May 19, 1876
There seems to be good reason to fear that the
fishing schooner Saratoga of this port has gone down upon
Georges Bank, with all her crew. The Saratoga sailed from this
port five weeks ago last Wednesday, and nothing was heard from her until last week when
the Sch. Hattie B. West arrived from a Georges trip and reported
having picked up a boat, with davit attached, belonging to the missing vessel and having
seen other floating debris, indicating a recent wreck upon the Banks. These facts would
seem to indicate that the Saratoga was run down and sunk while
at anchor upon Georges, and there is a bare possibility that the crew may have been taken
off, or have been able to escape in the dories and found safety by being picked up by a
passing vessel.
The crew list of the missing vessel was as follows:
John McMillan, master, leaves
a widow and four children;
John Hiltz, leaves a widow and two children;
John D. Carter, leaves a widow and one child;
William Mackay, leaves a widow and five children;
Edward Maguire, leaves a widow;
Andrew J. Woodman, leaves a widow;
F. E. Lewis, Jr;
John Murphy;
Charles Richards
These nine names comprise the list of the crew
as far as is now known. The vessel has always carried a crew of twelve men, and it is
supposed that the captain shipped others at or about the time of sailing.
The Saratoga was a
handsome new vessel 74.96 tons, built at Essex last winter by the Messrs. Hobbs Brothers
for Mr. George Steele. She was valued with her outfits, at $10,000, and insured for $8000,
in the Gloucester Mutual Fishing Insurance Co. and $800 in the Gloucester Fire Insurance
Company.
The Saratoga is the
fifth Gloucester vessel lost this year, and the nine men named above make forty-seven in
all whose lives have already been lost in the Gloucester fisheries in 1876.
(The Fishernen's Own Book
adds the following two names to the crew list: Albert Walker, William B. Walker.) |
