Idaho County free press. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho Territory) 1886-current, 1889-02-15
OCEAN STEAMERS LOST.
"irIy One Hundred Fine Vessels d.
stroyed In Forty-Seyen Years.

"irIy One Hundred Fine Vessels De-
stroyed In Forty-Seyen Years.
From the date of the disappearance
# the Inflated President down to the
mixing of the Geiser, the annals oil
Atlantic travel are marked thickly
With episodes of disaster, suffering and
death. Some of the finest and stanch-
st steamships that have ever been
built figure on the sad roll of the lost
Some of them have been run down
and sunk in a collision, like the Arc
tic, the Vile du Havre and the Geiser:
others have been destroyed by fire.
like the Amazon, the Sandman and
the Austria; many have rushed head
long on the rocks in a fog or IA dark
night. like the Schiller, the Mosel and
the Atlantic; few have foundered at
sea in a gale or a cyclone, like the
City of Vera Cruz; others have been
wrecked on sunken ice, like the Cana
dian; while several, like the President,
the Pacific and the magnificent City OF
Boston, have mysteriously disap-
peared, leaving not trace behind to
indicate tho cause of their loss.
1t is certainly a startling fact that
in the space of forty-seven years since
the unfortunate President left New
York on March II, 1871, never again
to appear to mortal ken, nearly a
hundred fine steamers have been ut
terly destroyed while on their passage
across the Atlantic. OF these eight,
after leaving port, mysteriously disap-
peared and have never since been
heard of, ten were run down in col
lision, five were burned. one ran on
sunken ice in the Straits of Belle Isle,
another went down in field of ice,
three foundered in mid-ocean and the
remainder of the melancholy list were
wrecked either on the Irish and
British coasts, on those of America
or on islands or rocks off them.
Fully ten of these ran in foggy
weather ON the shores of Nova Scotia
or Newfoundland on their westward
voyages-a sufficient warning, it might
be supposed, to captains to give wide
berth to those ATTITUDES. Only one,
the Iowa, an American steamer. was
wrecked on the French coast, near
Cherbourg, in 1864. 1t is generally
supposed that shipwrecks are caused
by the rage of the elements, but of all
the vessels that went ashore only three
or four appear to to have directly suf-
iered in consequence of heavy weather.
Miscalculations as to distances run
and courses steered clouded skies,
dark nights, and more than all, dense
disasters.
Comparatively few of these ship
wrecks occurred without serious loss
of life, at least $500 persons having
persisted among the passengers and
crews who were on board. When the
Atlantic was wrecked on Meagher's
Head off the Nova Scotian coast, in
1873, no less than 562 persons were
drowned. With the City of Glasgow
$50 people disappeared; with the Pres
with the City of Boston, the last of the
missing steamships, 191. When the
Austria was burned ju mid-ocean 40
lives were lost; with the Arctic, 1913;
with the Anglo-Saxon, 572; with the
Villa du Havre, 226; with the Borus-
STA, POO and with the Schiller Bill
The destruction of other vessels
caused the loss of fewer lives than the
vessels named, as, happily, few pas
sengers were on board, but with sew
eral on the list from 100 to 200 beings
persisted. In 1873 no less than six
large steamships were wrecked, run
down or disappeared, the most disas-
trous losses being those of the Atlantic
and the Villa du Havre, total of 1888
yes.-HdrUer's Wcek5U.