The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1912-04-16
Titanic Horror Recalls Great
Tragedies
THE LA B0URG0GNE WRECK
In Darkness and Fog Disaster Comes
Quickly-The Myster of the Port
lands Loss Never Solved-The
Slocum Disaster.

| Tn w IIItG - III iItNb anu lpilONo AiOoN
on the heels of the ramming of the
Olympic by the Hawke at Southampton
last June, and within a few years of
the Republic disaster in 1909. 1t bears
out the hoodoo which seems to hover
ever all steamers with names ending in
''ic" and is added TO the long list
OF the worlds disasters to British yes
sells
The accident emphasizes the fact that
in spite of wonderful achievements in
shipbuilding, in spite of the marvels
OF wireless telegraphy, in spite of the
speed with which the ocean can he ira
versed, the dangers of ocean sailing are
even to-day appallingly great and fire.
quent.
The Inflated Titanic made the proud
boast Of the stanchest possible hulls,
which cracked like egg shells before the
impact of an ice mountain of the deep
Five hundred miles from shore, even the
wireless equipment is but slender
! thread upon which the passengers may
place their hopes.
The most recent marine disaster in
the public mind and the first one in
which wireless telegraphy played an
important part was the Republic, which
was struck by the Florida near the en-
trance to Vineyard sound in January,
three years ago.
To the Boston mind, the wreck of
the steamer Portland probably stands
out with more viyidness than any 9TH
er, and in spite of the fact that the
mystery is still now years old, it is
undoubtedly the most discussed wreck
on record.
! Beyond the fact she foundered with
all on board, 1870 in all, not one clue to
| the cause has ever been found and
there is hardly a person who even to
this day doesn't recall the unfortunate
Portland when they go by boat from
Boston to Portland and wonder if a
similar fate awaits them.
The Portland left Boston in a snow
storm which developed into one Of the
most terrific gales that ever dashed the
coast She was old and built only for
fair weather, and it is supposed that
she was dashed TO pieces by the force
of the waves, not even spar or beam
ever being washed ashore.
Another awful wreck that hit Boston
hard was when the City of Columbus,
bound for Savannah, in December, 1884.
left the dock on Atlantic avenue carry
ing 800 persons, nearly all from Bos-
ton and the cities and towns in the
vicinity The night was clear and cold, |
vet almost without warning the coaster
struck a reef near Martha's Vineyard |
and 100 lives were lost.
The fatality was due to an awful |
blunder, for the vessel was three miles
OFF her course when she struck
Nothing more horrible ever happened |
on water than the burning of the Gen |
SIocum, reckoned from the loss of life |
alone. A pot of grease in the saloon |
kitchen was the small object that re-
duced the vessel to a mass of flames
and 1000 human lives to cinders.
Whether the catastrophe was due to
some colossal human blunder or wheth-
err it was unavoidable, was a question
that was never satisfactorily decided,
and the echoes of the controversy which |
followed still recur in court suits and
lihels.
The fire took place off the foot of One
Hundred and Thirty ninth street. New
York, in June, seven years ago. The
Slocum, one of the largest excursion
beats in New York harbor. was thronged
with more than l,400 Sunday school
exeursonists, bound for picnic on
Long Island sound.
As the flames leaped over the yes
sells rotten bulk the scenes of horror
ana pandemonum which ragged were in
Women and children fought
frantically for life preservers which
when secured, proved as useless as so
much tissue paper and those who did
not meet the horrible fate of being
burned to death sank in the murky
waters of the harbor never to rise again.
The year was not only fatal to the
American ship Portland, but also saw
the finish of the French La Bourgogne,
when $50 human souls met their end
The Burgogne was rammed and sunk
BY the steamship Cromartyshire off Sa-
bic island and the passengers didn't
even have chance to make fight for
their lives.
When the Norge was sunk at sea in
1904, $50 people were killed, and four
years ago the Prudential, on a voyage
to Argentina, disappeared with never
human being returning. In the same
year the George sank the Finance off
Sandy Hook, but its crew succeeded in
rcscuing all but four.
1t took a Henry Ward Beecher to
portray the memorable wreck of the
Arctic on the Grand Banks in the sum-
Der of 1854. Loaded with American
tourists returning from summer in
Europe, the Arctic then. like the Ii
-onic yesterday. the greyhound OF the I
Atlantic left Liverpool for New York. |
She was rammed by the iron propel- I
er steamer Vest and before she could I
again be located in the dense fog she :
rad settled and sunk, only few who /.
rad found places in the boats being , ,
saved OF those who left Liverpool i!
562 met an unmarked and watery
grave. '
The Arctic was also British ship. c
lust a few weeks before, another Brit q
sh steamship, the City Of Glasgow,
became the coffin of $50 passengers and s
ailors. '
Until the Slocum horror. the burning {
If the British immigrant steamship !
Austria in midocean in 1858 was con-
.:dered the high-water mark in ocean
lCrrors. Out of 53S who were so ex- '
,ectantly facing the new world. 81 half {
razed castaways We're picked up by
he French bark Maurice. !
Just what the dangers of the seas :.
ere even within 80 years ago can be !
.auged from the list which includes the =
imhria 400 lives lost; the Victoria.
90; the Royal Charter. 446; the Lady n