Los Angeles herald., 1906-11-11

-. magnitude of its shipwrecks, the re-
SESsSAy cent disaster to the Italian liner Syro,
Carthagena Spain, with its 300
fatalities, having been preceded in January last
by the loss of the Valencia on Vancouver Island
in which 134 persisted, while the steamer Athos
vanished in February with her "A people in cross
ing to Europe, the British King foundered off Sa-
ble Island in March and carried % down with
her, and the Lunenburg went to pieces the
Magdalen Islands in April with loss of 20 or
more.
The number of lives lost in the Syrio disaster
makes it rank among the most tragic marine cat
astropes of modern times Its counterpart oc-
CURED in 1890 when the big immigrant trans
port Utopia, while moored at Gibraltar draaRed
her anchors and drifted at midnight upon the
ram OF the British warship Anson which pro-
lection stove in her whole side and she sank al
most instantly, carrying to bottom 500 souls de-
spite the efforts of the British squadron TO save
her people, In which efforts as many more were
rescued Scenes identical with those attending
the Syrlos affair were then chronicled and the
World grew SICK with horror at the gruesome
story of the terrible struggle for life which took
place on board ship where panic had stamped
ed her passengers and the inevitable difficulties
were doubled by the aimless movements of the
frightened mob
we are prone, however, to speedily forget the
frequency Of these horrors or the vessels involved
IN them, nor do we realize that desnite all +ba
ooasted improvements in the shipping world of
late years these gruesome incidents of ocean
travel are Just as numerous and as deadly as
ever. How many readers recall at first THOUGHT
that 1t was only in last November the English
Channel flyer Hida went to pieces on the rocks
outside Malo harbor and proved the daetr,,ction |
Of 12S souls, that only in August last did tbe
United States gunboat Bennington lose 60 lives
by the explosion OF her boiler at San Dieoo
California, or that only year before the Norge
spitted herself on Rockall Reef and the SlocuTn
proved holocaust in New York harbor. The
stranding of the Stella in the Solenf in 1900
the laundering of the Portland OF the Maine
coast IN 1898, and the tragedy of the Drummond
Castle near Ushant, in 1897, are FORGOTTEN save
by those given to the study of marine nroblems
and apart from the best-informed of these even
how many can tell the circumstances under which
the Acenas lost $40 in 1896 the Aberaater,,
proved the ruin of 314 in 1895. or the Nsrn.
chow went down with 500 in 1891
SOON FORGOTTEN.
Surprising, indeed, is the rapidity with which
sne Ieeonectioh OF the circumstances of a sea-
iaring horror involving as many lives as ,noi,n
battle fades from the mind of the AVERAGE ,,,ar
and save where some heroic incident canses tbe
wreck TO be enshrined in song and story as IL
that OF the Birkenhead, scarcely mariner of
To-Day, not TO speak of landsman can relate
N S9SSneiai particulars OF an ocean shinwrecls
OF the hrst magnitude that occurred n genera.
tion ago. The Syrio disaster will serve 10 70.
call two tragedies Of Similar character at that
period, the details of which emphasize the 1aet
that despite all our boasted progress and imnrove
ments IN marine equipment and ife-savino an.
plianees, the cost in human life Of h;a ,as. sp
senger carrier striking a rock today is as great
as il was in the time to which we now look bact
50 contemptuously 'A'''
The first Of these was the ocean Tn.r
Atlantic, one OF a fota of five sister.sbns hu,lt
by that company on its formation in 1Sf1 and
regarded as among the finest "greyhounds" .,
her day, being APO feet long and 300 tons burden
and making IL knots in speed On March %
1873, she left Liverpool, England, for New Yorl,
and meeting bad weather, was forced to make 70,
Halifax, Nova Scotia to replenish her coal bunk
ers With the captain asleep, an inadequate look
out maintained, no soundings taken, and a zen
eral ignorance Of her whereabouts prevaiiin,
among her officers and crew, she drove on th
rocks ten miles from that harbor at 315 A. M
on April /, and drowned 535 of her personnel
and when the gruesome newV reached Halifa
il was generally discredited BECAUSE the occasion
was Can Fools Day" though it was soon foun,
to be only too true She had 81 passengers, o
whom 30 only were saloon, and l41 crew,