Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1884-06-12

we'll Iuduu6u cfdIL OF any k1nQ,
''foundered at sea-" No trace of her
existence was ever found except
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
raany 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 and
present Duke of Richmond. Lord
Fltzroy Lennox was an officer in the
Guards, and was on his way home
from Canada in the expectation of
passing his 21st birthday on the fol
lowing 18th of June with hi 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 fellow-soldier on the Duke
of Wellington's staff during the Pen
lnsular war. There are many still liv-
lng-and among them nOPe tells the
story with more feeling than the ven
cradle and much-respected Earl of
StrafOrd who well remember the
long and prOstrate6 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
sight of her lost son. That hope was
not destined to be realized but among
the mourners who year after year
awaited that message from the sea"
which was never received, the late
Duchess of Richmond will always oc-
cupy foremost place.
Steam voyages backward and for
ward across the Atlantic have latter
ly 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 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 were very far indeed from be-
ing as safe as is now the case. Thus
we learn from the National Gazette,
of New York, that from the beginning
of 1841 to the end of 1878 no fewer
than forty-eight Atlantic steamers per-
1eL1 L. ~
first and the Vile du Havre the last
victim. During these three-and- thir-
ty years the Cunard company lost the
African and the Tripoli, but in each
case without the sacrifice of life or
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 mystery
The Allan line, again, which com
lnenced 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 1856, had
lost four steamers before 1874; the Ma
tional line, one; the Guicn, establish
ed IN 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 Messa-
geries Maritimes, with sixty steamers,
had in 1874 lost fourteen steamers
during the twenty-one years Of it's ex-
istence, and the COmpagnie Trans
atlantique lost two, the Darien and
the Vile du Havre. The Royal Mail,
with which the Compagnie Trans
atlantique is in competition, lost fif-
teen ships during it's first thirty-two
years. Tt has been computed" " adds,
however, the Nautical Gazette, of N.
Y, that upward of 10000 voyages
were made across the Atlantic be-
tween 1910 and 1874 by these steam
ship lines" Among the disasters to
which we have referred none was
more calamitous than those which
overlook the Allen Line, Hungarian,
wrecked off the coast of Nova Scotia
in the night of February 19 and 20,
1860, with more than two hundred
souls on board, and the White Star
steamer Atlantic, which struck rock
off the same iron bound coast on april
IS, 1878, earring at the time more
than LOCO souls, of whom 442, includ-
ing Captain Williams, were saved,
and 565 were lost. Many of her hap
less human freight who had climbed
into the rigging perished from cold,
and the Captain, upon whom
the chief blame was laid, underwent
a sentence of suspension for two years
We have said enough to show that
while steam navigation was still
young the Atlantic was far from be-
ing that easily crossed Ferry" which
Charles Dickens was invited to con-
slider when he made his first rip to
the United States In 1S41.
Points for St0ckmen.