The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1888-11-09
LOST AT SEA

| From the date of the disappear
ance of the ilI-fated President
down to the sinking of the Geiser
the other day, the annals of Allan
tic travel are marked thiekly with
episodes of disaster, suffering and
| death. Some of the finest and
staunchest steamships that have
ever been built, figure on the long
! sad roll of the lost. Some of them
/ have been run down and sunk iIs
a collision, like the Arctic, the
Vile du Havre and the Geiser;
others have been destroyed by fire
like the Amazon, the Sheridan
and the Austria; many have rush
ed headlong on the. rocks in log
or a dark night, like the -Schuler,
the Mosel and the Atlantic; few
have lounderod at sea in gale or
a cyclone, like the City Of Vera
Cruz; others have been wrecked
on sunken ice, like the Canadian,
while several, like the President.
Pacific and the magnificent City
of Boston, have mysteriously dis
appeared leaving not trace be-
hind to indicate the cansesof their
loss.
It is certainly a startling fact
that in the space of forty-seren
years since the unfortunate PreSi-
dent left New York, March IL,
1871, never again to appear to
mortal ken, nearly hundred fine
steamers have been utterly de-
stroyed while on their passage
across the Atlantic.
Of these eight after leaving port
mysteriously disappeared and have
never since been heard of, ten
were run down in collisions, five
were burned, one ran On sunken
ice in the Straights of Belly Isle,
another went down in a field of
ice, three nouudered in mid ocean.
and the remainder of the mefan-
choly list were wrecked either on
the Irish and British coasts, those
of America or ON rocks off theni-
Fully ten of these ran in foggy
weather on the shores Of Nova
Scotia or New Foundland on their
way westward-a sufficient warn
ing, it might be supposed, to cap
tains to give a wide berth to these
latitudes. Only one, the Iowa. an
American steamer, was wrecked
on the French coast, near Cher
boug. in 1864. It is generally sup
posed that shipwrecks are caused
by the rage of the elements. bae
of all the vessels that went ashore
only three or four appear to have
directly suffered in consequence Of
heavy weather. Miscalculatiens
as to distances run and course
steered, clouded skies, dark nights
and, more than all, dense fogs-
were the primary causes of the. ,
disasters. Comparatively few OF
these shipwreeks occurred without
serious loss Of life, at least $500
persons having perished among
the passengers and crew who were
on board. When the Atlantic was
wrecked on Meagher's Head, off
the fatal Novia Scotian coast, in
1873, no less than 562 persons
were drowned. With the City of
Glasgow 4s0 people disappeareds
with the President, 100; with the
Pacific, 1856, and with the City Of
Boston, the last of the missing
steamships, 191. When the Aus
tria was b.. rned in mid ocean 470
lives were lost; with the Arctic,
323; with the Angls-Saxon, 372s
with the Vile du Havre, 226; with
with the Borussia, 200; with the
Schiller, 311. The destruction of
other vessels caused the loss of
fewer lives than the vessels NAM
ed, as happily fewer passengers
were on board; but with several
ON the list from 100 to 200 beings
perished. In 1873 no less than
six large steamships We're wreck
ed, run down, or disappeared, the
most disastrous losses being those
of the Atlantic and the Vile dn
Havre, total loss of 78s hves.=-
Harper's Weekly.