Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1906-07-10
Miseellaneuus &sadins.
SHIPS THAT NEVER CAME BACK.
Sixty Vessels Disappear Annually and
Leave no Trace.

from the depths of the Atlantic. and
tear up and down the Massachusetts
coast. the sailors in port. sitting over
their grog, tell stories Of the good
ships which have gone to sea and
have neither come back nor left even
q trace Of their fate.
OF all these stories, says the Boston
than that Of the Pioneer, which sailed
from San Francisco in 1899 for the
Bering sea. From the time she sail
ed, she was never sighted, nor was a
word heard from her for two years.
Finally a whaler, frozen in for the
winter in the Arctic, one day sent out
a hunting party for game. The men,
after wandering about all day, came
upon the hulk of ship frozen into an
iceberg. There was nothing about her
to indicate what might be her name,
for the grinding of the ice had worn
her sides smooth and destroyed any
clue to her identity.
Some of the men ventured aboard,
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that the timbers trembled under their
feet. They pried open the hatchway
and peered into the dark depths. They
shouted down the ladder, but feeble
echo was the only answer.
| Mastering up courage, they de-
scended, and. making their way into
the hold, stood aghast at what they
saw in one Of the cabins. Seated
about a table, their cheeks wan and
sunken. their eyes CLASSY, were eight
men some with heads on arms, some
with hands thrust deep into their
clothes, as though shrinking from the
cold; one with a prayer book before
him. There they sat, those men who
had been two years dead and were
waiting for the sea to give them
burial.
Who they were, what the good ship
was, from what port she had sailed,
the Mortified men had no time to de-
termine, for even as they looked the
ship began to quake. 1t was as though
she resented this prying into her Sc
cret, and the strangers, fearing she
might turn over, hurried from the
cabin and scrambled outside.
From a safe distance they watched
her. A mass of ice crashed down to-
ward her, the iceberg settled upon its
side, the derelict tottered, and after
another small avalanche of ice and
snow, sank sideways into the cold wa
ters. The eight had at last received
their burial, carrying with them all
traces of their identity
But when the whaler returned to
port and the men told Of their weird
adventure, it was decided from the
scant description that this had been,
in all probability the Pioneer. 1t will
never be known to certainty, and for
that reason the Pioneer Is registered
with so many others as missing; fate
unknown"
| The fate Of many a good ship de-
fies even conjecture. There was the
Nevrach, which sailed for the Arctic
in 1897 and was caught in an iceberg
and abandoned by some Of her crew.
A few Of the men preferred to take
their chances with the ship. Those
who abandoned her were finally pick
ed up; but all search failed to find
trace Of the Nevrach or of the men
who had stayed by her.
One of the most famous disappear
ances at sea was that Of the City of
Glasgow, a 1.6OO ton ship which left
port March /, 1854, with 4S0 passen-
gers. She has never been heard from
since. Not a bit of wreckage from
her has ever been identified. Not a
soul of the hundreds she carried is
known to have survived.
On January 20, 1870, the City Of
Boston sailed from Halifax for Eng
land with 191 souls on board. She was
fine ship, splendidly equipped, but
she disappeared without leaving a
clue as to her fate.
The Burve Castle left London some
time ago, bound on a voyage to Aus
tralia She should have made final
call at Plymouth, but she never came
within sight of the Hoe, nor has hu-
man eye ever seen her from that day
she dropped down the Channel.
1t was on May l, 1850, that the
Lady Nugent spread her sails at Ma
dras, with 367 of the Twenty-fifth Ma
dras Light Infantry on board, bound
for Rangoon. With the regimental
band playing, with the friends of the
passengers on the shore shouting fare
well, with a clear sea before her, she
left port, but she has never reached
Rangoon or any other port known to
man.
Two years later the Collins liner
Pacific dropped down the Mersey with
1SO people on board She went the
way of the City of Glasgow and the
others What strange port they found
no one knows.
The ship President left New York
for London early in 1S41 with many
distinguished passengers, among them
a son Of the Duke of Richmond, and
the comedian, Tyrone Power. she
was expected at Liverpool in March
but April 13 came the news that she
had put into Madeira for repairs to
her engines. She never reached LiV-
erpool or any other port
1t was as late as 1904 that the snip
Lamorna sailed from Tacoma, carry
ing a cargo of wheat for Queenstown
Following close upon the departure
came a fierce gale. Wreckage was
found, and the report was circulated
that the ship had been battered tc
pieces on Cape Flattery. But hardy
had this report been spread when
coasting schooner reported having
seen the ship off Coos bay, battered
but apparently we'll able to withstand
the seas.
1t was soon generally believed tha'
it was true that she had weathereo
the gale and was sailing about some
where But where? Weeks passec
and she was not again heard from
Ships were asked to be on the lookou
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