Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1899-05-28
SI)NE NAVAL MYSTERIES.
War Vessels That Have Dis appeared Without Leaving
 Any Explanation.
SOME QUEER INSTANCES,
A Gunboat That Went to the Bot. tom With All On Board Before
 She Was Named.

to the Corvette MononSahela-otEAh ES
 Fate of the sloop-of. War wateree-Tidal
 Waves, Hurricanes and Collisions Re-
 spousible for Some.
 Curious disappearanees and acei- dents to our warships characterized the early history of our navy, and. in spite of all the efforts of the navy depart. ment to explain the cause of the dis asters, many of them are as absolute mysteries today as when they happen ed
 When the government built ten new gunboats to prosecute the war against Tripoli in 1905, they were sent out as soon as they were finished and before they were named. Each one was given a number and dispatched to the scene of the war No. sailed from New York, June 20. 1905, under command of Lieut.. Ogelvie, and after she cleared Sandy Hook light she was never heard from again She went down with all on board before she had ever beeu named.
 A most extraordinary accident hap pened to the corvette Monongahela at Santa Cruz in 1867. While at anchor in the harbor a tremendous tidal wave lifted her upon it's crest and carried her clean over the town of Fred, erfehstadt and back again without iniuring the town or the boat to any great extent. The receding wave landed her on the beach instead of in the deep waters of the harbor, and it cost our government $100,000 to float her again. Fully as strange was the fate of the sloop-of=war Watetee.
 She was anchored in the harbor of Africa, Peru. in 1868, when a huge tidal wave swept inland and flooded the whole city. The wave carried the sloop several miles inland. and finally faHd- cd her in the midst of a tropical for est. Ii was impossible to release her from such a peculiar position. and the l government sold her for a nominal sum The purchasers turned the vessel Into hotel. and the remains of ths 1 once formidable war vessel loom up in the tropical forest today as mona- i ILCiN tJ tHE DQA EE pi IlQdA Wa SH. Among other cases of disaster which are attributed to the violence af tha waves or weather there is none more l interesting than that Of the strange tate of the Saratoga. When she sail ed from Philadelphia fin October, l780, under the command of Capt James Young, there was DO finer or hand somer warship aHoat That she was as formidable as she was attractive she soon demonstrated in a practical way. After cruising around a short time she captured three British vessels tn succession, and then with her prizes she started to return to Philadelphia. But off the Delaware capes she en- countered a British ship of line. As the Saratoga carried only eighteen guns and the Intrepid was a seventy. tour-gun ship. Capt. Young considered 1t safer to run away. The enemy did not chase her far, but returned to pro- tect and recapture the British prizes. The Saratoga sailed away in the very teeth ot storm, and she was never heard from again. Did she founder at sea in the gale or was she blown up by her own magazines?
 There were some peculiar accidents to our naval vessels in the past that are accounted for. but, while the mys. tery of their loss Is removed and ex- plained, the strangeness of their mis- haps is no less interesting. For in- stance. there is the sinking of the United States sloop-ot- war Oneida in IS69, She was bound home from Yoko- hama. but when short distance from port the British steamer Bombay ran into her and cut off her stern. The injury was so mortal that the Oneida immediately fired her sun of distress but tn the darkness the Bombay crew crept away instead of returning to as. Hst her. In short time the sloop went to the bottom, carrying all of her crew with her. When the news reaeh- eo Yokohama the captain of the Brit ish steamer was mobbed by the indig. aant populace. and he was dismissed rom the service in disgrace.
 Hurricanes have been resuonsfble for the Wreckage of several of our naval vessels. other than those at Samoa in I0SS. The brig-of-war Bainbridge was turned over by a hurricane off Cane Hatteras in 1883, and everybody on hoard was lost except a colored cook "ho managed to cling to pieces of the wreck until picked up. Ninety-etsht lVes were lost by the wreckino of tba sloop-of-war Huron In 1877. A small hurricane blew her on the shore of Norfolk and sha vas ,