Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1884-06-05
DISASTERS AT SEA.
The LOSSES on she Atlantic i'm Fortyy'
Years.
London Telegraph.

HUMAN h1llAit N1Il nt nuUltGAtQ 10
no more agonizing suspense than that
endured by relatives and friends who
anXiously await the arrival of an
overdue ship, ON board of which some
one dear to them has taken passage
FROM a distant port On the 18th of
March 1871 the PresideuU-one of the
finest passenger steamers of the time
left New York for Liverpool with
many passengers on board. Three or
four days aftcrl her departure she en-
couutered terrific storm not far to
the south of Cape Race, and was seen
by French sailing vessel to enter
thick cloud or raln-stOrm which
brooded upon the face of the deep and
Obscured the heayily-laboring vessel
from view. In half an hour or so
the cloud lifted. but no President met
the anxious eyes Of the gazers, who.
in the phrase of French mariners,
'intorrOgated the horizon in search
of the missing object. There was no
possibilities Of her having run into an
iceberg or come into collision with an
other ship; but against her name in
the Underwriters books were inscribed
those melancholy words which, we
are told, ought never to be employed
in connection with a well-bullt and
wellmanned craft of any kind,
'foundered at sea. No trace of her
existence was ever found except a
few spars and part of boat believed
to have belonged to her which were
washed ashore after some weeks upon
the shore of North Wales Among
many other passengers of note
whom she carried were in
cluded Tyrone Power, the well-known
universally popular Irish comedian,
and Lord Fitzroy Charles George
Lennox, second SON of the late aud
present Duke of Richmond Lord
Fitzroy Lennox was an officer in the
Guards, and was on his way home
from Canada in the expectation of
passing his Dist birthday on the fol-
lowing 18th of June with his attach
ed parents He was his mothers
favorite son, and was named after
Fitzroy Somerset, subsequently Lord
Raglan, who had been his fathers
friend and feliow-soldier on the Duke
Of Wellington's s.aff during the Pen
insular war There are many still ly-
ing-and among them more tells the
story with more feeling than the ven
cradle and much-respected Earl Of
Stanford who well remember the
long and Frustrated agony of hope
and suspense which the late Duchess
of Richmond was doomed TO endure.
Some of those, indeed, who know her
best, and were acquainted with the
singular depth and warmth of her
affections, held the opinion that to
her dying hour, the bereaved mother
refused to give up all hope that she
might once again be blessed with a
sight of her lost son. That hope was
not destined to be realized; but among
the mouners who year after year
awaited that message from the sea-
which was never received, the late
Duchess of Richmond will always Oc-
cupy a foremost place.
Stearn voyages backward and for
ward across the Atlantic have latter
~ been performed with such marvel
Gus safety, and, in some cases, with
such astonishing rapidity, that the
present generation of residents in the
old and new worlds are far less pre-
pared than their predecessors for the
loss of q passenger steamer at sea. Yet
the records Of that greatest highway
of maritime nations. the North Allan
tic Ocean, proclaim that during the
first thirty years of steam navigation
voyages We're very far indeed from be-
ing Us safe as Is now the case. Thus
we learn from the National Gazette,
Of New York, that from the beginning
of 1S41 to the end of 1878 no fewer
than forty-eight Atlantic steamers per
lshed at sea, the President being the
first and the Vile du Hayre the last
victim. During these three-and- thir-
tv years the Cunard company lost the
African and the Tripoli, but in each
case without the sacrifice of a life or
a letter; while between 1851 and 1878
the Inman line lost six, the most mel
ancholy case being that of the City of
Boston, whose fate is still q mystery.
The Allan line, again, which com
meuced in 1852, was so unfortunate as
to lose seven vessels before 1874 The
Collins line, built and owned in the
United States, ran four vessels between
1852 and 1857, Of which they lost two.
The German companies of Hamburg
and Bremen, established in 1855, had
lost four steamers before 1874 the Ma
tional line, one; the Guicn, establish
ed ln 1868, one; the Anchor one; the
White Star line, established IN 1871,
has also lost one, through the fault
of her captain. Twelve steamers
belonging TO the smaller com
panies have likewise met their doom.
ON the boisterous Atlantic; while Of
The French companies the Mesa
geries Maritimes, with sixty steamers,
had in 1874 lost fourteen steamers
during the twenty-one years Of its ex-
'teuce, and the Compagnie Trans
atlantique lost two, the DarieR and
The Vile du Havre. The Royal Mail.
with which the Conf agnie Trans
aJantique is in competition, lost IF
teen ships during its FIRST thirty'two
years. It has been computed, adds,
however. the Nautical Gazette, of N.
A.. that upward of 16. 600 voyages