Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1893-08-11
WRECKS IN THE NAVY.
SOME FAMOUS DISASTERS RE-
CALLED.

The Albany and Levant Disap.
Peared ana Were Never Heard
FrOm-The Watcree and the m OH
Ongahela Carried Inland.
The accident to the British war
ship Victoria recalls some other disas.
tiers In time of peace by which the
American navy has suffered losses.
The most recent. of course, was the
disaster at Samoa. Some of these dis
asters are mysteries which will prob
ably never be solved One OF the
most famous of these is the disappear
ance of the Albany. a sloop-of-war.
She left Bombay, India, in the spring
of 1856, with 210 officers and men
aboard. When last seen she was in
West Indian waters. She disappeared
from the face of the deep as complete
ly as though she had never existed.
1t was supposed that she went down
in a cyclone. No more plausible ex-
PLANTATION has been offered since, and,
the Philadelphia Times says, this is
still accepted as the reason for her dis
appearance. Two years later there
was another mysterious disappearance
A sloop-of-war called the Levant, with
about two hundred men on board, dis.
appeared as completely as the AL
bany. She was in Pacific waters when
last seen. No wreckage from her was
ever found and no memento of her ia
tai cruise was left. Communication
in those days was slow, and it was
many months before she was given up
entirely.
Two famous disasters to United
States vessels were the wreck OF the
Monongahela in 1867 and the wreck
OF the Wateree in 1868. The Monon.
gahela was picked up by tidal wave,
carried over number of large build
ings on the Island Of Santa Cruz,
knocking one OF them down and was
left high and dry in the streets of the
city. She was blocked up by work.
men and launched again, and she is
now on the active list OF the navy.
There is no record of fatalities con.
nected with this accident. In the &C.
cident to the Wateree, which was OF a
similar character, only one man was
killed.
She cruised up and down the Pa
cific coast for two years, and in Au-
gust. 1868. was anchored off africa,
Peru, where she had towe d the store
ship Fredonia. On Aug. s, 1868, about
4 o'clock in the afternoon. the men OF
the Wateree felt a violent trembling
of the ship and saw a cloud of dust
approaching from the southeast. They
saw the hills moving and heard a
heavy rumbling like thunder. The
ship reeled but righted herself again,
and when the cloud OF dust had set.
tied the whole town was seen to be in
ruins.
The roaring of the earthquake and
the trembling of the earth continued.
Then the water receded until all the
ships in the harbor were left high and
dry, while the bottom of the sea was
left exposed, covered with struggling
fish and sea monsters. This was the
time when the fiat bottom OF the Wa
teree saved her crew from destruction.
The round bottomed boats in the har.
Dor turned over, but the Wateree rest.
ed on her fiat bottom. The storeship
Fredonis had been hurled upon the
rocks and all of her crew were lost.
Presently the water returned and the
Wateree Aoated again. Efforts were
made to rescue some of the men whose
lives were in danger elsewhere, but the
small boat which was launched was
entirely beyond control, and all that
the people on the Wateree could do
was to wait for the earthquake to sub
side. The men stood to the guns un-
der perfect discipline. At 8: 80 O'Clock
at night the outlook forward reported
a breaker approaching. 1t was the
dreaded tidal wave. 1t came with
dreadful force, burying the ship under
a mass of sand and water. The men
held to the life lines, and presently
the vessel struggled to the surface
again, aud after time her motion
ceased. Many of the crew had been
seriously injured, but none were killed.
When the vessel had quieted down
a lantern was lowered over the side
and it was seen that she was on land.
The next morning it was discovered
that she had been carried five miles up
the coast and that she lay high and
dry, nearly mile inland, having been
lifted across valley and over a rail.
road and deposited at the foot of the
seacoast range of the Andes. There
she lay, with her bow to the sea, and
the flag still flying and the anchor
chain still fat to the bow. The Eng.
lish bark Chanacilla lay near by with
one OF her chains wound round her.
showing that she had rolled over and
over.
The Wateree was in a position which
made it impossible to launch her, and
so she was sold at auction to a hotel
company. Afterwards she was used
as hospital, and then was broken I'D
by bombardment during the war be-
tween Peru and Chile. But her old
ribs still loom up on the Peruvian
coast.
AN infant son of George Carpenter.
living up the Ahtanum, in Yakima