Rensselaer Journal, Volume 10, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 March 1901 — WAS VNLVCKY SHIP. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

WAS VNLVCKY SHIP.

The sinking of the Rio de Janeiro was the most appalling disaster the Pacific coast has known for many years. Most of the bodies of the 120 or more victims are at the bottom of the sea and many of them may never be recovered. The water where the ship lies is deep and the current swift, and the dead with most of the wreckage probably will be carrried far out into the Pacific. The number of lives lost may never be known exactly, owing to the fact that the ship’s records were lost, and it is practically impossible to tell just how many Chinese were in the steerage. The Rio was an unlucky ship. Since 1890 she had several accidents. In August, 1890, she

was in collision with the British steamer Bombay and was severely damaged. This occurred in Hongkong harbor. In December, 1895, she went ashore at South Kagoshimo, Japan, and was so badly damaged that her cargo was discharged and the vessel docked for repairs. In March, 1896, the Rio started from Honolulu for Yokohama. Continuous heavy head weather was encountered, and when the Japanese coast was still 1,200 miles away it was found that there was only 250 tons of coal in the bunkers. The steamship was run back to Honolulu, but before she got there the

cabins and state rooms had been gutted in order to provide fuel for the furnaces. In May, 1899, she collided with an unknown Japanese steamer off Honomoko, Japan, but was not seriously damaged. During the past fifty years the Pacific Mail Steamship Company, owners of the ill-fated Rio de Janeiro, has lost nineteen of its fleet. The foundering of the Rio de Janeiro does not result in the greatest loss of life, as 200 of the 300 passengers on the Golden Gate were lost off the coast of Mexico in 1862, while 400 Chinese were lost in the wreck of the steamer Japan off the Chinese coast in the early seventies.