About forty years ago the fine British barque _David G. Worth_,
commanded by Capt. Thomas Williams, and owned by the writer, James
Sprunt, sailed from Wilmington, N.C., with a full cargo of naval stores
bound for the United Kingdom. The owner had spent $10,000 for extensive
repairs in London on the previous voyage, and the ship was in every
respect staunch and strong and classed A1 Lloyd's and 3/3 II French
Veritas. The captain's wife accompanied him, and the crew numbered
sixteen.
From the day of her departure from Wilmington bound to Bristol up to
the present time, not a word, not a sign of her, has ever come to
light. As Mr. Joseph Horner said in _Lost Liners_:
"We only know she sailed away
"And ne'er was seen or heard of more."
"Lost absolutely, in the fullest and most awful sense of the term!
Swallowed up wholly, mysteriously, by the devouring sea! Such has
been the fate of many gallant ships; no single survivor to tell the
story; no boat or piece of wreckage, no bottle, not a sign or syllable
from the vasty deep to reveal the nature of the awful catastrophe
by which vessel, cargo, crew, and passengers were blotted out of
existence! There is a weirdness, an awful terror, in such mysterious
disappearances. They fill the imagination with horror, and cause mental
tension in the minds of relatives of the lost far harder to bear than
when the fate of a wrecked vessel is told by survivors. The sinking of
the _Royal Charter_, or of the _London_, or of the _Northfleet_, though
gruesome and harrowing, does not produce in the mind that sense of pain
which comes with the recollection of the fate of the _President_, or of
the _Pacific_, or of the _City of Boston_."
Continuing, Mr. Horner in _Chambers's Journal_ says: "The number of
vessels which have so mysteriously disappeared at sea that not a trace
of them or of their crew or passengers has ever been found is larger
than most people imagine. In the North Atlantic service alone, from the
year 1841, when the _President_ disappeared with 136 souls, to 1890,
when the _Thanemore_ of the Johnston Line, with 43 lives, never came
to port, there have been, inclusive of these, no fewer than 24 big
steamers absolutely and completely blotted out of human knowledge,
together with their crews and passengers, numbering in all 1,453. At a
very moderate estimate, the value of these vessels with their cargoes
could not have been less than £5,000,000. The sum of human agony
involved is terrible to contemplate. And every year vessels are posted
up as missing.
"The _President_, one of the earliest Atlantic liners, was the first
steamer to be lost and never heard of again. She sailed from New York
on the 11th of March, 1841, with 136 souls on board. She was a nearly
new vessel, having left the Mersey on her first voyage on the 17th
of July, 1840. The commander was Lieutenant Roberts, R.N., a man of
iron will and resource. He had taken the _Sirius_ on her first voyage
from Queenstown to New York in 1838 in eighteen and a half days. The
_Sirius_ was the first steamer owned by an English company which
crossed the Atlantic, and but for the determination of Lieutenant
Roberts the crew would not have proceeded; they became mutinous, and
said it was utter madness to go on in so small a craft. He insisted
and had resort to firearms, and so brought the little vessel to her
destination.
"After the loss of the _President_ in 1841, thirteen years elapsed in
which only one life was lost by the wreck of an Atlantic steamer.
It is a curious coincidence that, after the _President_ was lost and
never heard of, the next great loss of life, which occurred in 1854,
was also that of a vessel which disappeared without leaving a trace.
This was the _City of Glasgow_, which sailed with 480 souls on board.
The _Pacific_, of the Collins Line, left Liverpool on the 29th of June,
1856, and with her living freight of 240 was never more heard of. In
the year 1859 an Anchor liner, the _Tempest_, mysteriously disappeared
with 150 souls. The _City of Boston_ of the Inman Line, with 177
persons, was never heard of after leaving port on the 28th of January,
1870. A board stating that she was sinking was found in Cornwall on
February 11, 1870. The Allan liner _Huronian_ left Glasgow in February,
1902, for St. John's and disappeared. The British gunboat _Condor_
was lost in the Pacific in 1901. Besides these, the names of many
lesser-known vessels swell the long list of tragic disappearances.
"The White Star cattle steamer _Naronic_, with a crew of sixty hands
and seventeen cattlemen, was lost in February or March, 1893, while
on a voyage from Liverpool to New York. She was a month overdue
before very much anxiety was felt, as it was known that heavy weather
had been experienced in the Atlantic, and it was thought that she
might have broken down and was making for the Azores. A boat with the
name _Naronic_ on it was subsequently found half full of water and
abandoned. In this case the vessel was a new one, launched in May
of the previous year. She was built with bulkheads and all modern
improvements, was 460 feet long, and had engines of 3,000 horsepower.
Yet she disappeared, perhaps 1,500 miles from New York, that being the
location of the abandoned boat."
Probably the most mysterious disappearance of recent times is that
of the United States collier transport _Cyclops_, which sailed from
Barbados for Baltimore March 4, 1918, and has not been heard of
since. The official information respecting this important vessel is
fragmentary and disconnected. In December, 1917, she reached Bahia,
Brazil, and was ordered to take on a cargo of manganese at Rio de
Janeiro for the return voyage. The Navy Department exchanged several
messages regarding her cargo with the commander in chief of the Pacific
fleet, and, on February 7, the latter sent the following message
concerning damage to one of her engines:
"Starboard high pressure engine found to be damaged on board U.S.S.
_Cyclops_ during passage Bahia, Brazil, to Rio de Janeiro. Board of
investigation reports accident due to loosening of nuts on follower
ring studs, resulting in breaking of follower ring. Cylinder is broken
into two parts by plane of fracture passing from inboard upper edge
down and outboard at angle of about 45 degrees. Cylinder cover and
piston ring broken and piston rod bent just below piston, which is
damaged. So far as now determined, responsibility seems to be upon
engineer officer watch Lieut. L.J. Fingleton, who did not stop engines
nor report noise. Board recommends that new cylinder, piston rod and
piston, piston rings and follower be manufactured. That cylinder cover
be repaired by welding upon return United States. Repair of cylinder by
welding believed possible. Can not be made here. Engine compounded and
vessel will proceed thus when loaded."
She reached Barbados safely and began her voyage from there to
Baltimore. Being overdue, the Navy Department sent the following
message to the naval stations at Key West, Charleston, Guantanamo, Navy
Radio San Juan, and the U.S.S. _Albert_:
March 22, 1918.
"U.S.S. _Cyclops_ sailed from Barbados March 4 for Baltimore. Now about
ten days overdue. Endeavor communicate _Cyclops_ by radio and ascertain
location and condition."
The following day the Navy Department sent a similar message to the
commander of Squadron I, Patrol Force, Atlantic fleet. On March 24
the station at Charleston, S.C., reported that at intervals for
twenty-three hours messages by radio had been sent in an endeavor to
locate the _Cyclops_, but without success. Commander Belknap directed
that calls be continued, and on March 26 the Navy Department sent the
following message to the Governor of the Virgin Islands:
"U.S.S. _Cyclops_ sailed from Barbados March 4 for Baltimore. Has not
yet arrived. Have you any information regarding this vessel passing St.
Thomas?"