The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1895-05-24
SUNKEN SHIPS.
American Gunboats That Went
Down Fore YER.
Brief Review of Naval Losses During Gem
fury Famous Men of War That
Have Mysteriousiy Disappeared
from View.


Since the last great storm swept
across the Atlantic II has become rea-
sonably certain that more than one YES
sci 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 ll6 years ago. The loss
of the Saratoga was in itself story
that might well attract the notice
of a writer Of fiction. as it@occurred at
the close of what promised to be sig
nally successful cruise. The Saratoga
sailed from Philadelphia early in the
autumn of 1850, 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-cf-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 lnsurgent, 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. 1t is probably within that
very tract Of the ocean that the Saratoga
was lost, and it was regarded as signif-
cant by some of the old salts of the
American navy at the beginning of the
present century that the lnsurgent,
/ 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 of! the
Chesapeake Capes
In the same year, the only year in
which two of the American men-of- war
mysteriously disappeared, the fourteen
gun brig Pickering was ordered to
Guadeloupe to cruise along the coast
there. In September, 1900, a heavy
gale swept the ocean, and it was gener-
ally believed at the time that the In
Surgeut 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 GER
tainty as to her fate.
When in 1905 the United States de-
cided TO send ten gunboats to help in
the war against Tripoli one of these
vessels, known as "Gunboat No. ="
met with 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 unlucBy NO. ="
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. Ogelvie's 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 its brief history it had a
brilliant record, having within pc
riod of five months taken fifteen YES
sells, valued at more than two hundred
thousand dollars. Its prowess as a
terror of the seas was so remarkab BILE
that its name had grown to be menace
to British merchantmen. Late in the
year 1914, 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
pcned, she left no trace.
The last American man-of-war to
vanish was the brig Epervier, which
sailed from Decatur's feet TO the
United States to bear the treaty made
4. with the Dey of Algiers. July 10, 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 and
what became of the crews are matters
that may never be known until the
judgment day; but perhaps chance
may yet throw some light on the ques'
ton. In the meantime the theme is one
that may well invite the attention OF
the imaginative novelist.
Plenty of Big Game.
4 a l. i A Il