The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1899-04-13
SHIPS THAT PASS FOREVER
OF THE MIGHTY AND
RELENTLESS MAIN.
Hundreds of Lives and Millions of
Property Gone to Swell the Treas
ures of the Deep"

WASHINGTON, ID. c., March 81
Ten big steamers, which started out
from the Atlantic ports of the Unit
ed States Just before the blizzard
that came with st. Valentines day
last month, have not been heard from,
and have probably been swallowed by
the angry sea. One of them is an
American steamer, the Allegheny,
which was loaded with refined petro-
leum. One, the Minister Meybach,
was German, also loaded with oil
for Hamburg. The remaining eight
were British craft; the Aroma, with
timber from Portland for London; the
City of Wakefield, with grain and gen
eral merchandise, from Norfolk for
Rotterdam; the Croft, with grain and
general merchandise, from New York
for London; the Dora Foster, with
cotton, from Savannah for Liverpool;
the Laughton, with grain and cotton,
from Norfolk for Copenhagen; the
Oberon, with grain, from Baltimore
for Antwerp, and the Picton. with
grain and cotton, from Norfolk for
Sligo.
On board of these steamers were
800 human beings, including passen-
gers and crews, and their cargoes
were valued at 81. 100000. There is
slim chance that some of them may
turn up yet, or that their crews may
have been rescued while they were
drifting disabled, but they are GER
tainly not in the usual lanes of ocean
travel and the probabilities are
against their survival. However, more
than 200 steamships were overhauled
at sea during the year 1898 in dis
tress. either with loss of propellers,
shafts broken or engines disabled,
and their experience shows how much
a vessel may endure before it goes
to the bottom.
The late winter has been the most
severe that was ever known on the
ocean; the losses in lives and prop
erty have been greater than for sew
eral previous years combined; but
they were very small compared with
the destruction of property by the ma
tural elemnts on land. and. according
to the statistics of disaster. steam
boating is the safest way to travel.
and there is less danger to life and
limb at sea than on shore.
1t is very seldom that a vessel goes
down with its crew and passengers.
More lives are lost in fires and floods
and railway accidents every month
in this country alone. or in England
or France. than in a whole wear at
sea. 1t is long time since any of
our naval vessels met with disaster
In the list of men-of-war that have
sailed under the United States flag
those ominous words Never heard
from" are written against the names
of only six vessels. The first was the
eighteen-gun frigate Saratoga. one of
the few vessels that belonged to the
colonies during the revolutionary war.
After the treaty of peace was signed
she sailed away from Philadelphia
and disappeared forever from all hui
man knowledge. No signs of her
wreckage were ever discovered. She
probably foundered in a gale. and
went down with all on board.
On the 14th of July. 1900. the thirty
six gun frigate Insurgent, under
Capt. Patrick Fletcher. sailed out be-
tween the Chesapeake capes and has
not been heard from since. She was
a prize captured from the French by
Capt. TruXton of the Constellation in
1893, after Il hard-fought battle off
the Island of Nevis, in the West In
dies.
In August, $500. the fourteen-gun
brig Pickering. commanded by Capt.
Benjamin Hillar. was last seen at
Guadalupe, and it is supposed that
she went down i'm gale. She was a
merchant vessel poorly adapted for
naval service, and her guns were too
heavy for her tonnage.
The next vessel to disappear was
known as Gunboat No. Z, commanded
by Lieut.. Ogelbie, which sailed from
New York on the 14th of May, 1905,
to re-enforce our squadron in the Me-
diterranean during the war with Tri-
poll. When short distance out her
mast was sprung, and she returned
to New York for repairs. She sailed
again on the Goth of June. and was
never heard from.
The loss of the Wasp was one of
the tragedies of the navy. During the
war of 1912, within a period of five
months, she captured fifteen English
merchantmen, and fought several
stubborn battles with British men-of-
war of greater size and strength. On
the LIST of October, 1914, she hailed the
Swedish bark Adonis and took on
board two of the surviving officers of
the old gunboat Essex, which had
been destroyed in Valparaiso harbor
After that she was never heard of
aUain