Fairhaven herald. [volume] (Fairhaven, Wash.) 1890-????, 1893-05-03
THE NARoNIC.


THE NARoNIC.
There, for instance, was the English ship
Dispatch, lost, t" as reported, on the way
from the West Indies to London, and
neither seen nor heard of for 4S days. Yet
she came In at last without the loss of
man She had broken her propeller and
was at the mercy of the winds and waves
till they drifted her to the Madeiras
There, too, was the old Hamburg steamer
Schmidt, which was lost for 60 days, yet
came into New York all right. And an
other White Star line vessel, the Celtic,
was out 81 days in 1888 without being
sighted and was then found and towed
into Liverpool by the Britannia
It is a curious fact that In the middle Of
the Atlantic there is an immense region
crossed by very few vessels of any kind,
and a lost one might drift there long time
without being sighted. Just three years
ago there was anxious waiting for news of
the Thingvalla liner Danmark, from Co
penhagen for New York, with 500 passen-
gers. After 80 days without tidings the
steamship Missouri brought in $40 of them,
the rest having been left at the Azores. As
for the vessel, it was abandoned at sea to
become broken "derelict."
Nevertheless the sad fact remains that
the number thus discovered is very small,
and from the very earliest times this record
has repeatedly been made in many Ian
guages: 1.-THE vessel sailed and was never
again heard of"
There is no summary approaching to ex-
actness Of the number thus lost, or even of
disasters at sea where all the facts were
known, since the beginning of history, and
it fatigues the imagination to dwell upon
Chaly 10 . NH 81
ence dream that he saw as he sank in the
channel
A thousand fearful wrecks,
A thousand men that fishes gnawed upon,
Wedges OF gold, great anchors, heaps Of pearl,
Inestimable stones, unvalued Jewels,
All scattered in the bottom Of the sea.
And another imaginative writer has COM
puted that the treasure sunk in the ocean
since the Syrian mariners first dared the
stormy Atlantic far exceeds all the precious
stones and metals now on earth. But it is
the agony of living friends that is most to
be considered. The event as it must neces-
sarily be Is so easily pictured to the mind.
The passengers are sunk in sleep or uncon-
scious of danger; there is terrific crash. a
mad and aimless rush, perhaps a few min
utes of agonizing dread, perhaps even hours
of vain struggling, and all is over. Not one
Is left TO tell the tale.
Thus it was, no doubt, with the passen-
gers of the President, which left New York
March II, 1S41, with large number Of pas
sengers, including son of the Duke of Rich
mond and many others prominent in New
York and London society. The best opinion
is, from the phenomena noted that season,
that the vessel struck an iceberg and sank
at once Similarly the steamship Pacific
of the Collins line left Liverpool on Jan.
o. 1856, with 1856 passengers, and was never
again heard of. The same fate befell the
City of Glasgow and her $50 passengers in
1854, the steamship Ella in 1873 and the
famous City of Boston in 1870. So many
false and cruelty false reports were pub
lished of her being sighted that months
passed before relatives of the passengers
abandoned all hope. Then a board from
the Boston's stores was picked up at sea on
which was hastily scratched message that
the vessel was broken up in gale and was
then sinking
The pathetic story of the Arctic is still
fresh In the public memory, not so much on
account of the number lost as on account of
the high standing Of many Of them In the
arts and professions, the fact that the cow
ardice and characterization of the crew and
firemen defeated all the measures of the Of
ficers, and the affecting sermons and poems
called forth by the event
When one considers the area of the ocean
it would at first view seem unlikely that
two vessels should collide in midocean as
that bullets fired from opposing armies
should strike in midair Yet bullets do thus
strike and with surprising frequency, and
vessels do thus collide, the fact being that
the lines on which they run are, after all.
but a very small part of the ocean.
The regulations are now so strict, how
ever that vessels go from New York to
Liverpool and return on two lines which
are to each other as the two sides of very
long and somewhat broken ellipse. Hence
it is that nearly all the collisions for many
years past have been with tramp steam
ers" or slow moving sailers. Thus the