SHIPS THAT PASSED

New Zealand Times, Volume LIV, Issue 12660, 21 January 1927, Page 12

SHIPS THAT PASSED

MYSTERIES OF THE SEA mm BRITAIN WAS THRILLED AND SHOCKED MANY LIVES LOST There has just been published a fas-.-mating new book, '‘Strange Sea Mysteries, by Elliott O’Donnell, in which among other things the mysterious disappearance of ships at sea are recounted. More disappearances of this nature 'ccur than the landsman is inclined to > hink. As far back as 1870 the pas--onger • steamship City of Boston set >ut from Halifax, having aboard, in addition to her officers and crew, 199 pas(‘iigers. She sailed on January Bth, 870. ' Well found in every way, and one of ho finest steamships of her day, she was Tist. listed as “overdue,” with some light anxiety, hut no definite alarm. Hut day succeeded day, and no news ■ ame of her. By the end of February ,f that year she was given up as lost—inc] with that her story ends. What actually happened to her is and must always remain matter for conjecture. The vessel was in every way seaworthy, an up-to-date passenger liner; 'here was no question of her stability. No severe storms occurred during the normal period of licr voyage, and she vas not badly ballasted nor over-masted, 's has been the case with some missing resets. NO TRACE There were rumours that a ship like her, in a critical condition, had been seen making for the South American .-oast, but no definite confirmation of these stories could be obtained. They point to a possible sinister influence on hoard, through which the vessel went to her ultimate doom with nearly three hundred souls, but this explanation is not generally credited. No trace of wreckage was ever found, nor anything which might throw light nn the fate of those aboard her. She vanished, to become one of the mysteries of the sea. t , Ten years later Britain was thrilled and shocked by the disappearance of the Atalanta. a naval training ship that went on a cruise with over 300 souls aboard. She put into Bermuda at the end of January. 1880. and was expected hack at Spithend the first week in March. She left Bermuda on route for Kngland, and vanished from human fight for ever. A gale rased coon after she had left port, extending for many hundreds of miles over the Atlantic, but no fears were felt for such a stout ship as the Atlanta until she was long overdue. No trace of boats or wreckage was found to throw light on her fate; with more than three hundred men she sailed out into the unknown, and there remains for LOST WARSHIP Seven year** later fcL.M.S. Waso* the? i new type of gunboat carrying six guns, was sent out to Shanghai for duty in China waters, and reached the Malay Peninsula in September, 1887. From Singapore she sailed for Hongkong, a voyage estimated to take sixteen days. But when far more than the allotted rime had gone by other warships were .sent out in search of her, but all in vain. They searched the coasts of Cochin China and of China itself, but with no result. No typhoons or gales were recorded to account for the disappearance of the Wasp, and only a lot■er written homj by her commander inlioates any causes for her loss. T don’t care much for my command he wrote home to his mother). Things nay turn out hetter, but with the two officers I have to assist me, T am captain. first lieutenant, and navigator nil in one. Since leaving England I have never been in bed bofo«“ daylight at sea. T l *e Wes*) vanished, leaving no trace. LINER’S FATE A more modern case is that of the s.s Waratah, which, in the second decade of thie century vanished with her passengers and crew off the south coast of Africa, and was never heard of again. It was a disaster involving the loss of hundreds of lives, and for months hopes eventually heard of something being eventfully heard of the missing vessel. It was generally concluded that she turned turtle in encountering exceptionally heavy seas, and went to her doom with every soul on board. To this day nothing has ever been heard of her passengers or crew.