AROUND THE WORLD.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 40, 16 February 1929, Page 4

AROUND THE WORLD.

GOSSIP OF THE PORTS.

MISSING SHIPS. IBy LEE-FOIIE-BRACE.) When ships aic wrecked in collision, founder near a shore, or get smashed to pieces on the coast itself, tlieir fate is known. Many or few may be saved to tell the tale, pieces of the wreck may come ashore; and sorrowing friends at least know something of the fate of the lost crews. But there have been many ships which have disappeared from the world's ten leaving not the slightest trace behind. They started on their voyages "well found/' in good trim and ably manned. They may have been seen and "spoken'" on their ocean road; and then a dark unlifting cloud drops over them and hides them from the sight of all. They never come to port; days and weeks pass and they are overdue; and as the months go by they take their place in the long list of "missing ships"—the mysteries of the sea. Lost they certainly are, but how, and when, and where? Xo one knows, and it would only be conjecture on the part of the best informed seaman to offer a suggestion as to the fate of these missing ships.

What, we might ask, happened to the Knowsley Hall? Where is the Huronian and the Waratah? And the same questions might be asked about hundreds of others.

The Knowsley Hall was a well-known colonial clipper, of some seventeen hundred tons, which in the month of January, 1879, sailed from London bound for Lyttelton. Besides her crew of thirty-four she carried fifty-four passengers. From the hour she signalled her farewell message to Lloyd's

-iu-!.il station at the Lizard in the English Channel all trace of her was lost. Months ] tis.sorf -without news, then a ship, the Lang-tone, arriving at Auckland, reported thai when passing Amsterdam Island in the South Indian Ocean she had seen signal fire, burning ashore. Grax - e concern was felt for the Knowsley Hall as 6he had several influential people among her pas.seiv'i'-s and by request of the Government a vessel was dispatched from Capetown to make a search on the island. All that was found, however, was a number of newly-dug graves, signs of recent habitation, but nothing whatsoever to identify who the castaways might have been. A Royal Naval Mystery.

The disappearance of H.M.S. Atalanta is one of the great mysteries of the Royal Navy. She was built at Pembroke Dockyard in 1544, and christened the Juno, but later on received extensive alterations to her upper works and another name. Old sailors shook their heads at the changing of the name. It has long been a superstition among seamen that to change a ship's name is to ask for trouble, and it was certainly so in the Atalanta's case. After being converted she was used as a training ship for young seamen; and early in 1880 she was cruising among the West ludian Islands. On January 31 she left Bermuda with a complement of 284 bound for Portsmouth in England. That was the last ever heard of her, and although no less than thirty ships of the Royal Navy made a complete search of the Western Ocean, not a trace of her was found.

In naval circles it was thought that the Atalanta foundered in some sudden squall. She was not a popular ship in the service, for her character as a cranky ship was notorious. At an exhaustive inquiry, held long after hope of finding her had gone, it was proved that, although a good ship in many respects, she was "unstable at large angles of heel." That is to say, while she would right herself after rolling to a certain moderate angle from the perpendicular, beyond that angle she was likely to capsize. Not quite a pleasant ship in which to meet a sudden squall! In February, 1902, a big Allan liner, the Huronian, left Glasgow for America, and forthwith disappeared. In April two cruisers were dispatched in search of her. Every vessel that left America or England made zig-aag passages across the shipping lanes, and although search was kept up for six long weary months it was all in vain. News, indeed, came of her; but whether that news was authentic or not no one knows. Some months after her disappearance a bottle was picked up by a fisherman some miles off the Nova Scotian coast, and in it was this message: "The s.s. Huronian turned over in the Atlantic on a Sunday night. In a small boat, 14 of us."

Unfortunately in almost all cases of missing ships there are people unfeeling enough to concoct such messages, merely for the sake of creating a sensation, but in only a very few cases it could be proved that the messages were authentic.

The last case of a ship disappearine without trace happened in 1909. The Waratah was a nine thousand ton twinscrew steamer of the famous Blue Anchor Line. She was built to the highest specifications laid down by Lloyd's and not yet two years old. She was homeward bound, via the Cape of Good Hope, from Sydney, X.S.W., and called at Port Natal for coal on the 25th of July, and left the following day. She should have reached Capetown, about a thousand miles away, on the 29th. When that day and three more had passed surprise was felt, but not, at first, anxiety. There had been bad weather which might quite easily have delayed her. Her owners in London expressed tie fullest confidence that she would turn up in a few days. Her crew and passengers numbered over two hundred, and the ship and cargo were valued at over a million pounds. A week! went past, then a fortnight, and then l search was made for her. She had been scon by the s.s. Clan Macintvre on the day after she left Durban, and this was the last that was ever seen of her. Search was made all round the South African coast, and about six weeks later the steamer Wakefieid was chartered to make a thorough search of the high latitudes and the islands lying there. She was equipped with a large surf boat, and a lauding was made on all the Crozets and Kergulen Islands. Xo trace, not even a small piece ot wreckage was ever found of the unfortunate Waratah.

Rolling and Abrupt Recovery. The inquiry into the vessel's loss was watched with peat interest by the public tor very disquieting rumours had become current about her. It was persistentlv said that she was top-heavy and that she had a deck too many. Some passengers who had sailed in her on her maiden voyage declared that they would not care to voyage again in her. "She rolled/' thev said, "in ;l most alarming manner." \u important witness was a gentleman of unimpeachable veracity, who. travelling from Sydney to London, left her at Durban bavins decided to proceed no further in he ship He was part ly moved to take tins stop by two alarming dreams. In the ,}■ ist there appeared to him a man with a Wood-stained sword; in the second he distinctly saw the Waratah RO down. But He had more substantial reasons for 1 abandoning the voyage. He gave evidence! ot her constant rolling, and of the abrupt jerks by which she recovered an upright position—jerks which caused several passengers to have bad falls on the Waratah s decks. Evidence was also given bv a junior officer on the Clan Macintyre, the ship from which the Waratah had last been seen He watched the fated vessel with peculiar interest, for he knew several ot ber officers. He stated that she was moving with, ;• heavy li et to rtSboSt wind ° Ver a SailiDg yacht in a Btron « babTv Va tL JU i!- ed * y , Seamen , that most r>robabiv the \\aratah was lost in a preat I,d?V P /if Va,hng , ?? the Afri <™ coast on £ of d tt nl w r e R Sl n0 ~ time * (To be continued.)