Perth Amboy evening news., 1906-12-07
understands
s scarce.

possession of her PIE VIII 20 down
came the British line of blt leship
! Poictiers and took victor tn van
quished into her possession. A prize
crew of Britishers took the wasp to
England, where they refttc2 hcr end
took her into the British nayy.
I'm the spring of 1914 the Wasp,
| flying the red cross ensign of St
George, sailed out from the harbor
of Portsmouth, England She was
| sighted passing out of the Chops OF
| the Channel, and from that day TO
| this there have come no tidings of her
| fate. She sailed away, staunch, taut.
and trim, well found and seaworthy
as American and British skill could
make her No histile ship sunk her
with its guns, no great storm passed
over that part of the ocean at that
time; yet she, never returned to port.
No piece of wreckage belonging to her
was ever seen and no tidings of her
, mysterious fate ever came back.
Meanwhile the United States had
built new Wasp, and about the
same time that the old Wasp sailed
out of Portsmouth, England, under
British colors to meet her mysterious
doom the new Wasp, under American
colors, sailed from Portsmouth, n. II.
Approaching the British Channel the
new Wasp had an action with the
British sloop of war Reindeer and
captured her after a short action.
Burning the prize, Captain Blakely,
who commanded the Wasp, put into
L'Orient, France. Sailing from that
port in August the Wasp fought a
battle with the British corvette Avon,
in which she silenced her guns, but
was unable to take possession owing
to the appearance of a superior Brit
ish force.
Then she went on down the seas,
capturing merchantmen, some OF
which she burned and some of which
she sent back with prize crews to the
United States.
"On October 8, 1914, the Wasp
was spoken by the Swedish bark
Adonis, being then in latitude 1S So
north, longitude 30. 10. west, or well
to the westward of the Cape de Verde
Islands. After speaking the bark
land taking on board two American
officers who were passengers on the
| Adonis, the Wasp made sail in the
direction of the equator, and from
that hour to- this no mortal eye has
ever seen her. no bit of wreckage has
ever been picked up which might
give a clew to her fate. In fact, she
ianished as completely and as mys-
eriously from the face of the waters
IS did the other Wasp.
THAT these two vessels should at
the same time have met similar fate
and such a fate-is one of those
condolences to be impressed with
which man does not have to be very
5uperstitious There Is a fascination
in letting a grewsome fancy range
and picture these two Wasps meeting
somewhere on lonely sea-thost
two alone-and fighting each Other
Until no vestige. of either remained tt
tell the tale. Or. perhaps, some 9th
er strange fate overlook them, and
perhaps, caught in the endless eddies
of the Sargasso Sea, those two Wasps
are even now floating side by side
from the gaf of one dropping the
moldering shreds of the red cross oi
England, and from the other few
shreds of what was once. the Stars
and Stripes"
"Very pretty idea," said the pay
master, land much more romantic
than to simply suppose that they
were both capsized and went down
with all hands.
But If they had so capsized,' re-
torted the first lieutenant. would it
not have been likely that some bit OF
wreckage, some boat, or piece of a
boat, something about the decks,
should have been left floating about
lfor other ships to pick up and thus
give a clew to their fate? If it had
been only one ship the wonder would
| not have been so great; but there
were two good sized men of war, both
last seen In the track Of merchant
vessels in we'll freauented seas, and
both dropping off the face of the wat
ers almost simultaneously and not
Il vcstige of either ever seen picked
iin-and' both named the Wasp and
both sailing cut Of Portsmouth as
their last home port g me port OF