Huntsville gazette., 1894-03-31
LOST WARSHIPS.
Disasters That Have Befallen Vessels Of
the United States Navy.

more attention than the wrecking of
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 er-
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 navics 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
| circumstances attending them, and are
long made the subject of speculation.
" CicSt bIdSCttlCS VI lHC SCd tiiC - hlSNN
States navy has contributed its share,
but not more than its 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-ofwar 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 a British frigate had night con-
fiict with smaller vessel, which, MAX
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 Nam
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-
dercd in sudden squall 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 sea port, the question would be
raised rs 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. 1t was
on board the Levant that Dr. Hale
made THE Man Without a Country
die, 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 par ticularity of the story
could not for 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
| "SlS iOob ilC SUI y IICuOnId WAS
cast upon the Peruvian coast bv tidal
wave in 1868 and many perished. The
gunboat Suwanee was wrecked on an
| uncharted ledge off the coast of British
| Columbia, July Q, 1868. The sinking
| of the Oneida, with many of her of
icers and crew, by the mail steamer
Bombay, January %, 1870, was
la disaster and almost a 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 cored
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 f1acship
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
Al