The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-06-24
SHIPS THAT SAIL
 NEVER ID RETURN Sixty Vessels Disappear Annu- ally Leaving No Trace GREAT HARVEST OF SOULS During the Last Fifty Years 10000 Persons Have Been Lost on
 These Ships-stores Told.
 on Stormy Nights.
GREAT HARVEST OF SOULS

1
 and have neither come back nor left even
 a trace of their fate.
 Of all these stories, says the Boston | Herald, there is none more ghastly than
 that of the Pioneer, which sailed from San
 Francisco in 1899 for the Boring Sea. From
 the time she sailed, she was never sighted,
 nor was word heard from her for two years.
 Finally whaer, frozen in for the win
 ter In the Arctic. one day sent out a
 hunting party for game. The men. after
 wandering about all day. came upon the
 hulk of a 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. | though the ship had been so racked that the timbers trembled under their feet | They prised open the hatchway and peer
 ed into the dark depths. They shouted
 down the ladder, but feeble echo was the only answer
 l Mastering up courage they descended, | and. making their way into the hold. stood aghast at what they saw in one of
  | cheeks wan and sunken, their eyes glassy,
 were eight men some with heads on arms | some with hands thrust deep into thelr | clothes, as though shrinking rom the 1 cold: one with a prayer book before hlin
 There they sat, those men who had been | two years dead, and were waiting TOT the | sea to give them burial.
 Ships Began to Quake.
 Who they were, what the good ship l was. from what port she had salled' the | mortified men had no time to determine,
 for even as they looked the ship began | to quake. It was as though she re- | scented this prying into her secret, and | the strangers. fearing she might turn over. hurried from the cabin and scrani- ble outside.
 From a safe distance they watched her. | A mass of ice crashed down toward her, | the iceberg settled upon it's side, the
 derelict tottered, and, after another ava | lanche of ice and snow, sank sideways,
 into the cold waters. 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 adven-
 ture, it was decided from the scant de- | scription that this had been, in all prob l ability, the Pioneer. It will never be | known to a certainty, and for that req | son the Pioneer Is registered with so many others as missing; fate unknown 1 The fate of many a good ship defies | even conjecture. There was the Nevrach, | sailed for the Arctic in 1897 and was
 caught in an iceberg and abandoned by
 some of her crew. A few of the men pre- | ferred to take their chances with the
 ship. Those who abandoned her were fi- nally picked up; but all search failed to 1 find a trace of the Nevrach or of the men 1 who had stayed by her
 One of the most famous dsappearances l at sea was that of the City of Glasgow, | a 1900 ton ship which left port March | l. 1854, with 4S0 passengers. She has never l been heard from since Not a bit of wreckage from her has ever been identi- | fed. Not soul of the hundreds she car | ried is known to have survived.
 City of Boston Lost. On January 20, 1S7o the City of Boston sailed from Halifax for England with 191 souls on board. She was fine ship, spen- didly equipped, but she disappeared with out leaving a clue to her fate. The Burvie Castle left London some | time ago, bound on a voyage to Australia. She should have made final call at Ply | mouth, but she never came within sight of the Hoe, nor has human eye ever seen her from that day she dropped down the channel.
 It was on May 1, 1850, that the Lady Nugent spread her sails at Madras, with | 367 of the Twenty-ifth Madras Light in- fantry on board, bound for Rangoon. With | the regimental band playing, with the 1 friends of the passengers on the shore shouting farewell with 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 1S0 people on board. She went the way of the City | of Glasgow and the others. What strange port they found no one knows l The ship President left New York for London early in 1s4 with many distin- | guished passengers, among them a son or | the Duke of Richmond and the comedian, | Tyrone Power. She was expected at Liverpool in March, but April 13 came the l news that she had put into Madeira for repairs to her engines. She never reach- ed Liverpool or any other port | It was as late as 1904 that the ship Lam- | orna sailed from Tacoma, carrying car | go of wheat for Queenstown Following | close upon the departure came fierce | gale. Wreckage was found. and the re- l port was circulated that the ship had | been battered to pieces on Cape Flattery. But hardly had this report been spread when a coasting schooner reported hay ing seen the ship off Coos bay battered but apparently we'll able to withstand the seas.
 It was soon generally believed that it was true that she had weathered the gale and was sailing about somewhere. But where? Weeks passed and she was not again heard from. Ships were asked to be on the lookout for her, and news was anxiously awaited
 It was a long time after this that the German ship Artemis sighted a derelct far out at sea. steering about wildly, beating against head winds and yet refus- ing to display signals of any kind. A little later the unknown threw her head to the east and executed a series of freak maneuvers. It looked for all the world as though the ship was manned by crazy men who were trying to puzzle the Ar tennis.
 Captain Was Mysthed.
 The captain of the Artemis was mysti- fed He steered nearer the strange craft. and with the aid of his spyglass made out the name Lamorna Consulting his shipping record, he discovered that she was outward bound and long overdue. Rut that hardly accounted for her queer actions.
 When within few hundred yards of