How likely was it (in the 19th century) for an ocean liner to simply disappear?

A new Netflix release (1899) opens with the mysterious disappearance of The Prometheus, an Atlantic ocean liner, with over a thousand people on board. At first, I found this quite unlikely, but then I wondered, what if there were no other ships within broadcast range of The Titanic to pick up the survivors? Could its disappearance have become a complete mystery? How likely that would that have been? Maritime history is full of disappearances but to my knowledge I can't think of a case of a ship so large and modern just disappearing. I'd love to hear people's thoughts on this.

P.S. For those of you that are unsure, I'm NOT asking about the accuracy of the series. I'm asking about the history of ships disappearing without a trace.