Naronic had no wireless telegraph with which to send a distress call (it would be another five years before the Marconi Company opened their factory that produced the system the used to send her distress signals), so whatever problem she encountered, her crew was on their own. In the event of damage or shipwreck in the open sea, they could only count on luck, that is to say, the passage of a nearby ship. The crossing of Naronic was supposed to last ten days, and no one was worried immediately, especially since delays were frequent. It was common for ships to lose a propeller or their machinery to break down. What was more, the strong storms which raged in February 1893 slowed down several ships. It took several weeks for the concern to begin to emerge in the US, but the White Star Line was then reassuring, recalling the high quality of the ship. On 1 March, the company said there was no cause for concern. A week later, a journalist reported new comments from the company: “They think she's afloat and have every reason to hope she's safe. They stress that the ship is recent, built with watertight compartments, well equipped, handled and commanded by the best officers in the Atlantic”. It was not until the following 13 March that the company declared: "There is now great concern about the ship". Steps were taken to locate Naronic. On 14 March the arrived in New York. The additional lookouts, which had been posted during the crossing to discover traces of the missing ship, saw nothing. The next day, the captain of the arrived in Queenstown, County Cork, Ireland, declaring that he had diverted his route south in the hope of finding Naronic, but to no avail. Having had, moreover, confirmation that the ship was not in the Azores, the White Star Line resigned itself to declaring on 15 March: "We still hope that it can be safe, but it is unlikely that it will be found, because the Atlantic is crisscrossed by steamers and sailboats, and it would certainly have been spotted if it had still been afloat". Rumours began to circulate in the press, according to which the ship was carrying hundreds of emigrants, which the company quickly denied. The most optimistic note was that if the ship was adrift, the passengers would have had, thanks to the cargo,