Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1912-07-31
MYSTERIES OF THE DEEP.
Many Ships Have Been Swallowed
Up by the Ocean.

Lost absolutely, in the fullest and
most awful sense of the term! Swal-
lowed up wholly, mysteriously, by
the devouring sea! Such has been
the fate of many gallant ships; no
single survivor to tell the story; no
boat or piece of wreckage, no bottle,
not sign or syllable from the Vastly
deep to reveal the nature of the aw-
tul catastrophe by, which vessel, carr
go, crew and passengers were blotted
out of existence.. There lis lwierd-
ness, an awful terror in such myster-
ious disappearances. They fill the
| imagination with horror and cause
mental tension in the minds of relat
tives of the lost far harder to hear
than when the fate of the wrecked
vessel is told by the survivors. The
sinAing of the Royal Charter, or of
the London, or the Northfleet, though
grewsome and narrowing, does not
produce in the mind chat sense of
pain which comes in the recollection
of the fate of the President. or of the
Pacific, or the City of Boston.
The number of vessels which have
so mysteriously disappeared at sea
that not a trace of them or their
crew or passengers has ever been
found is larger than most people
imagine. In the north Atlantic SER
vice alone, from the year 1S41, when
the President disappeared with 1876
souls, to 1890, when the Thanemore
of the Johnson line, with forty-three
lives, never came to port, there have
been-incluSive of these-no fewer
than twenty-four big steamers abso-
lutely and totally blotted out of hui
man knowledge, together with their
crews and passengers, numbering. in
all 1,453. At very moderate esti-
mate the value of these vessels with
their cargOes could not have been
less than five million pounds. The
sum of human agony involved is ter
rible to contemplate. And every year
vessels are posted up as missing.
The President, one of the earliest
Atlantic liners, was the first steamer
to be lost and never heard OF again.
She sailed from New York on March
IL, 1871, with 1876 souls on board.
She was a nearly new vessel, having
left the Mersey on her first voyage
on July II, 1910. The commander
was Lieutenant Roberts, r. NJ, man
Of iron will and resource. He had
taken the Sirius on her first voyage
from Queenstown to New York i'm
1888 in eighteen and one. half days.
The Sirius was the first steamer own
ed by an English company which
crossed the Atlantic, and but for the
determination of Lieutenant Roberts
the crew would not have proceeded;
they became mutinous and said 1t
m dnacC in III
a craft. He insisted, and had to
resort to firearms, and so brought the
little vessel to her destination.
After the loss of the President in
1871, thirteen years elapsed in which
only one life was lost by the wreck
of an Atlantic steamer. 1t is a cur
ious coincidence, that, after the
President was lost and never heard
of. the next great loss of life, which
occurred in 1854, was also that of a
vessel which disappeared without
leaving a trace. This was the City
of Glasgow, which sailed with 480
souls on board. The Pacific of the
Collins line left Liverpool on June
20, 1856, and with her living freight
Of $50 souls was never more heard
of. In the year 1859 an Anchor lin
er, the Tempest, mysteriously disap-
peared with $50 souls. The City of
Boston, of the Inman line, with 10
persons, was never heard of after
leaving port on January 2S, 1870. A
board stating she was sinking was
found in Cornwall On February IL,
1870. The Allan liner Huronian left
Glasgow in February, 1902, for st.
Johns and disappeared. The British
gunboat, Condor, was lost in the
Pacific in 1901. Besides these, the
names of many lesser known vessels
swell the long list of tragic disap-
pearances, says Chambers Journal
The White Star cattle steamer,
Naronic, with crew of sixty hands