THE OF THE THAMES.

Evening Star, Volume IX, Issue 2624, 15 July 1871, Page 3

THE OF THE THAMES.

A REVELATION. The writer of “Talk on ’Change” m the Australasian says I have heard more of Cant. M Donald of the Queen of the Lhames than has yet appeared in the public journals. After that tine vessel had arrived at Melbourne I was told by some of the passengers that the weaket point about the ship was her • nnmaudcr, and that petticoat( interference was not altogether unknown on board. 1 hinted something of the kind, and waa taken to task by some of the favored passengers on the voyage hither. There were stones abou. after that, of gross incivility to visitors who had gone on board at the instance of the steamer’s agents. Then there was the cap tain’s reluctance to comply with the poit regulation compelling him to carry a long boat. The final impression Capt. M ( l>onald leifc be* hind him in Melbourne was that his (go d lace uniform was the most brilliant thing about him. The conspicuous absence ol any mention of the captain’s name a l , that meeting of shipwrecked passengers, at which thanks were voted to his officers, seemed significant of something wrong Some letters have been received which shed a little light on this intentiona omission. Mr W. K. Thomson, of Jams.M‘Ewan and Co., has written that up to the time of the catastrophe the voyage had been a pleasure trip, but that when that occurred Captain M‘Donald quite lost his head, if ever He had any. Another passenger—Dr Ozannc, late of Launceston—is more explicit He states that Captain M‘Donald left the ship in the first boat, and did not return to her again ; that while the passengere were being landed he sat on a box on the beach drinking champagne, and that when his wife remonstrated with him for his neglect of duty, he which would have exposed him to the cm phatic rebuke of Duke Aranza. If tin writer were not a well-known and trustworthy gentleman, this sj-ory wcphl he inC’edible. ' AU the £8 singers who have {yrittep tft their friends in Melbourne te-tify to the unwearying exertions for the alleviation of their misfortunes by Mr Moore, representing the owners of the unfortunate Queen of the Thames,