The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1910-03-06
UNCLE SANS MISSING shifts
4 RECORD % MYSTERIES 81
THE SEA BEGIN ~ ITSO.

NEewMD ~ NINEEAIEN W
THE SEA BEGIN ~ I1SO.
lD,aappearAnera Recalled bS the Reeeat
case % the Tug Nsna-I.Sag WAITING
Ter News % vessels NeSeT Iseara
Frem-Legena - WssP'a last FIBht.
The recent disA ppaarsnce Of the naval
tuG Nina and her crew adds another to
the list Of naval vessels whose exact fate
has never been asosrtained
One OF the costliest CASES Of the kind
on record in the Navy Department was
that Of the ship Saratoga. eighteen guns.
Under command % Capt J. Young She
sailed away In ITeO snd no one knONs
Whst fate befell her and her Grew.
Even stronger was the story OF the
brig Pickering and the ship InsurRent.
In August. is0o. both veasels sailed out
TO aea. one from the Delaware River and
the other from Hampton Roads. each on
. long cruise The Pickering was hound
for 0uadalOupe station. Carried ninety
men. end was under the commend Of
Lieut. b HillSr After abe left the river
she was never AighA@d and no vsstige VI
wreckAgs from her was ever found.
The Insuraent carried SaO men and was
under the command Of Capt C. Fletcher.
Her sailing instructions were to cruise
between e. and 20 degrees west longitude
aud 90 far south a. - degrees north lati-
tude. She ives never heard from AGAIN.
u is supposed that both ve~seAs. with an
on board. foundered in the September
@ales of 1880
Then came che story Of the little brig
Hornet. which did valiant service in the
War Of isi:. The Hornet weighed anchor
Tor her last cruise on February 5. is2s.
asillnG out Of New York he rbor for PeDsa-
cola, where she arrived March T. Is7s. and
Immediately started on = cruise along the
Mexican coast
Early len November Commodore Elliott
reported that the hrig had probably been
dism&ntIed IN gale and the Z. =. =. Pea
cock was sent TO her relief On December
-. is3s the Peacock raised an anchor
with y forty fathom chain attached on
tho coast Of TamDico This was the only
supposed trace % the Hornet ever found
The vessel 10 entered in the navy records
as DESTROYED september 20 80. is2P.
The 0rampls iD command % Lieut.
Downes. staTted on a cruise early in istS
The vessel expected To reach Norfolk in
April. and Lieut. Do~Des wrote Ia his
wife In Massachusetts, t0 meet him az the
Virginia port between April and Is
AirS Downes arrived az the appointed
time aud waited waited for weeks.
months. ever eNpsctsnt. but with hopes
grow ina fainter each iav The GraRpus
never came She was last ssen by the
brig Howell ou March 10. az which time
- h. 49,
with which the families % those on hoard
this paragraph copied from Nil's's No
N'aai RSai .'sr Of June =
The rumor of the los~ 1t that fine ht-
tie vessel the Grampu Is. saws the
albany p, Hi~, .; ESH of Tuesday We
rejoice To believe. without foundation
Letters received in this city wv the friends
OF Lieut. GansevoOTt state that the GRAM
pus had starred on q long cruise and that
no news vas to ~ @Spectsd for sOT'e
months
II was nearly a year between The time
that the United Stat - sloOp OF war
I.evant disa opearesi forever and the Anal
realization that ship and crew had been
loSt. The Lsvant. which vas built IA
1851. sailed out Of Boston June =. 1854.
On October 10 she reached Valparaiso
and four days later hoistod thc Gag -
Commodore b Mont gom~rv In Sep
tsrni~r Of the following wear letter
from Commander W y Hunt. in com
mand said that ne would sail from
HiIo for Panama Ia ten OF twelve days.
He sailed out 81 HiIo on September ~
and nothing has been heard from ship or
crew since. Tn November - FLAG Ofiicer
Mont geometry reported from Panama that
. he had received a letter from Commanders
Hunt and Lockwood saying that the I.s-
want and the Cyane were or their way
To Panama On the last day Of January
the SAranac and the Wyoming were sent
out to search Tor the Issvant. which was
then iOS DAYS our from HiIo
The little ship Clipper had been dis
mantlei In severe galss which devastated
the coast in the vicinity Of Hilo. and u IL
supposed that the Iysvant Was lost during
the same hurricane. On June =. 1891
Consul Thomas Miller reported that a
mast had been washed ashore seventy
five miles north of Hilo and that u was sup
po@ed 10 have been the mainmast of the
levant Even then. however. hope was
not entirely abandoned for all the crew
and u was not until July a. lsai, that Con
arp-.a declared the lsevant had been lost
and flxed the date a. June N. issi. fully
nine months after the vessel probably
foundered.
u 10 explained at the Navy Department
that this great leeway In time is allowed
A. there are ~ many small islanda in the
Pacific where members II crew might
lind zustenance that II 10 advisable "a de-
lev the legal declaration % total loss 20
"a vessel n tho-e waters.
Iu.~ct names seem Ia he hOodoo with
the navy. for a. a companion story To
the loss 81 the Hornet 10 the mystery sur
rounding the disa ppearance 81 the Wasp
with her eighteen guns and complement
oT lao men. The Wasp. under the com
mand % Master ComUlandsnt Johnston
Blakely, was lost with all ON hoard in
lsII There 10 seill uncertainty ~ 10 ia
fate. some maintaining that the little
vessel went down In a gale. others that
she was sunk during a night engagement
with British fTigate and others that she
was run under in q squaIl.
In connection with the discussion which
arose following the disappearance Of the
Wasp this editorial comment taken from
the Norfolk B-arOR % December. 1915. 10
r