Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1899-01-23
SOME 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.


 She Was Named.
 Extraordinary Accident Which Happened to the Corvette Nonongahola-stra Fate of the sloop- War Watereo-Tidal Waves Hurricanes and Collisions Re- sponsible for some.
 Curious disappearances and acci- l 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, 1895, 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 been 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 its crest and carried her clean over the town of Fred. erichstadt and back again without injuring 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 1t cost our government $100,000 to float her again. Fully as strange wee the fate of the eloop-of-war Wateree.
 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 land- ed her In the midst of a tropical for est. It was impossible to release her From such peculiar position, and the government sold her for a nominal sum. The purchasers turned the vessel into hotel. and the remains of the once formidable war vessel loom up Tn the tropical forest today as monu- ment to the power Of tidal waves.
 Among other cases of disaster which are attributed to the violence of the waves or weather there Is none more interesting than that of the strange fate of the Saratoga. When she sail ed from Philadelphia in October, 1780, under the command of Capt. James Young. there was no finer or hand somer warship aaeat. 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 in 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 four-gun ship. Capt. Young considered 1t safer to run away. The enemy did not chase her far, but returned to pro- tect and recapture tho British prizes
 
 teeth of q 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 10 our naval vessels in the past that are accounted for. but, while the mys- tery of their loss IS removed and ex- l nj tbo 70 .Lol- ~.ts haps is no less interesting. For in- stance. there is the sinking of the United States sloop-ef-war Oneida in 1869. 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 gun of distress. but in the darkness the Bombay crew Crept away instead of returning to as. sist her. In short time tho sloop went to the bottom. carrying all of her crew with her. Whom the news reach ed Yokohama the captain of the Brit ish steamer was mobbed by the indig- nant populace. and he was dismissed rom the service Tn disgrace.
 Hurricanes have been responsible for the wrec6age Of several Of our naval vessels. other than those at Samoa in 1889. The brig-of-war Bainbridge was turned over by a hurricane off Cape Hatteras fin 1863. and everybody on board was lost except colored cook. Hho managed to cling 10 pieces of the wreck until picked up. Ninety eight lives were lost by the wrecking of the sloop- of-war Huron In 1877. A small hurricane blew her on the shore of Norfolk. and she was pounded to pieces by the violent surf The Sag inaw was wrecked in the very middle } Of the Pacific in 187o.-George Ethel bert Walsh in Leslies Weekly.