Silva

Silva, April 1915.

The freighter Silva was lost (vanished?) on a journey from New York to the Netherlands Antilles. (Berlitz, Without a Trace, p. 23.)

CHARLESTON, SC, April 5. —

…

Capt. D.E. Archibald of the Clyde Line steamship Algonquin, which arrived yesterday morning from San Domingo, after having suffered much damage in the storm off Cape Hatteras, said that in his opinion the Royal Dutch Mail steamship Prins Maurits sank with all her passengers and crew in Saturday's gale.

…

Capt. Archibald said he did not think it had been possible for the four passengers or any of the crew of the Prins Maurits to escape in lifeboats because it would have been impossible to lower a boat in the storm and no small boat could have lived in the swirling seas if it had been launched.

…

Capt. Proctor said that he sighted the wreck of two small sailing vessels on Sunday afternoon about forty miles north of Diamond Shoals Lightship. Both vessels had been abandoned. ("Told by Wireless Prins Maurits Sank," The New York Times, April 6, 1915.)

Saturday was April 3. Unless I find a record that shows the Silva sailed after the storm blew over, I think it's very well possible, if not probable, that she perished in the same storm as the Prins Maurits.

Would be good to know what sort of ship the Silva was. As we have seen in the case of the freighter/schooner Bertha L. Basker, for Berlitz, freighter does not automatically mean steamer. If the Silva was another in Berlitz' endless series of schooners, she might very well have been one of the two small sailing vessels found abandoned.

BARNEGAT, NJ, April 11. — The British bark Invermay ran ashore at 1:30 o'clock this morning off the beach at Mantoloking, eight miles north of Barnegat…

Capt. Lawrence, who was driven forty miles off his course by the storm on Saturday night…

Her position is precarious, as a heavy storm began to blow tonight from the southeast.

…

("British Bark Ashore; Breeches Buoy Ready," The New York Times, April 12, 1915.)

Saturday was April 10. So if the Silva sailed later, she may have been hit by the storms on April 10 and 11.