The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-06-21


Company is that they have never lost .
ship or killed n man, the question, what
becomes of ocean steamships, can affect
them only as regards the disposition they
make of vessels no longer competent for
their Transatlantic traffic. An in
CURRY made of the general manager
has brought out the information
that two. If not three. of the old steamers
have been heightened and re-engined and
are now sailing in the Red Star line Two
more after being tripled are running for
the Canadian Pacific Railroad Company
between Vancouver and Japan, another
was sold to Spanish company, and still
another turned into twin screw and used
for cable laying, while others still have
been put on their Mediterranean service,
or converted into cargo boats.
In the same way some of the White Star
Company's ships have left the Atlantic
ocean for other spheres of operation, the
Oceanic, Belgic and Gaelic being employed
in the trans-Pacific service of the 0cciden-
tai and Oriental Steamship Company, of
San Francisco, and the Ionic, Doric and
Coptic in the Shaw, Savill & Albion Com
pany's line running between London and
New Zealand.
But there remain yet other answers to
the question in my title which have so far
been no more than limited at. The ulti-
mate fate of every steamer, no matter how
huge and splendid, must be either to
founder in mid-ocean, to beat out her
brains upon some pitiless reef, or to be ig-
ANONYMOUSLY broken up in the ship-knack-
ers' ward This latter end indeed was that
which befell the vast treat Eastern, the
greatest and the most unfortunate of
steamships. | remember well her stately
entrance to Halifax harbor, and my child
ish wonder as to how she would ever get
out again, for, spacious as the harbor is, it
seemed all too narrow for her to turn in,
and could not suppress pang of regret
little while ago when the news came
that. after so many vlcissitudes, the
mighty structure was to be broken up for
old iron.
Yetif it could have been of any avail to
her the Great Eastern might have taken
comfort from the knowledge that at Wool
witch, in the yard of Messrs. Castle, ship
breakers in ordinary to the admiralty,
there stands wood pile $50 feet square
and Ito feet high, which Is composed of
the timbers of no less than 10 ships that
at one time or another formed part of the
wooden Tor iron) walls of England. Into
this stupendous pile have gone the stout
teak, or oaken timbers of many famous
man-of-war; the Collingwood, the Edin-
burgh, the Repulse, the Lord Warden; as
also of the Admiral Hood, that never left
the Midway after she was launched until
she went to be broken up, and the Bull
blundered-was never launched at all, but
broken up on the stocks.
In the office of this establishment may
be seen many interesting relics of re-
nowned marine warriors of the past. The
mantel piece is supported by the two fig
ures of Atlas from the stern gallery of the
tefneraire-and is itself made of mahogany
from the Royal Albert, christened by the
queen in 1856. Above the chimney-piece
| is the tigure-head of the Galatea, the fri
gate that carried the duke of Edinburgh
| around the world. But, TO the never
ceasing regret of Mr.. Castle there is no
| relic of the Arethusa, that famous frigate
signed to the oblivion of the wood pile I'M
der the pseudonym of Bacchus for some oc-
cult reasons of the admiralty.
There vet remains for treatment the
more sombre part of my subject, viz:
| that which deals with the loss of ocean
steamers through laundering, stranding,
| collision, or other catastrophe. Here we
| enter a region of disaster and of mystery
| that has always had peculiar fascination
| for mankind. With what intense interest
| the details of some pitiful shipwrecks are
| read in our newspapers! How the people
| of port will flock to examine steamship
| that has been towed in disabled-having
| perhaps, escaped extinction in the salty
| depths only through the chance arrival of
ing eagerness they will wait from day to
| day for news concerning some steamer
| that is long overdue, and for aught they
can tell may never report herself againl
The record of the disasters that have
| within the past half century befallen the
| multitudinous steamers plying between
| the United States and Europe would be a
| long and curious one. The Inflated Presi-
| dent would stand at the head, and then
| would follow the Humboldt, the Franklin,
| the Arctic, sand others that have been
| already mentioned, the list growing rap
| idly as the steamers multiplied until it
reached our own time. Of course, how
ever, it is possible to refer to only few
| of the most notable at present.
There was the City of Boston, for in
| stance, that in the early part of 1868
steamed out of Halifax harbor with
number of the most prominent merchants
in the maritime provinces on board, and
concerning which no faintest clue has
ever been discovered since. 1t was
months before the families OF those on
board. waiting in the long drawn-out tort
| ure of uncertainty, gave up all hope of
| their loved ones. More than once cruel
rumor threw them into ecstacies of glad
ness only by its speedy refutation to cast
| them back into still sharper sorrow. / was
boy at school then, and one day there
came to the waiting city the report that
the missing steamer had made the Azores
with all well on board. No sooner did il
reach the ears of our worthy old teacher
| than, despite his dislike of HOLIDAYS he at
| once dismissed the school and FASTENED
| off to join the general rejoicing. But, alas
only when the sea gives up her dead will
| the secret of the City of Boston's loss be
/ revealed.
Another wreck that stirred the city of
| Halifax to its depths, although none of
her people directly suffered by it, was that
| of the steamer Atlantic, which took place
| on the LIST of April, 1873 and was, as re-
/ CARDS loss of life, the most disastrous that
| has ever occurred on the North American
| coast. The scene was Meagher's island.
near the mouth of the harbor of Halifax
| for which port the steamer was making.
| and the time 3 o'clock in the morning of n
| on rock about fifty yards distant from
the island, then swung round and keeled
| over with her deck nearly perpendicular
and facing to seward. There were ar
| persons on board. Hundreds of these
never reached the upper deck and of those
| that did the pitiless breakers with unap-
| peasable fury snatched away score after
| score as they swept over the fast sinking
| steamer. Owing to the position of the
vessel the boats could not be lowered and
| the only chance of escape was to lean into
| the boiling surf and battle for q landing
| on the rocky beach. The brave. hardy
| fishermen of the neighborhood. headed by
| their minister, a splendid type of muscular
| Christianity, the Rev. Mr.. Ancient. per-
| formed prodigies of heroism in rescuing
| the unfortunate castaways, but, after ali
| their efforts, when the muster roll was
| called, ii was found that no less than 545
| souls had persisted.
In the course of the same year a fine
ale lnSt 81