Arizona republican., 1895-04-02
SUNKEN SHIPS.
American Gunboats That Went
 Down Forever.
Brief Review of Naval Losses During Gen. tury Famous Men of = War That Have Mysteriousiy Disappeared
 from View.


 across the Atlantic 1t has become req sonably certain that more than one yes sel has been swallowed up in the waves. In some instances the fate of the lost vessels has been learned from the wreckage seen by passing ships; but it has happened, many times since men first began to go down into the deep in ships, that an apparently stout stanch vessel has set sail gayly from port only to vanish as completely as if her voyage had been outside of the solar system. Even the American navy has suffered such losses that are to-day and perhaps always will be an unsolved mystery.
 The first important loss of this kind, says the Boston Advertiser, was the eighteen-gun man-of-war Saratoga, one of the few ships that composed the American navy 116 years ago. The loss of the Saratoga was in itself a story that might well attract the notice of a writer of fiction, as it occurred at the close of what promised to be a sig nally successful cruise. The Saratoga sailed from Philadelphia early in the autumn of 17S0, and in October captured three vessels bound from Jamaica to New York. Returning toward Phila- delphia with her prizes the Saratoga sighted the British man-of-war Intrepid, and being clearly out-matched escaped by putting off to the east. Her prizes were recaptured by the British, and she herself disappeared utterly from human ken.
 Just about twenty years later the United States frigate Insurgent, carry ing thirty-six guns, sailed from the Chesapeake Capes under orders to cruise between longitudes sixty-six de- grees and sixty-eight degrees west and to go no farther south than thirty de- grees north. It is probably within that very tract of the ocean that the Saratoga was lost, and it was regarded as signii cant by some of the old salts of the American navy at the beginning of the present century that the Insurgent, too, sailed off into the list of ships whose faith no man knows. For all one can say to the contrary the Insurgent and the Saratoga lie side by side off the Chesapeake Capes.
 In the same year, the only year in which two of the American men-ofw war mysteriously disappeared, the fourteen gun brig Pickering was ordered to Guadeloupe to cruise along the coast there. In September, 1900, heavy gale swept the ocean, and it was gener- ally believed at the time that the h. surgent and the Pickering went down at about the same time and in practic- ally the same storm. The Pickering was not very seaworthy vessel when equipped with guns, and there is little question that she foundered during gale, although there is of course no cer- tainty as to her fate.
 When in 1895 the United States de- cided to send ten gunboats to help in the war against Tripoli one of these vessels, known as "Gunboat No. r." met with a mishap after leaving port and was forced to put back again. Per haps if Lieut. James Lawrence, who commanded ''Gunboat No. G." had been assigned to the unlucky ''No 7,' which Lieut.. Ogelvie commanded American naval history might have been different. As it was No. 6" ar rived safely, and Lawrence lived to de- feat the Peacock and to fight the Shan non; but Lieut.. Ogelvies gunboat went forth again after repairs and sailed into the mysterious waters of the un- known, and another missing" ship was entered on the navy's rolls.
 The most famous of all the missing ships of the American navy was the Wasp. In it's brief history it had a brilliant record, having within a pe- riod of five months taken fifteen yes sels, valued at more than two hundred thousand dollars. Its prOweSS as a terror of the seas was so remarkable that it's name had grown to be a menace to British merchantmen. Late in the year 1874, less than six months after she had left the Portsmouth navy yard for her career of victory, the Wasp dis appeared completely. Perhaps some damage received in an encounter with the enemy had weakened the sloop's timbers so that she fell an easy prey to wind and water; but, whatever hap pened, she left no trace.
 The last American man-of-war to vanish was the brig Epervier, which sailed from Decatur's fleet to the United States to bear the treaty made with the Dey of Algiers. July 12, 1915 the Epervier was last seen near the strait of Gibraltar. Since that time she too, has joined the fleet of the missing Where the vessels of that fleet lie anC what became of the crews are matter: that may never be known until tht judgment day; but perhaps chance may yet throw some light on the ques