The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1889-05-28
STORIES OF SHIPS.
The Mysterious Fate Of Vessels
Never Heard From.

Il suppose JnaU a nunQfeQ SnlpS come
asd 90 where one is lost, but when one
reflects on the dangers to which they
are exposed he must marvel that so
many escape. i saw a list of thirty
six missing ships the other day, miss
ing from American, English and French
ports, and the fate of each was un-
known Or guessed at. Say that half
of them foundcred in mid-ocean, five
were run down in collision, five more
were wrecked on capes or shoals where
all hands persisted, and what became
of the rest? Say that three of the re-
mainder were destroyed by fire, and
what fate shall we attach to the other
five? From the moment a vessel leaves
port to begin her voyage she is eX-
posed TO danger, and though sailor
may be ever so brave and hardy, he
can not shake off the knowledge that
he lives on the verge of the grave.
There are gales, and fOgs, and COLI
sions, and fire, and hidden rocks, and
powerful currents; and so | repeat
that it is marvel more sailing craft
are not added to the lonesome list of
missing which is recorded year by
year.
In the year 1855, as the British bark.
Lord Oldham. OF which | was second
mate, was approaching the Canary
Islands, and when about 80 miles dis
tant, we were caught in the tail end
OF a cyclone and badly knocked about.
We got out with some slight loss and
a great deal Of discomfort, and were
bearing up again to our course when
great calamity happened. Half an
hour before midnight, while the bark
was doing her best under fresh breeze,
a sudden and great shock was felt
Her masts went by the board, and, as
/ reached the deck. minute
after the shock, the hull seemed
TO split open from stem to stern.
] had gone below TO get a glass
of bitters, leaving the deck only
thirty seconds before the shock came.
] was knocked down and confused, but
it could not have been over sixty sec
onds before | regained the deck. 1t
was just in time TO be carried over
board. | went with lot of rattle from
the decks. and amid the frightened
cries of the men. and a quarter of an
hour later, when | had dashed myself
in the cross-tree6 OF the mainmast,
could not get an answer to any of my
calls TO the rest of the crew. How it
was that all were lost | never could
make out. There was rattle enough
TO have iioatcd 800 men, and my watch
were certainly all wide awake at the
moment of the collision. The only ex-
PLANTATION lean give is that they were
somehow caught and crushed. ] drift
ed during the rest of the night. and
was picked up in the morning by a
vessel bound i'll. BY that time the
wreckage had drifted apart until moth
ing could be found. Nothing what
ever was picked up or cast upon any
shore, and had | not been saved, the
fate of the bark could only have been
guessed at.
What did she collide with? The
lookouts were on the bow, and alert.
and the night SO clear that a ship
could have been seen a mile away,
The chart showed clear water for a
hundred miles about, and we must
have run full tilt upon some vessel
which had been dismasted and bilged
In a hurricane. Ii loaded with tim
ba. bar daoIxc would have haap oraCb
and she would have been as bad as a
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 small English
ship called the White Cloud. another
strange thing happened. | was first
mate of this ship, and about ten o'clock