Evening journal., 1893-04-18
SHIPPING MEN ANXIOUS
About Vessels and Lives I'm
doubtedly Lost at Sea.
WEDDING FEAST, MUSIC, FLOWERS

WEDDING FEAST, MUSIC, FLOWERS,
Congregational Greeting to Rev. DR..
ndartindale and Bride This Evening.
An Operator for the New Reedy
Island Dlsinfecting station-A Mother
Dies During the Birth of a Child.
other Matters.
Special Correspondence Evening Journal
NEW CASTLE, April is Much anxiety
Is being felt in seafaring circles over the
non arrival at the port of Philadelphia of
the great British steamship Castlegate,
Captain Evans, which is now two weeks
overdue, and It is feared that she, with a
crew numbering twenty three men and O
cargo valued at 100000, has suffered a
fate similar to that Of the steamship
Naronic.
The Castlegate left Dantzic March
after shipping full cargo Of 2200 tons
of sugar consigned to Claus Spreckels in
philadelphia She proceeded TO Shields,
England, where she was coaled up, and
then resumed her voyage to this port
March 10 since which time no tidings
from her have ever been received
the craft is the the topic of discussion,
and 1t was yesterday stated that risks on
her were now being taken at a large
premium. Her failure to reach here
cannot be accounted for, yet vessels that
have arrived here of late from Northern
Europe all report having had fierce
battles with the elements in their
voyage westward. We're she still ahoat,
or even had her engines become disabled,
Il is held she would surely have been
passed by some of the many vessels that
frequent the waters of her course
II is probable the Castlegate has come
through the Pentland Firth, and getting
north to such high degree might have
struck an iceberg aud foundered. Other
theories are advanced, but from the
present outlook it appears that, as in the
case Of the Naronic, the sea will retain
the secret of her fate.
The Castlegate is well known trader
out Of Philadelphia, having run between
here and Cuba in the Earn Line for some
time. She is owned in Liverpool by the
Castlegate Steamship Company, and was
built In Blyth in 1882. Her dimensions
are; Length, 265 feet; beam, 80 feet
depth, % feet, and tonnage, 1888. She
is supplied with compound engines with
cylinders 33 by 60 inches in diameter
with a 80 inch stroke. They are 200
indicated horse power Both vessel aud
cargo are valued at about 1925, 900 and
are fully covered by insurance
Helpless on the High Seas.
Tossed on a monstrous swell and I'm a
dense fog, the coal barge Mercedita,
towed by the Orion. parted her hawser
on Friday morning last, about five miles
of Five Fathom Lghtship, near the
Delaware Breakwater, and drifted sea.
ward The Mercedita had four men on
board, including the captain and the
cook. She had a cargo of 1900 tons of
coal, and is reported by her owners "a
have been staunch and seaworthy.
What has become Of the missing yes.
sci and her four men can only be con
jectured, but they disappeared under cir
cumstances of the grayest danger Tn,
Orion is a powerful steamer, owned b,
the Boston Towboat Company, which i.
engaged in the coatwise ccal trad,
principally to New England ports, ant
tows barges in addition TO carrying
large cargo IN her hold. She was bound
from Norfolk, Va, on this trip with two
barges, s. R Mede and the Mercedita
both old vessels, which had outliveC
their usefulness In their original form
and were sold and transformed into Goa
hulks
On Friday morning a heavy swell Sc
in from the eastw ard, aud the Merced
itas hawser snapped like a hempei
sting. and in an instant she disappeare,
in the fog, and was lost to view. Tn
Orion could not End the missing vessel
and proceeded on the voyage, and on he
arrival at Vineyard Haven yesterda
reported the accident.