St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1896-03-09
STEAMER RIO DE JANEIRO MISSING
FOR THE PAST TWO
WEEKS.
WAS THE VESSEL WRECKED,
OR is 1T FLOATING HELPLEssLY
ON THE WAVES, THE VICTIM
OF ACCIDENTe
OVER 100 LIVES IN JEOPARDY
And Millions In Monetary Value
Owners Refuse to Give Up
Hope.

SAN FRANCISCO, Cal, March s.
The Pacific Mail Steamship company's
big liner, the City of Rio de Janeiro,
which left this port for the Orient heav-
lily laden on the 9Th of last month,
should have arrived at Yokohama on
the 23d of February, yet not a word
has been heard of her. At least the
agents of the company declare they
have received no information regard
ing the steamers welfare or where
abouts since she glided out of the bay
on the afternoon of Feb. 6. The New
York office of the company has been
wired necessarily by the local agents,
but the reply comes regularly and
monotonously that as yet nothing has
reached them by cable concerning the
vessel.
The Rio left here with 156 people on
board, all told. OF these, four were
cabin passengers, and there were in the
steerage ten Europeans, ten Japanese
and twenty-five Chinese. The crew
consisted Of thirty white people and
seventy-nine Chinese.
The one theory in which the COM
panies agree In basing their greatest
hopes is that the, Rio, by force Of bad
weather or other circumstances. was
compelled to pass Yokohama without
making her usual stop there. This
would not be considered an altogether
unusual occurrence. 1t has happened
several times during the past twelve
years to other steamers in the service
OF the company. Should this be the
case there will be a still longer period
of anxiety; for nothing can possibly
be heard from her in that event until
she reaches Hong Kong. Many ship
ping men feel hopeful that she will
shortly be reported from the Chinese
port
The Rio de Janeiro is one of the
handsomest and largest vessels in the
trans-Pacific service of the Pacific Mail
She is four masted, provided with
sails, so that in case Of damage to
her engines while at sea there would
be nothing to prevent her weathering
her way to some nearby port with the
use of her canvas alone If this were
the case, however, she would doubtless
be long delayed, and it might be even
weeks before she would be heard from.
The Rio was built at Chester Pa, in
1878. She is of steel and is equipped
has the reputation of being a fairly
FAST and staunch vessel at sea- She
carried a cargo of general merchandise
and bullion valued at nearly a million
dollars. The merchandise which was
consigned to various Japanese and Chi
nese ports, was valued in all at $152, 233.
The major portion of this cargo COM
prfsed flour for China; cotton for
Japan, and canned goods and sugar for
both countries.
General superintendent Center Of the
Pacific Mail company, stated the COM
pany had not yet begun to lose hope
for the safety of the Rio.
'Of course" said he, 1--WE can't help
feeling somewhat anxious. We are
hopeful and have good reasons for en-
tertaining that hope. Many things
could have happened by which the long
absence Of the Rio could be accounted
for to our minds, even though we have
received no dispatches of anything def
mite in the shape of news from her.
We do know, for instance, that there
has been heavy weather between the
Hawaiian islands and Japan of late. It
is not improbable that the Rio got into
the worst of this weather, and that
Capt. Russell decided to take plenty of
room and not antagonize the storm,
even though he might lose much time
in reaching Yokohama.
ct is possible that he has found it
compulsory to even skip by Yokohama
entirely. That has happened before.
We did not become anxious when the