Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1899-03-12
SIlNE NANAL NYSIFN|
War Vessels That Have \ appeared Without Le9yi0.
 Any Explanation.
SOME QUEER lNSTAAe
4 Glnboat That Went to the : tom With All On Board Befa,
 She Was Named.

Extraordinary Accident Which Esns.
 to the Corvette Monongahe,a- \
 Fate of the sIoop-of- War wateree =
 Waves. Hurricanes and co1li,5ar.
 sponsibIe for Some.
 Curious disappearapces and
 dents to our Warships eharacte.fz fzaa early history of our navy, and in of all the efforts Of the navy dea.@ ment to explain the cause of the K asters, many of them are as absal@ mysteries today as when they hapass ed.
 When the government built ten ss. gunboats to prosecute the war agaiT5 Tripoli, in 1905, they were sent out soon as they were finished and bei5s they were named. Each one was gi7s, numberNand dispatched to the sees of the war No. sailed from Nes York, June 20, 1865. under command K Lieut. 0gelvie. and after she clears Sandy Hook light she was never hest from again. She went down with on board before she had ever bes named
 A most extraordinary accident hapM pened to the corvette Monongahela Santa Cruz in 1867. While at anehs in the harbor a tremendous tidal wsY i lifted her upon it's crest and earFis her clean over the town of Fred, erichstadt and back again withoal injuring the town or the boat to any great extent. The reeeding wags landed her OH the beach instead of a the deep waters of the harbor, and tK cost oar government SI00, 600 to float her again Fully as strange was ths fate of the sloop-of-war Watefee.
 She Was anchored in the harbof 0 2 Africa. Peru. in 1868, when a huge tidal wave swept inland and flooded the k whole city The wave carried the slooD several miles inland, and finally land. ed her in the midst of tropical for est It was impossible to release her from such a peculiar position. and the government sold her for nominal sum The purchasers turned the Yessel into a hotel. and the remains of tho once formidable war vessel loom up in the tropical forest today as a monu ment to the power of tidal waves.
 Among other cases of disaster which lre attributed to the violence Of the waves or weather there is none mors' interesting than that of the stranEs fate of the Saratoga. When she sail ed from Philadelphia in October, 17S0, ander the command of Capt James Young. there was no finer or hand somer warship afioat That she was as formidable as she was attractive she soon demonstrated in practical way. After cruising around short tune she captured three British vessels ID 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 seventy l four-gun ship. Capt. Young considered 1t safer to run away. The enemy did not chase her far. but returned 10 pro- teet and recapture the British prizes, The Saratoga sailed away in tue very teeth of a 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- of-war Oneida in 1869. She was bound home from Yoko- hama. but when a short distance from port the British steamer Bombay ran into her and cut off her stern. The l injury was so mortal that the Oneida immediately fired her gun of distress, but in the darkness the Bombay crew crept away instead of returning to as- sist her. In short time the sloop went to the bottom. carrying all of her crew with her When the news reach- ed Yokohama the captain of the Brit sh steamer was mobbed by the indig- I nant populace, and he was dismlssea from the service in disgrace.
 Hurricanes have been responsible for the wreckage of several Of our naval vessels, other than those at Samoa in l8S9 The brig-of-war Bainbridge was turned over by a hurricane off Cape Hatteras in 1863, and everybody on board was lost except colored cook, sho managed to cling to pieces of the wreck until picked up. Ninety-eight lives were lost by the wrecking of the sloop -ofwar Huron Tn 1877. A small hurricane blew her on the shore of Norfolk. and she was pounded to pieces by the violent surf. The Sag lnaw was wrecked in the very middle Of the Pacific in 1870.-George Ethel- bert Walsh in Leslie's Weekly.