Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-06-30

no foresight can avoid And everyone of them
tells eery tale of ocean tragedy. Who can forget
his first glimpse of one of these ship wraiths sinister
and horrible, a battered hulk swinging this way
and that, with spintered mast stumps pointing
mutely to Heaven, while huge white capped seas
swept over and halt submerged the moss green
decks? The terror of the sea, with every seamans
hand against them, and all the maritime nations
devising for their destruction!
Not long since the well known Porto Rico liner
Ponce nine days overdue and Captain Hunt of
the Government photographic Office showed
fewer than nine of these spectral ships, painted in
red ink on the chart, and all cOnverglng into the
steamers course, inevitable fate. The hull of
six feet under water. Another Norwegian bark
the Wellington had all her sails set and not person
board, Careerng crafty in the track of trade
just another of the ships that make no haven. And
Atlantic ports alone furnished nearly twenty
such last year involving the loss of two hundred and
fftv-seven lives.
Now what has happened to these ships-well
found, well manned sailing frequented seas, and
that often enough IN fair weather! Sometimes their
story is known; but again their fate may be creepy
mystery, striking awe to the soul of every sailor.
A Gloomy Christmas
IT may be fire, in the of the big four-nasted
i Marpesia, Captain jensen, New York for Cette in
Southeast France, naphtha laden On Christmas
day eleven of the starboard watch went below at
dawn-never to come up again; Tor the DO sn S pipe
suddenly drowned by a roaring explosion that
followed low rumble. The entire forward section
of the ship burst into furious flame as foremost,
decks and cargo shot one hundred and twenty feet
in air. Debris rained Kissing on the sea, as the
thunderous wall of flame swept aft. Pitifu streams
of water shot into that awful crater of blazing
naphtha. The men fought well, but at length
forced build plank extension thirty feet
the stern, where they retreated with smuggling hair
and blistered faces Here they crouched all night,
while the roaring hulk plunged on, lighting up the
for miles. Before dawn the Danish steamer
Gaia broke through the smoke wall; and as her
black nose cut the choking fog the tortured men
1eaped into the for safety leaving the Marpesa
to burn to the waters edge-and become a dangerous
derect of the
Against such danger the mariner is helpless.
Rocks betrayed by surf and soundngs; light
house beams, sirens and buoys all proclaim various
perils of the mariner; throbbng engines tell of
other ships proximity; and even the dread iceberg
is revealed by its CHASTITY radiance and sudden
frgdity of the air but the derect is not foreseen,
gives warning until it wounds vessel to its death.
What tragedies may not be attributed to these
creeping corpses of fire ships? And not minor
tragedies of banks and tranps, but the destruction
OF great liners-the big White Star Naronic for
instance.
1t is only a few years since this superb steamer of
five thousand tons left Liverpool with of
seventy-four under Captain Roberts, who had al
ready made half dozen trips in her and found her
grand ship She had cost six hundred thousand
dollars, and had ten water tight compartments.
But she was never or heard of again Just
dark mystery of the The underwriters at
Loyds shook their heads and murmured, Dere-
lets" and none but a seaman knows how deadly