MISSING.

Western Star, Issue 2253, 4 November 1898, Page 5

MISSING.

SHIPS THAT HAVE DISAPPEARED FOR EVER. . Most of those who read these lines will remember the disappearance of the gunboat Wasp some seven or eight years ago. First there came the rumour that she was overdue, then the surmise that something must have gone wrong with tho macbinerj ; then the awful anxiety on the part of those who had brothers or husbands on board. But the end of that vessel was never written. Probably the swift hurricane of the Pacific overtook her ; she heele'd, and of a sudden went down straight as a lump of lead to the bottom of the ocean A few cries from the diowning men, somo terrible strivings and battliugs with the huge waves, and all was over. In the year 1370, the steamship the City of Boston, making a passage from New York to Liverpool, disappeared .in mid-Atlantic, and was no more h«-ard of. Not even a bottle with its last message reached the shore. Many weary days did those at home wait for the tidings that never came.

The insurance premiums rose and rose until you had to pay £9O for every £IOO insured. But even then the offices lost, since after three or four months there was uo daubt that the City of Boston had gone down.

In the year 1854 a large steamer, the City of Glasgow, was amongst the list of ships never heard of. It carried 480 souls, and probably capsized. Unhappily, one cannot think that the same quick fate overtook the Great Queensland. which left London for Melbourne in the year 1876. She was known to carry large quantities of gunpowder, and when she failed to arrive at her destination it was easy to imagine that fire Bud explosion had sent her to her doom. The same fate, too, must have overtaken the ship Cairo, which contained all manner of explosive goods, and which disappeared far out at sea with every soul ou board.

At one time the steamship Austria was put in this category of vessels utterly unheard of. But after many months of wailing a passenger was landed in Norway and he told the tale The passengers were sitting at their dinner oae evening when they heard the rapid working of the pumps. Soon came the order, " All on deck." At that time e, little smoke only was issuing from the fore-hatchway ; but quickly thi re was a resounding report, for the decks were burst open. The scene of agouy that followed beggara description ; some flung themselves into the sea; others climbed into the rigging, and thence fell into the roaring furnace below them. But a few escaped on planks and hen-coops.