The New York Times/1907/5/4/Twain and Yacht Disappear at Sea

TWAIN AND YACHT DISAPPEAR AT SEA

Humorist and Kanawha Missing from Hampton Roads.

H. H. ROGERS IS WORRIED

Sends Out an Alarm for His Boat and His Guest - No Record of Her Passing.

Special to The New York Times.

NORFOLK, May 3. - Mark Twain and the yacht Kanawha are missing. The services of the wireless station and the Weather Bureau at Cape Henry and Hatteras have been appealed to by H. H. Rogers to assist in locating the missing craft on which Mr. Clemens is a guest.

Last Monday Mr. Rogers and his son left the yacht and went to New York by rail. Mr. Clemens declined to make the railroad trip. The yacht was fogbound. For two days Mr. Clemens fretted and fumed, all alone on the vessel. On Wednesday afternoon the fog cleared for a few hours, the humorist went aboard, and the yacht disappeared from the Roads. It was reported that she went out of the Capes bound for New York. It is now denied that there is any official record of her passing out.

As there have been several severe storms in the section recently, Mr. Rogers is concerned about the safety of his vessel and its guest.

For two or three days following the opening of the Jamestown Exposition, Mark Twain was marooned off Old Point. On Tuesday he was moving around the Hotel Chamberlain, complaining that his fellow-travelers had gone away and that the fog off the capes had delayed the departure of the Kanawha.

"Here I am, all, all alone on H. H. Rogers's yacht anchored out there, and not a saint to look down in pity. Rogers has gone home, his son- Harry has gone, and the only remaining guest that came down to this Exposition opening says he is going back to New York tonight, but I cannot go.

Mr. Clemens then explained that in the face of the fog that had enveloped the capes for at least two days the yacht's navigator declined to risk the passage. The humorist himself then declared that the situation was rendered acute by his own peculiar brand of obstinacy. "I simply will not go back by train," he remarked.

"I declare that I feel like the 'Man Without a Country.' I pine for Fifth Avenue and the dear old coaches, to say nothing of the arch in Washington Square."