Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-11-17
HO0DOOS OF THE NAVY
Not Reasonable to Speak of
Old UnIucky Ships.
AGGRAVATED ADMIRALTY
"Wasps" That Strange Deep-Sea
Fate Overlook.
BATTLED AGAINST THE BRITISH
formidable List of Fated Frigates
That Sailed Under the Stars
and Stripes.
BATTLED AGAINST THE BRITISH
Written for The Star.

VIAttcu lor Inc Stdr
do you believe in lucky ships?" asked
the paymaster as the officers Of the ward
room prepared for their after-dinner talk
well. do not know but do" answered
the first lieutenant. There are some ships
in the navy now-one especially, as you all
know-that do seem to be hoodooed. But
as 1t would be treason to mention them by
name, we won't. But no harm in speaking
about old-time unlucky ships.
There was the Chesapeake. She was
such an unlucky frigate that 1t was hard
work to get crew for her-and she was a
good ship, too.
"She began her career with that disgrace
full affair with the British frigate Leopard
Although England and the United States
were at peace. the Leopard held her up off
the coast poured broadsde after broadside
into her and finally took from her some
American sailors. claiming that they were
British subjects. And the Chesapeake was
in such condition that her preparation for
battle was SO bad that she offered scarcely
any resistance.
after that everything went wrong with
her, and Lawrence. when he was ordered to
go to Boston and take command of her, just
before her fight with the Shannon, was 50
Impressed with the fact that the ship was
hoodooed that he tried his best to get his
orders changed. When he sailed out to
fight the Shannon so short was he Of men
that he had to impress men on the dock
just before sailing, and the disastrous out
come of that battle off Boston is matter
of history.
Although the Chesapeake was in such
good condition when the British captured
her that they easly.took her into port, and
although when they had fixed her up she
was one Of the finest frigates af1oat, she
was all the time getting into trouble, until
the British admiralty finally declined to
n nd Sn1d S1,nr 70
Hampshire miller, who broke her up and
made a windmill of her Whether he pros
pered after that or not do not know, but
I should not be at all surprised If investi-
year. s..'.r
Good Suggestive Name.
Then there was the Wasp.
1.-THE first Wasp was an eight-gun
schooner purchased at the outbreak of the
revolution-a merchant schooner made over
into a man-of-war She was not practically
suited for the work, and, after a short
career of no especial brillancy, was drop
ped from the navy list. Somehow things
had never seemed to go right with her
while she was playing man-of-war. But the
name was too good a one-too suggestive q
one-to be lost, and, when the war of 1912
broke out we find that the United States
had another Wasp, this time an eighteen
gun sloop of war. And will explain to my
civilian friend over there that sloop of
war, paradoxical as it may seem, is by no
means sloop. A sloop of war is. in gen.
eral terms, under the old classification Of
the navy, a man-ef-war carrying all her
guns on one deck, and not only could be
but frequently was full-rigged ship. The
old sloops Of war Of the beginning of the
last century used to carry anywhere from
eighteen to thirty guns and were to the old
navy what the second-class cruiser is to the
navy Of today
well. the sloop-of-war Wasp, when the
second war with England broke out, was in
European waters. She at once returned to
the United States. refitted and started on a
cruise after the enemy's merchant fleets
coming up from the West Indies Soon
after leaving port she ran into a hurricane
and lost her jib-boom and two men on It,
But her bad luck let up bit. and she cap
tured the British corvette Frolic after a
brilliant action.
But the luck of the Wasp was only lift
ing her up little to cast her down harder
Scarcely had she taken possession of her
prize when down came the British line-of-
battle ship Poictiers and took victor and
vanquished into her possession. A prize
crew Of Britishers took the Wasp to Eng
land, where they refitted her and took her
into the British navy.
Elm 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 has come no tidings Of her fate. She
sailed away stanch tuat and trim. we'll
found and seaworthy as American and Brit
ish skill could make her. No hostile shin
sank 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.
Rugged Out a New Wasp.
Meantime. the United States had built
no Wac nd oh fbo
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. H. 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,
Capt. Blakely, who commanded the Wasp
put into LOrient, 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 British force.
..Then she went on down the seas, captlfr-
ing merchantmen, some of which she burned
and some of which she sent back with prize
crews to the United States.
ION October o. 1914, the Wasp was spoken
by the Swedish bark Adonis being then in
latitude 1885 north, longitude 80 10 west or
we'll to the westward of the Cape de Verde
Islands. After speaking the bark and TAX
ing 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 clue
to her fate. In fact. she vanished as COM
pletely and as mysteriously from the face
Of the waters as did the other Wasp.
'"That these two vessels should at the
same time have met a similar fate-and
such fate-is one of those condolences to
be impressed with which man does not
have to be very superstitious. There is
fascination in letting gruesome fancy
range and picture these two Wasps meet
ing somewhere on a lonely sea-those two
alone-and fighting each other until no
vestige of either remained to tell the tale.
Or, perhaps, some other strange fate over
took them, and, perhaps, caught in the
endless eddies of the Sargasso sea, those
two Wasps are even now floating side by
side, from the gaff of one dropping the
moldering shreds of the red cross of Eng
land and from the other few shreds of
what was once the stars and stripes"
VERY pretty idea." said the paymaster,
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," retorted
the first lieutenant, would it not have been
likely that some bit Of wreckage. some