The Arkansaw traveler., 1889-06-08
SHIPS NEVER HEARD FROM.
NeM York sun.


suppose that a hundred ships come and go
where one is lost but when reflects on the
dangers to which they exposed he must marvel
that so many escape. / saw q list of thirty six
missing ships the other day, missing from Amer
lean, English and French ports and the fate of
each unknown guessed at. Say that half Of
them foundered in mid ocean, five were run down
in collision, five more were wrecked capes or
shoals where all hands persisted, and what became
of the rest? Say that three of the remainder were
destroyed by fire, and what fate shall attach to
the other five? From the moment q vessel leaves
port to begin her voyage she is exposed to danger
and though q sailor may be 80 brave and hardy
he cannot shake off the knowledge that he lives on
the verge of the grave There are gales, and fogs
and collisions, and fires, and hidden rocks, and
powerful currents, and so | repeat that Ii Is
marval more sailing crafts are not added to the
lonesome list of missing which Is recorded year by
year.
In the year 1865, as the British bark "Lord
Oldham" of which l was second mate, was
approaching the Canary Islands, and when about
one hundred and eighty miles distant, we were
caught in the tail end of a cyclone and badly
knocked about. We got out with some slight loss
and good deal of discomfort, and were bearing up
again TO our course when q great calamity hap
pened. Half an hour before midnight, while the
bark was doing her best under q fresh breeze, q
sudden and great shock was felt Her masts went
by the board, and, as / reached the deck a minute
after the shock, the hull seemed to be split open
from stem to stern. had only gone below to get
glass of bitters leaving the deck only thirty
seconds before the shock came. | was knocked down
and confused but il could not have been over sixty
seconds before regained the deck. l was Just in
time to be carried overheard. / went with q lot
OF rattle from the decks, and amid the frightened
cries of the men, and a quarter of an hour later
when had dashed my self In the cross trees of the
mainmast, could not get answer to any Of my
calls to the rest of the crew. How 1t that all
were lost / never could make out. There was
rattle enough to have foated five hundred men,
m At we ainlv vufdo Ia al Aho
moment of the collision. The only explanation
can give Is that they were somehow caught and
crushed. l drifted during the rest of the night,
and was picked up in the morning by vessel
bound in. By that time the wreckage had drifted
apart until nothing could be found Nothing
whatever was picked up cast upon any shore
and had not been saved, the fate of the bark
could only have been guessed at.
What did she collide within The lookouts were
on the bow, and alert, and the night 30 clear that
ship could have been seen q mile away. The chart
showed clear water for q hundred miles about, and
we must have run full tilt upon some vessel which
had been dismasted and bilged In the hurricane
If loaded with timber, her decks would have been
awash, and she would have been as bad as q rock to
collide with. There was only one shock, and the
whole bows of the bark were crushed in by it.
Three years later, while off the banks of Brazil
in a small English ship called the "White Cloud"
another strange thing happened. was first mate
OF this ship, and about 10 O'Clock in the forenoon
the weather being very fine and the wind light,
had all the men on deck setting up the rigging,
some Of which had slackened away. A man aloft
suddenly hailed the neck with the information
that large whale was bearing down on the ship,
head on. We were q merchant vessel and the
sight of whale had no interest for rs. We went
on with our work for three or four minutes when
the man again hailed me with:
aft that fellow holds his course he will be dead
on to US, SIR He's big fellow, and coming like
an iron steamer"
al ran forward to get look, and the sea was 20
smooth that had no difficulty In making out the
whale. He was still mile away, coming down Mt
about steamer speed, and holding Q course as
straight as If somebody aboard Of him was steer
ing by compass. / was not bit alarmed, expect
ing TO zee him show hukes every moment. hnt the