Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1894-03-22
LOST WARSHIPS.


Disasters That Have Befanen Vessels OF
the United States Navy.
The loss of a single warship attracts
more attention than the wrecling of a
score of merchantmen. Warships seem
to be part of the nation; they are pub
lie vessels in double sense, and many
of them by the exploits they have
participated in have endeared their
names to the people. When they are
lost it is as if an eminent man had
died. So great is the interest created
by the loss of warship that an err
roneous impression is occasioned as to
the comparative frequency of disasters
in the navy and the merchant service.
The proportion of warships lost in
time of peace to the whole num-
Der in commission at any one
time, take the world over, is
very small. Years elapse with
out any disaster involving the
loss of an American or British warship
being reported. and those navies are
always actively employed and are ex-
posed TO ali the perils of the sea. Ger
tain wrecks fix themselves forever in
the public mind by force of peculiar
long made the subject of speculation.
To these tragedies of the sea the United
States navy has contributed its share,
but not more than it's share.
The navy since the organization of
the federal government has always had
enough to do, in peace or war, and very
often with not enough vessels to do it.
In the older days, when ships depended
entirely on sail power, they were ex-
posed to perils against which steam
now aids vessels, and total disappear
ances were correspondingly more COM
mon. One of the first vessels of the
navy which went down with all on
board was the frigate Insurgent,
last heard from in July, 1900.
The brig Pickering disappeared
about the same time. Which per-
ished first, and the manner of their
fates, no man knows; they simply went
down and left no sign. The famous
sloop-of-war Wasp was last heard from
in September. 1914. Her fate, too, is
forever a mystery. AS the United
States was at war with England then,
it is barely possible that the tradition
that British frigate had night con-
ing her escape in the gloom, appeared
to be swallowed up by the sea, had
some foundation and referred to the
luckless cruiser. The Epervier, bring
ing home the Americans Commodore
Decatur had rescued from slavery in
Tunis and Algiers, never reached port.
Tradition says the ship struck on Nan
tucket shoals in the night and went to
pieces. but no man knows. Fifteen
years after the Wasp was given up as
lost, her sister ship, the Hornet, disap-
peared. She is believed to have foun-
dered in sudden squa1 in the gulf of
Mexico. These two ships, the Wasp
and Hornet
The two proud sisters Of the sea,
In glory and in doom
were long watched for and hoped for,
but no tidings of the fate of either ever
came to waiting ears. Old people still
recall that in the days of their youth,
when the sound of salute was heard
in a sea port, the question would be
raised: SIS it the Hornet, come in at
last?"
The list of vessels lost with all on
board, totally disappeared" also in
cludes the Porpoise, last heard from in
September, 1854, in the China seas; the
sloop-of-war Albany, which sailed from
Aspinwall for New York about the
same time, never reaching home; and
the Levant, which, seen some time in
1860 sailing into fog bank in the Pa
cific, has never reappeared, though
her name was kept on the navy list
until 1862. The mist of death and
silence was wrapped around her and
never has been dissipated. It was
on board the Levant that DIR. Hale
made ''The Man Without a Country
die, a clever way of adding more
vraisem blance to that wonderful mar
rative, since there were people who
Immediately said there always was
something odd about the movements
of the Levant, and as no one survived
the ship, the particularly of the story
could not for a time be gainsaid. The
fate of all of our naval vessels lost
since the war is matter of record.
The sloop-of-war Sacramento was
wrecked in the bay of Bengal soon af-
ter the close of the rebellion; no lives
were lost. The storship Fredonia was
cast upon the Peruvian coast by tidal
wave in 1868 and many persisted. The
gunboat Suwanee was wrecked on an
uncharted ledge off the coast of British
Columbia, July 9, 1868. The sinking
of the Oneida, with many of her Of
6cers and crew, by the mail steamer
Bombay, January %, 1870, was
disaster and almost crime,
since the sinking ship was left to her
fate by the vessel that had collided
with her. In 1870 the Saginaw was
lost on Ocean island, in the Pacific.
June II, 1875, the Saranac was gored
by sunken rock in the north Pacific.
November "a, 1877, the Huron was lost
on the coast of North Carolina, ninety
eight officers and men perishing. The
next notable disaster occurred at Sa-
moa March Is, 1889. when the flagship
Trenton and the corvette Vandalia
were wrecked in a terrible hurricane.
and forty-five officers and men lost
their lives. Latest on the list comes
the noble old Kearsarge, closing a
chapter that includes most, if not all,
the disasters that have befallen our
warships that were noteworthy either
by the fame of the vessels or the at
tendant circumstances.-Bo Tran.
script.
What He Could DO.
The mission worker had lot OF boys
from The street before him, trying to