Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1893-07-02
OUR OWN LOST SHIPS.
The Long and woeful List Of Dlsas-
,ers In The American Navy
MANY MYSTERIES OF The DEEP.
Lo.. Of the rrigsts Insurgsnt With $50
Souls. snd tho Levans with Si@-rfe"
Rsprissi 30 Hsron-Marins Comm"
,corro,oonsepoe Of tho Richmond Dispssch.l

recommendations OF the Richmond Dispstch.]
NoRyor.E, Va, July The recent fright
trl disaster 10 the British navy has served
On call TO mind some OF the disasters IN
our navy which resulted in great loss OF
life.
when we consider the terrible saderlngs
~ tho moor men OF the Victoria as they
were scalded by the boiling waters from
her boiiers and cut TO pieces by the tWih
screws. each with tour blades revolving az
a f,iphtful rate of speed, the picture Is III
decd most appalling and marks the Veto
r,e disaster as the most awful ana snock-
inc that has happened 70 war-shlp IN re-
cent Years. Even in the number oil men
Loaf 10 saw nothing of che awful ctrcum-
stances OF the catastrophe, our navy can
nrnlsh no parallel.
LOSS OF TIE RAPRIsAL.
Tho frat of our war-ships 10 meet disss-
ter at the hands OF Old Ocean was Ibe
brig Raprisal Of sixteen guns. one va
celebrated as having been the brst ohlteu
&C., ,nsn-of-war that visited Europe,
o.rs,,,ra ont Reniamin Franklin soon
sfter our Declaration of Independence IN
I77s she foundered IN gale on the banks
OF Newfoundland and every one OF tne LOU
officers and men perished-
II has been over a century since any
tidiups have been received from the SARA
toga. n sloOp-of-w of eighteen guns; on
the gth OF October. 1850, she captured t to,i
English merchantmen. which were retaKen
next day by the English frigate lntrepid.
Tn. Saratoga sailed away with no precious
lives on board, aud vanished forever from
human ken. Twenty wears after the DIlg-
of.war Pickering sailed from Charleston
for the Guadalupe station TO make war
ON the pirates that infested those regions.
What fate befell her and the ninety 0ihcers
and men on board remains one OF the IN
solved mysteries OF the sea.
MERE CONJECTURE.
The trigate Insurgent, which we had
previously captured from the french
sailed from Hampton Roads IN August.
1900 with orders TO cruise IN the Nortn ht,
lantlc. No tidngs Of her have ever reached
the shore. IL il thought that she found
cred in one of the heavy gales OF the fol-
lowing month. But this IL mere con;
iecture. and the fate OF the $50 officers ana
men on board will remain forever IN
known. As far as the number drowned is
concerned, the loss OF the lnsureoht Is
the most serious disaster that has ever
happened TO the American navy.
HE wears 1905 and 1910 were ever made
memorable in our naval annals oy the loss
With nll on board, of our gunboats. In
1913 a small gunboat, after being CON
denied as unseaworthy, was ordered 70
sea and never afterwards heard from.
A SAILORS DEATH.
Our,np sudden squall the night Of the
10th Of August. 1918, the Hamilton, sIoop-
of-war of nineteen guns, and the Scourge
of ten guns capslzed IN squat on Lake
Ontario. and every soul on the former,
a., 81, ppua har lost III inc
eighty officers and men on the Scourge al
Int sixteen went down with her. The
Hamilton and Scourge were carrying oil
sail 10 weather the enemy's squadron, and
nll hands were al quarters and the
guns cast loose at the time they met a
sailors death at the hands OF the ele-
menis. ,
ON the 9th day OF October, 1914, the
Wasp. sloop-of-war, was spoken near tee
Madeira Islands. She reported All
well ~ and sailed away with 40 precious
ives on board. Their tate remains mys-
,er,. The same year the sloop-ot-war AIN
zat0r was sunk during violent tornado IN
Port ROYAL Sound and officers and Il
men were drowned. The very next year
the Esseryier. sloop-of-war, bearing i'm
portant dispatches from Commodore Deca-
tur. but bearing what was Of far more I'm.
portance. l2s human lives passed out OF
lie Straits of Gibrater and forever out OF
the knowledge of men.
WILL NEVER BE KNOWN.
What fate befell the LYNX with her crew
If over n hundred men that sailed in 1920
will mover be known until the sea gives
no its dead. -Four years after the Wlld
Cat WAS lost in the West Indies with all
on board. On February 5. 1929. the
ls-gun-bug Hornet sailed from the
United States with 14O men. and her fate
will ever remain a mystery. In 1912 the
Grampus, schooner-ot-war was cruising
southwark of thu Florida coast, bound
for the West Indies. She went to the bot
tom with sixty-fve officers and men.
The Somers, brig of-war of ten guns,
while carving sail to cut off a vessel try
ing TO enter the harbor of Vera Cruz during
the Mexican war was struck by sudden
eauall and foundered. carrying down with
her two officers and forty men. The
Somers is distinguished as being the only
man-of-war of our country on which an
officer WAS ever hanged for mutiny. On
December /, 1912. Midshipman Spencer
and two petty officers of the Somers were
hanged to the yard-arms for conspiring tc
capture the vessel and convert her into
pirate.
TIE sloop.of.war Albany sailed from
Aspinwall on the 2sth day of September
1854. carving with her TO an unknown fate
2IO human lives. The Narcissus was LOS
of Egmont Key. Fla, IN January. 1866, anc
thrrty-four officers and men were drowned
THE ONLY SURVIVOR.
In 1860 the sloop-of. war Levant sailed
from Honolulu TO Panama. Somewhere II
the Pacific she and the 2l2 officers ant
men on board met their doom. As regard:
the number lost this catastrophe ranks
next TO that of the Insurgent.
Three years afterwards the cambridge
brig o. war, encountered hurricane of
Charleston. A day or two later her negro
cook was picked up clinging to some float
ing wreckage and told how the ship had
been capsized and that he was the only
survivor of the terrible disaster.
WRECKED on MOUNTAIN PEAK.
One of the most unusual and extraordi.
nary catastrophies that ever happened 10
vessel OF war occurred TO the sloop-of.
war Saginaw in 1868. She was fourth
rate steamer and carried seventy-fve Off
GERS and men. Midway in the vast expanst
of the Pacific Ocean she was wrecked on q
mountain peak rlsing three and hall
miles from the bottom of the ocean and
not marked on the chart. Ii is now known
as Ocean Island, one of the Midway group
On this uninhabited and inhospitable roch
the yoyagers were thrown and thought
themselves fortunate to get ashore with.
out the loss of life. The shipwrecked
sailors were l,O0O miles from the SandWlcl
group. the nearest inhabited land. The
crew set - work and with pieces of wreck
age from the lost vessel made such add
tions to the gig as would render it sea
worthy. liz this little boat, only % feet II
length, Lieutenant Talbot and five mer
started of for help. The voyage was in
deed a perilous one, and it would be al
most miracle If this little boa
could safely traverse the 1000 miles tina
lay between them and succor. Shoulc
they fail, death in its most horrible torn
would come TO their shipwrecked mates
The sense of the appalling responsibilit
no doubt nerved Talbot and his littl
band to superhuman exeItions. In thirty
six days the most western island OF tn
Sandwich group was reached. A landlnI
was attempted through the surf. Tn
boat capsized and Talbot and four of hi
men were drowned. Only one member O
the expedition was saved. He could nc
swim a stroke. yet he had survived 81
shipwrecks before. HIS name IS Halford
and for his services il conducting a re:
cuing party back TO Ocean Island he wa
made . gunner in the navy. The boat i
which the famous voyage was made Is prf