The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-06-03
SHIPS THAT MEYER CAME BACK
SIXTY VESSELS DISAPPEAR AN
NUALLY AND LEAVE NO TRACE.

During the Last Fifty Years 10 200 Souls
Have Been Lost on These ships-some
or the stories That Are RetOld on
stormy NiEhts-,One Crew OF Dead Mep.
When the northeasters sweep out 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 a gone to sea
and have neither come back nor left even
a trace Of their fate.
or all these stories, says the Bosom Herald,
there Is none more CHASTITY than that OF
the Pioneer, which sailed from a Fran
cisco in 1890 for the Boring Sea. From
the time she sailed, she was never sighted,
nor was q 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 wander
ing about all day, came upon the hunk 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,
IDOuRu tDt snip a DCCh W idShCN VIA
the timbers trembled under their feet.
They pried open the hatchway and peered
into the dark depths. They shouted down
the ladder, but a feeble echo was the only
answer.
Mastering up courage, they descended,
and, making their way into the hold, stood
aphast at what they cav in one of the cab
ms. 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 determine, for even
as they looked the ship began to quake
1t was as though she resented this prying
into her secret. and the strangers, fearing
she might turn over, hurried from the cab
In and scrambled outside.
From a safe distance they watched her.
A mass OF ice crashed down toward her,
the iceberg settled upon its side, the derelict
tottered, and, after another small avalanche
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. Il
But when the whaler returned to port and
the men told of their weird adventure, 1t
was decided from the scant description
that this had been, in all probability, the
Pioneer. 1t will never be known to O GER
tainty, and for that reason the Pioneer
is registered with so many others as miss
ing; fate unknown
The fate Of many a good ship de fles 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
up; but all search failed to find a trace Of
the Nevrach or of the men who had stayed
by her,
One Of the most famous disappearances
at sea was that Of the City Of Glasgow. a
1900 ton ship which left port March /. 1854.
heard from since. Not a bit Of wreckage
from her has eyer been identified. Not q
soul OF the hundreds she carried is known
to have survived.
On January 20, 1870, the City OF Boston
sailed from Halifax for England with lel
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 a 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.
II was on May /, 1850. that the Lady
Nugent spread her sails at Madras, with
3s7 Of the T~wenty-ffth Madras Iight In
fantry on board, bound for Rsngoon. With
the ~regimentai band playilg, with the
friends Of the passengers 90 the shore