AROUND THE WORLD.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 46, 23 February 1929, Page 4

AROUND THE WORLD.

GOSSIP OF THE PORTS.

MISSING SHIPS

(By lf:e-fore-brace.)

The Dumber of ships engaged in the Cape Horn trade that went missing is enormous. To seamen of the old school this is easv of explanation, and those of us who navigated the old windjammers around that stormy corner were always on the lookout for something out of the ordinary in the way of weather. And it was not ouly. the weather we had to light against. If the passage of the Horn was being made in the late autumn months there was a factor which had always to be taken into consideration, and that factor was more dreaded by seamen than ali the gales aud blizzards that ever blew. Getting amongst the ice was the nightmare of seamen, and collisions with icebergs undoubtedly caused more ships to go missing than anything else. If one takes a list of the missing wool clippers homeward bound from Australian ports, or studies an underwriter's sheet of missing grain ships, it will be found that fully 7j per c-eut of them went missing during the months of April, May and June. It will also be found that many of them were lost in some way or other betveen the latitude of 50 south in the Atlantic and oO south in the Pacific. In the months mentioned, icebergs are certain to be met with between these parallels of latitude In ISO-) no less than eight well-found ships were posted missing at Lloyd's. The Glenburn fan old ship of the writer's) disappeared from human ken in the vicinity of the Horn. She was signalled by a Shaw, Suvill steamer near to the notorious cape, but from that day to this not a trace of her has ever been found. .Tin; well-known clipper Alcinous. the heroine of many an old-time wool iace. met her doom among the ice dining the same year, and with her weiit the Bay of Bengal, the Principality aud the Stanmore. These ships had ail been spoken in the vicinity of C'ape Horn. One ship, the Garsdale, had spoken the Alcinous. and a few days later she got among the ice, but luckily managed to get out safely. Unfortunately she ran into an exceptionally heavy gale and got dismasted. Putting back to the Falkland Islands, she sighted the Principality, which ship offered assistance; This was declined and this was the last news the world ever received of these two unfortunate ships. Nineteen on the Missing list, The, Cape Horn season of 1007 was even more disastrous than that of 1903. The famous American four-masted barque Shenandoah, bound from Baltimore to San Francisco, was posted missing when 253 days out. Nineteen other big sailers were on the same missing lift, all ci' them months overdue. Hope was revived in the hearts of all those interested in the missing ships on the arrival of the big Shenandoah at 'Melbourne. When off the Horu she met with fearful weather, was over a month among the ice, and after battling through gale after cale. •powerful ship and all, she was obliged to turn tail and waka her '\is-

sage by going East about. When 272 days out she put into Melbourne, leaking badly. She brought news of many a

the missing ships, and several o tte, .°l thsn ; mor .e or less damaged Zl arriving at various ports. But iv ■ them were {ated never to mak» * The Falklandbank (of the sam,H m £ as the Olivebank, which is now aS 7 ' " to r« u"i « ' Carnedd Llewellyn, the Toxtcth hkT ship to the Principality, which went ml? nig m 190-3), tno Arthur Sewell aL'" l ' Obrig. and the Bangalore had all hP" sighted off the Horn, and lift arriving ships had reported enormous fields m the high latitudes, it was n» sumcd that colliding with iccbers w. the cause of their loss. 0

It was during this vear tint n. Inverness had the stranse cOTeriei!'! which is still talked about bv old-th-io seamen. Alter being posted as missinshe turned up at the Falkland Mam?; partially dismasted and with the W almost, all of her sails. After beine'van' quished by the Horn, her captain her back to the Falkland* and tor shelter uuder the lee of some of th outlying islands. Here all hands !a„£ and whilst they were ashore a c a | va ;' tug from Port Stanley arrived on tho scene, ami. finding the ship deserted nut his rope aboard and towed the InveinU into the port. For this pine of ,retaking into consideration that the .bin was anchored in a very unsafe the lucky tug skipper was awarded £30i-i salvage money.

Graves on the Beach. Towards the end of lOC'S, rumours of shipwrecked seamen were ever beiu" received at- Punta Arenas; in the Magellan Straits, and several search slnps were sent out. but no trace of castaways were found. In June, when the days were at their shortest in those dismal regions, the Xew Zealand liner" Devon (victim of a Hun submarine dir' ing '-he war! reported large fires burnin'on one of the islands close to the Cane° These had evidently been lighted bv castaways, for the blaze * grew veiV extensive as the Devon drew closely into the land The weather was much loj rough to attempt a landing, and the Devon had to carry on and report the matter at Rio de Janeiro, her first port oc call. An expedition was immediately organised by the Chilean Government and after two months' delay, on acconut of the weather, a landing was made on the island. Considerable evidence was found that European seamen had been marooned there, but no living person; were found. Xo less than uTne latelv filled in graves were on the beach, and in a hut was found the emaciated remain* of a young lad. Who the deail were, and what ship they came from could not b» discovered. The expedition discovered .i party of Fuegian natives with a shin's boat. Unfortunately the. natives had scraped all the paint off the boat, and therefore no name could be seen on it. rbe natives informed the commander of the expedition that they found the boat ill Good Success Bay a few weeks before, and that it contained two dead seamen. Here was evidence of one of the niissia' ships, and despite the fact that the host and the clothing of the dead seamen were, taken to Valparaiso, nothing further could be discovered. UNCHANGING PRECISION FOR YEARS—"ROLEX" WATCHES. A sturdy "RoW on wrist or in pocKo: a dainty "Hole);'' wristlet model completing- the i-liarm of beautiful clo.iie;—no matter what "Rolex"' wstcii you choose, It Will civn you tiio exact time even arter years of constant use. Your jeweller carries u complete selection at papular prices ami win be proud lo show lira to you.— iAd.)