The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1895-02-10
LOST ATLANTIC SHIPS
GREAT OCEAN DISASTERS SINCE
THE EARLY DAYS OF STEAM.
Appalling List of Liners That Went
Down, Some Having Never Been
Heard of After They Left Port.
Brooklyn Eagle.


The loss of the North German Lloyd
steamship Elbe adds another vessel to the
long list of steamers that have been lost
since the advent Of steam on the Atlantic.
The first Atlantic steamship disaster was
recorded when the President was lost in
1871, and since that time no fewer than 1874
steamers engaged in the north Atlantic
trade have been wrecked. This list includes
eighteen vessels sunk In collision. five sunk
by icebergs, forty-eight wrecked, ten burned.
sixteen stranded, ten foundered and TWEEN
ty-six never heard from.
No steamship line has been entirely free
from disaster. The Allan line has lost four
teen steamers; Anchor line, nine; Collins,
two; Beaver, three; Cunard. three; Domin-
lon, four; French, two; Guion, six; Hamburg
American, five; Inman, nine; Leyland, three;
State, two; National, four; North German
Lloyd, five; Netherlands, one; Thingvalla.
two; White Star, two; Wilson, four, and
Warren line, three. Many of these disasters
have occurred in January than in any other
month. Including the Elbe. seventeen
steamers met their fate during the first
thirty-one days of the year. Few of these
steamship misfortune occurred without
some loss of life, in many instances the
number of lives sacrificed running up into
the hundreds. The more noted Of these are
the City of Glasgow, in 1854, 4SO lives lost;
Arctic, in 1854, 800 lives lost; Austria, in
1858, 40 lives lost; Hungarian, in 1860, and
Anglo-Saxon, in 1863, each with 237 lives lost;
Atlantic, in 1873, 585 lives lost; Schiller in
1875, 312 lives lost; Cimbria, in 1883, 3S9 lives
lost; Utopia, in 1891, 563 lives lost; Elbe, in
1896, 374 lives lost. Altogether the total list
of lives lost in Atlantic steamship disasters
from 1S41 to date is 1900.
The President, which was the first At
lantic steamer to be wrecked, was owned
by the British and American Steam Navi-
cation Company, and made her first voy-
age in 1910. and after two or three long
and unsuccessful voyages sailed from New
in the season OF Atlantic travel, be called
a few $3.50 passengers, and disappeared
The steamer Orpheus sailed in company
when the captain of the former vessel last
saw her she was laboring in a heavy gale,
IN which it is generally supposed she went
Columbia, in 1S43. 1t was over ten years
after that before any other serious disas-
ter came to any of the Atlantic liners.
CITY OF GLASGOw'S FATE.
Then it was that, in 1854, the City of
Glasgow, the first vessel of what was later
known as the Inman line, left Liverpool
for Philadelphia, March 1, with 480 passen-
gers on board, and was never heard Of
again. In the wake of the steamer came
the Collins liner Arctic, which, in Septem-
Der, was run into by a small French steam
er named the Vesta, off Cape Race, in a
dense fog, and sunk, with a loss of 322
lives, among whom were the wife and
daughter of Mr.. Collins, the promoter of
the line. About two years after this an
other great disaster befell this same COM
Sailed from Liverpool june g. 1856. with
2o souls on board, and the brief and terri
Bile sentence, Never heard Of" is the only
q IA nf hnur fhfc noh10 an->1 -.- 49, --y
her living freight engulfed in eternity.
The French steamer LIE Lyonnais was lost
in collision off Nantucket in November, 1856.
the Tempest of the Anchor line, disappeared
with $50 lives. In September, 1858. the Aus
burned at sea, with a loss of 40 lives. In
February, 1860, the Allan steamer Hungarian
was wrecked off Sable island and 1877 lives
of the Allan line, collided with an iceberg
in the Straits of Belle Isle, and lost thirty
I'VE lives; Another steamer of this same
line, the North Briton, was wrecked in 1861,
and two years later disaster came again
In the loss Of the Anglo-Saxon, off Cape
Norwegian, off st. Paul island, the latter.
however, without loss of life. From that
met their fate, but with the exception of the
Bohemian with twenty. the United Kingdom
with eighty and the Hibernia with sixty-six,
In January, 1870. the City of Boston, of
the Inman line, sailed from New York for
Liverpool, VIA HALIFAX, with q total OF III
passengers and crew. There are many per-
sons now living whose friends were lost in
that ship. and who remember but too well
the agonies of suspense as day after day
and week after week passed and yet no
tidings came. A boat picked up Feb. II, 1870,
was the only thing ever found belonging to
the ship. The Cambria. of the Anchor line.
was also wrecked in 1870, with a loss of 100
lives.
1873 AN ILL-FATED YEAR.
The year 1873 was a disastrous one to
g. n 1viyn tho f1ent;a NJ $780,
than eight different vessels were entirely
lost and as many more met with other
accidents. In April, 1873, the White Star
steamer Atlantic ran ashore not far from
Halifax. the captain having lost his reckon
ing in the heavy weather that prevailed and
$50 lives were lost, some by drowning and
some by freezing in the rigging into which
they had climbed. The loss Of the Vile de
Havre occurred in November. This splendid
ship met with a collision in the English
channel and went to the bottom with rs
passengers and crew. In May, 1875, the Ger
man steamer Schiller was wrecked in a fog
off the Scilly islands with a loss OF 312 lives.
Between the years 1875 and 1880 a long
list of Atlantic liners were, in various ways,
wrecked. OF twenty-three steamers-beside
of life. OF the other twelve, the Deutsch-
land, lost 81; Vicksburg, "A; Colombo, ri;
Herman Ludwig. 90; Surbiton, 33; Bernia,
most noted of all, the Borussia. which
foundered at sea in December, 1879, lost I65
lives.
In january, 1881, the City of Limerick
sailed from port and was never again heard
of. The City of London. belonging to the
same owner as the Limerick, also sailed out
in 1881 November) and no trace of her has
ever been obtained. The loss of life on these
two steamers was eighty-four. The German
steamer Mosel was wrecked in a heavy fog
off Cornwall in 1882. and in January, 1883,
the City of Brussels. at that time one of
the best steamers of the Inman line, met
with a collision at the mouth of the Mersey
and went to the bottom with a loss O., ten
lives. The steamer Straits of Dover sailed
out in January, 1888. and was never heard
of again. Following close upon these two
disasters came the loss (Jan. 1) of the
Hamburg-American steamer Cimbria, by a
collision in the North sea. by which $3.50
lives were lost. The Daniel Steinman was
wrecked near Halifax. April 8, 1884. and ZIG
lives were lost. and in the same month the
State line steamer Florida collided at sea
and sunk, losing 10S lives. Eight steamers
were lost in 1885. five of which. the Connis-
ton. Fernwood. Preston. Clandon and Hum
her were never heard Of after leaving mort