Democratic Sentinel, Volume 10, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 March 1886 — LOSS OF THE OREGON. [ARTICLE]

LOSS OF THE OREGON.

The Affair Shrouded in Mystery—Dark Hiu‘s that Dynamite Was Used. [New York telegram.] Rumors are afloat that the Oregon did not collide with a schooner at all, or any other craft, but thntt the holes were made in her by some powerful explosive. The Herald says in an editorial: There is a mystery about the details of the great calamity which it seems difficult to clear up. And the greatest mystery is that there should be any mystery at all. In another place the same paper publishes the following: Along the water-front, where maritime people most resort, explanations of the disaster take a mysterious turn. “What do I think of the collision?” asked a brown-faced man with the prefix of Captain to his name. “Only this—there S isn’t any. Why, what is there to show at a schooner or any other kind of a craft smashed into the Oregon? Who saw her? Not a soul, so far as I have heard. The first officer saw a light; some one else dreamed they saw some letters on a bow whisking past a cabin window. This is Simply bosh. I was close enough to the ocean myself at the hour of the disaster to know what kind of a night it was. I’ve rarely seen a clearer one. You could notice a vessel’s sails away off. She couldn’t come afoul of you without being under your eye for ever so long. I don’t think there was any schooner at all. It was either some obstruction of a nature no one has guessed, or else it was a torpedo, or dynamite,* or some other deviltry.”

THE SECRET OF THE OREGON. To the question: Could a schooner sink the Oregon? experienced seamen answer both yes and no. -One says it must have been a coaler without bowsprit or spars, because the Oregon was not scratched much above the water-line, and no spars were left floating by the mysterious vessel. One even goes so far as to suggest that it was the work of some submarine vessel of war similar to the “Nautilus” described by Jules Verne. So far about 140 of the 600 bags of mail have been recovered. Most of the remaining bags are on deck, and if the vessel is right side up it can be nearly all recovered by divers. Large sums of money and securities are known to have been in the registered pouches, and numerous inquiries have already been received at the Postoffice about it for bankers here and in other cities. The fact is, that the losers can recover nothing, as neither England nor the United States undertakes to insure registered matter. The Cunard Company is compromising as fast as it can with the immigrant passengers on the Oregon by sending them to their destinations. Many of the claims of cabin passengers are large and will not be settled so readily. Mrs. E. D. Morgan claims to have lost $30,000 worth of diamonds, and it is said her lawyers will base their case on the ground that the accident could not have happened except through negligence. The first officer of the steamer Dorset, of the Bristol Line, which arrived in port to-day, and three Sandy Hook pilots talked with, do not believe, after a careful perusal of the published accounts of the collision, that the Oregon was struck by a schooner.