The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-04-20
Is THERE LUCK IN NAMEsq
The Many Mishaps That Have Fol.
lowed Ships Named After Cities.

Aue many MlSuapS InaV nave roll
lowed Ships Named After Cities.
(Copmight.)
New YORK, April 19.-What we want to
know about the City of Paris is precisely
what the owners will not tell u.s. namely,
how came its magnificent engine to break
down7 The grand inducement offered by
the builders of these ocean palaces to voy-
ayers is not only the speed of their
compound engines, but their absolute
safety. They are in duplicate or trip
licate, 30 that the collapse of one does
not necessarily cripple the ship. Then we
are assured that If a leakage should occur
it would only flood the particular water
tight compartment it happens in: but how
was 1t that passenger was able to walk
freely from one of these compartments to
the other through a supposedly tightly
closed iron door that was left wide open!
We shall never learn the whole truth about
this lucky escape from disaster, but it is a
pretty safe prediction to make that there
will be turn in the tide of steamship
fashion. The limit Of safety has certainly
been reached, if not overreached, in
these leviathans of the deep. They are
splendid to look at, quite palatial as you in
spect them in dock, and everything
promises SO beautifully for the Il ip. But
you find you are small unit in a big crowd,
you realize that you must submit to be fed,
nursed and regulated by m schinery; dis
ciplined and drilled like the greenest recruit
in an overgrown awkward squad. You
pay for the bigness Of your boat and its
style, in your sense OF littleness, as one
or its transient atoms, a soothing rehec-
ton tempered by the exhiarating con-
seriousness that if perchance you go to
the bottom, your descent will be blazoned
into fame by the bigness of the catastrophe.
VA h thnra Twill r,saNa
turn to the fashion of comfort, versus bar
racky boarding, a preference for ease and
enjoyment over speed at the cost OF safety
and discomfort. The day of smaller ships
that gave you homelike pleasure during a
week of eight days will assuredly hold its
own against the six-day wildcat vessels that
only make you nervous that yon ever left
| home.
What is in ships names Not much. of
course. but the unlucky maiden trip of the
| City of New York and this freak of the
| City of Paris makes US think of the many
mishaps that have betallen ships named
after cities. Here is an incomplete list of
those ttat have been lost, beginning with
| the old Vile de Paris, 1872; City of Bristol.
$50 lives lost; Eastern City, 1858; City of
| Boston. 1870, with all on board; CITY of
| New London, 1871 twelve lives: Vile
| de Havre, 1874, many lives lest; City of
Waco, 1875, seventy lives lost; City Of
Hartford, City of Mexico, 1876; City of
| Chester, City of Manchester, City of Troy,
1876; City of Havana. City of Merida, City
of San Francisco, 1877; City of Chester,
City Of Dallas, City Of Houston. City of
| New Bedford, 1878; City of London, 1879;
Marion City, 1880, ten lives; City of Vera
Cruz, 1880, sixty-eight lives lost; City of
| New York. 1880; City of Aus
tin. City of Richmond, 1881; City
of Antwerp, City of Limerick,
City of London, City OF Sanford,
1882; City of Brussels, City of Greenville,
| 1855; CITY of Columbus, City of Merida,
City of Portland. 1884; City OF Buffalo,
! City of Toxic, 1885; Gate City, Capitol
City. 1885; City of Chicago, City OF Owen
Sound, City of Richmond, 1887. City of
Lawrence took fire in Long Island Sound,
1888; City of Montreal, burned at sea. 1888.
In the same year ship was sunk in the
English Channel by coliiding with ship
named Happy Town. Would the latter
have gone down if she had been christened
Unhappy Cityl