The Kansas City sun. (Kansas City, Mo.) 1908-1924, 1914-01-31

and out of the way lest they impede the efforts of
the mariners engaged in attempting to save the
vessel. But the sea has lost nothing Of its
strength, its capriciousness or its malignancy, and
when the unexpected happens and the ship strikes
1t Is, unfortunately, too true that, however
staunchly built her skin, the attendant horrors
are seldom wanting or the resultant calamity less
direful than 1t was in olden days.
Almost all shipwrecks may be regarded in three
aspects-the pathetic, the heroic and the pictur-
esque. The cinematograph has not yet, so far as
we are aware, recorded the various phases of a
real shipwreck The great liner, teeming with
life, the microcosm of a big city; her people, ex-
pectant of a fine and favorable passage, confident
in the knowledge that those in charge are fully
competent, hopeful that everything possible has
been done for their comfort and security; then
the fog or darkness closing in, uncertainty, I'M
easiness, the crash, the grinding on the rock.
There follow the passionate sweep of the seas and
the complaining echo of the surf, accompanied,
perchance, by the raging of the wind and the
terrible blast of the ~rain-hlled tempest, Then
tragedy, too frequently in sight Of hundreds on
shore who would be willing helpers, but are able
to render little or no assistance. A few hours
later and a rattle Of ~wreckage on the storm-strewn
beach is all that tells the fearful tale. Yet photog'
raphy can aid in the realization OF such events,
and, as the photographs reproduced with this ar
ticle show, can, more especially when the deserted
hulk is for a time preserved, indicate, If only in
adequately, the fury, the misery and the desolate-
q VI AHNASS
When fire is added to the other perils, then the
spectacle becomes magnificent In its horrors. De
scribing the burning of the Queen Charlotte, Of
40 guns, the flagship of Lord Keith, off Leghorn,
in March, 1900, a spectator tells how the ship be-
came e~nveloped in black clouds Of suffocating
smoke, from which here and there CLEANS of
lurid flame arose. Then the fire became more
vivid, rose higher and higher, grew brighter and
brighter, crept quietly, but surely, onward and
upward, enveloping the masts, the yards and all
the delicate tracery Of rigging and spars. The
boats on the booms, the quarterback, the poop in
one direction, and the forecastle, bowsprit and
masts in the other, were each in turn enwrapped
in flames, amid the pickering Of which the dark
bodies of the gallant officers and men stood out
distinctly as they attempted to smother the fire
with blankets and hammocks, or poured streams
of water upon the burning parts. In spite of their
almost superhuman efforts, the flames rolled on,
making the destruction of the ship inevitable,
while to add to the striking effect the guns, as
they became hot. exploded, threatening the ap-
proach of those who would have gone TO the sue
cur of the crew. At length the fire reached the
magazines, and the vessel blew up, sending a
dusty column of debris and wreckage high into
the air. All that was left unburnt Immediately
sunk down by the stern; but when the ponderous
contents of the hold had been washed away, the
ship was suddenly seen to emerge almost her