On 31 Jan 1880 HMS Atlanta, serving as a training ship, set sail from the Royal Naval Dockyard in Bermuda for Falmouth, England. It was presumed that she sank in a powerful storm which crossed her route a couple of weeks after she sailed. The search for evidence of her fate attracted worldwide attention, and the Admiralty received more than 150 telegrams and 200 personal calls from anxious friends and relatives after it was announced that the ship was missing, and possibly lost.

Philip Ernest Fisher (age 22) was presumed drowned.