OF HER FEARFUL FATE.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXVI, Issue 8538, 9 June 1899, Page 4

OF HER FEARFUL FATE.

Equally mysterious is the, case of the Atalanta. This famous training vessel was stationed off Bermuda with more than 250 souls aboard. Early in 1880 she set sail for a short cruise, and from that day to this she has never been heard of. A very considerable percentage of the vessels which disappear for ever in this mysterious manner, were running between England and America at the time. It might bo thought that the terrific seas of the vast .Atlantic were responsible, but it has been proved that many vessels were lost when the ocean was almost at dead calm. A sailing ship left New Orleans some y«ars"agb for London; Thrice she was spoken to and reported all well, and she was facing exquisite weather and smooth isea at' the. third time. Yet, it is known, she was lost with all hands within twenty- ' four hours, and to this day no trace of her has been ? 'discovered. In the early part of 1892 a five-masted barque, the Maria, a newly constructed vessel, and at that time the third largest

in the- mercantile marine, set sail in

beautiful weather, from one of the biggest ' ports in Cochui-Chiiia for Hamburg, with e\ery promise of a fair voyage. But she \ never" reached Germany. She vauished shortly aft«r being spoken to off the West Coast of Africa, and nothing has been found since to indicate the fate that befell her.