Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1898-07-21
GREAT OCEAN DISASTERS.
Some Of the More Notable Accom-
panied by Great Loss of Life.

The recent sinking Of La BOurgogne
off Halifax and the loss of $50 souls
recalls the greatest shipping disaster
of the century that of the wreck Of
the British trigate S. George and De-
fence off the coast of Jutland in 1911.
In that wreck 1000 men were drown
ed. The sinking Of the Royal George
off Spithead in 1882, when Admiral
kempenfelt went down with his 500
men, was long celebrated in song and
story as the greatest catastrophe by
sea for many generations.
Since then these sorrows Of the sea
with their frightfuI loss of life have
been growing more frequent with the
Increase of travel. On the Pacific,
which disappeared in 1856, there were
1S6 persons, and on the City Of Glas.
gov, never heard of since 1854, there
were $50.
The City of Boston cleared at New
York January %, 1870, and sailed
the same day for Liverpool by way
of Halifax, with twelve cabin and
forty-fve steerage passengers aboard
and Capt. J. j. Halorcon. At Hall
fax it took forty cabin and ten steer
age passengers and proceeded The
The only thing found which bore upon
the disaster was a board, picked out
of the sea February IL. 1870, upon
which was scratched a message saying
the ship was sinking at the time.
No D,s+
472 souls on board, was made a play
thing Of by the waves at midnight,
September 20. 1870, off Cape FINS
terre, and inside of three minutes it
was capsized and sinking.
The steamship Ella sailed from
friends Of those who took passage in
it waited for years for any news con
corning the lost ones
So it was with the steamer City OF
Glasgow. 1t left Liverpool March 5
1854, and headed for Philadelphia
Four hundred and eight human beings
went down with it in midocean.
The Amazon, a West India mail
steamship, left Southampton on her
first voyage on January 2, 1852, and
on the morning of January 4 was
destroyed by fire at sea about 11O
miles west-southwest Of Sicily.
The Arctic left Liverpool septem-
Der 20, 1854, came into collision with
the iron propeller Vesta during a
dense fog on September 81, off Capt
Race, and went to the bottom. The
passengers and crew numbered 439
persons, of whom about 307 were lost
The Birkenhead, an English troop
ship Of 5G6 horsepower, sailed from
Queenstown January Z, 1852, for the
Cape Of Good Hope, and struck upon
a pointed pinnacle rock off Simon's
bay, South Africa, on or about Feb
ruary 26. She had on board 6S3 per-
sons, of whom asa persisted.
The Pacific, a Collins steamer, left
Liverpool for New York in January,
1856, with 1876 persons On board, and
was never heard from. She was
supposed to have struck an iceberg.
The Austria, British steam immi-
grant sloop, sailed from Hamburg On
September 2, 1858, with 53S persons
on board, and was burned in the
middle of the Atlantic on the 18th,
only 81 persons being saved.
The st. Paul, Captain Penard, an
English vessel from Hong Kong to
sidney, Australia, with 1927 Chinese
emigrants, was wrecked on the Island
Of Rossel, September 30, 1858. The
captain and eight of the crew were
picked up by the schooner Prince OF
Denmark
The .emigrant ship Northfeet, which
sailed from London with 412 pas
sengers on board, exclusive of her
crew, was run into at midnight on
| January %, 1873, in the British chan
mel, and 325 persons were lost.
The Atlantic, of the White Star
Line, struck on the Meagher Rocks,
west of Sambro, near Halifax, On
April i, 1873. About 500 people were
lost.
The Vile de 'HaYre, French Allan
tic mail steamer Of 800 tons bur-
den, sailed from New York for Havre
November Is, 1873 She was run into
| by the Glasgow clipper Lochearn
| about 2 a. m. the following morning
| and sank in twelve minutes. Out OF
313 persons aboard 226 persisted.
The Schiller, the Hamburg mail
steamer, was wrecked in a fog on the
rocks OF the Scilly Isles on May 7,
| 1875. There were 331 people drowned
In the forenoon of May 81, 1878
| while the weather was bright and
| the sea calm, the great German iron
I clad Grosser Kurfurst was struck of