 1855, had
ost four steamers before 1874; the Ma
lonal line, one; the Guion, established
r. 1858, one; the Anchor, one; and the
White Star line established in 1871, has
(so lost one, through the fault of
Der captain. Twelve steamers be-
o,nging to smaller companies have
lkewise met their doom on the
polSterous Atlantic; while Of the French
ompanies, the Messageries Maritimes,
lS!th sixty steamers, had in 1874 lost
onrteen vessels during its first twenty
me Years of existence; and the Com
Pagnle Transatlantique lost two, the
Darlen and the Vile du Havre. The
loyal Mail, with which the Compagnie
ransatlantique is in competition, lost
Pl'een ships during the first twenty-five
ears. sit has been computed" adds,
evowever, The National Gazette Of New
DIRK, 'that upward of sixteen thou
and voyages were made across the At
antlc between 1910 and 1874 by these
feamship lines" Among the disas-
ers to which we have referred none
vas more calamitous than those which
Fertook the Allan Liner, Hungarian,
Efecked OFT the coast of Nova Scotia
the night Of February ~ and 20,
Pow with more than two hundred
outs on board, and the White Star
leaner Atlantic, which struck q rock
tue same iron-bound coast on April
6 1913, carrying at the time more
pan a thousand souls, of whom 442,
including Captain Williams, were saved,
NH 20