NEWS BY THE MAIL.

Globe, Volume IV, Issue 324, 26 June 1875, Page 3

NEWS BY THE MAIL.

THE LOSS OF THE SCHILLER.

We have already published all the details to hand of this sad disaster. The J\em York Herald of May 12th, has the following remarks on the subject:— We are first to consider what better provision can be made on dangerous coasts for the security of navigation and the rescue of people in cases of shipwreck. This question comes within the recognised duties which belong to governments, as is universally acknowledged by the erection and maintenance of lighthouses. This part of the problem, therefore, involves no new question of principle, It is merely a question whether a duty which all governments acknowledge to be incumbent on them in respect to their own coasts shall continue to be only half performed or be effectively discharged. Mere lighthouses would be sufficient for purposes of warning if the sea were never enveloped in fogs ; but no light has yet been invented of such penetrating power as to be of much use in a dense fog. The ill-fated Schiller was within a short distance of the Bishop’s Rock Lighthouse, and at the very moment she struck some persons on board were on the forecastle looking out for the Scilly lights—a striking proof of the small utility of light houses in thick weather. There is also a fog bell at Bishop’s Rock, but it was as useless as the light, for no sound of the bell reached the imperilled steamer. It must be possible to contrive a far better acoustic signal than any fog bell. The piercing shrillness of a very powerful steam whistle can be sent very far in every kind of weather, and one would suppose that an instrument of this kind might be contrived which steam of intensely high pressure would render airdible at immense distances. It is worth the study of inventors to produce an instrument which shall give forth sounds of the utmost sharpness, shrillness and penetrating force. The quality of the sound should be studied, as well as its power, with a view to distinguish it from the notes of all other steam whistles and prevent its being mistaken for those of steamships at sea. This object might be further promoted by a combination of sounds—say two whistles of different notes, to be blown in regular, measured succession; first alternately and then together. Their joint effect would penetrate to greater distances, and the intermediate separate notes would identify,the character of the signal. We suppose their sound might be sent five or ten times as far as that of a fog bell. This is, perhaps, the best that could be done by way of warning, and had there been such an appliance at Bishop’s Rock we presume the Schiller might have been saved. There should also be better provision for rescue from drowning in cases of wreck —that is to say, a means of conveying prompt intelligence of disasters to places from which boats could be despatched. The coroner’s jury on the Schiller calamity made one good suggestion on this point by coupling with their verdict a recommendation to establish a telegraph between Bishop’s Rock Lighthouse and the shore, expressing their opinion that if such communication had existed all on board the Schiller might have been saved. Other modes of signalling might be established, but they should be of so peculiar and distinctive a character that their meaning could not be mistaken. Aside from what Governments might do in this respect a new set of peculiar signals should be established by the ships themselves, so differing from all other signals that their character could not be misunderstood, Mr Dorrien Smith, of the Scilly Islands, wrote to the London Times that many lives were lost because the Schiller’s guns and rockets were thought to be ordinary signals of arrival, which have frequently caused false alarms, and were, therefore, disregarded. By the consent of mariners of all nations signals should be agreed on for ships in danger and distress, and Governments should make it a penal offence for officers to permit them to be used on any other occasion and impair their distinctive significance. Having touched on the points that occur to us in respect to which governments could make more efficient provisions for warning and rescue on dangerous and frequented

parts of their coasts, we proceed to consider the precautions which steamship companies should enforce on their officers We lay out of view for the present the danger of collisions in mid-ocean during periods of fog, for the adoption of steam lanes or separate paths for oit ward bound and returning ve sels would reduce this danger to a minimum, if not entirely remove it, if all steamers were required to move at a uniform speed of so many prescribed knots an hour in thick weather. The most appalling and constant danger is that of running upon a rocky coast in a dense, enveloping fog. We would not speak unkindly of an officer whom all the surviving passengers praise for having nobly tried to do his whole duty in the last extremity of danger ; but it is impossible to hold Captain Thomas blameless. He certainly knew that he was approaching the most dangerous part of the coast of England. Why else did he slacken his speed and run fhe Schiller at half her ordinary rate ? Why else were some of the passengers on the forecastle looking out for the Scilly lights at the very moment the Schiller struck? He could not but know, no capable commander could fail to know, when he had nearly traversed the breadth of the Atlantic. If he had known with absolute certainty that he was not a cable’s length out of his course his prudence could not be impeached; but no commander of a steamship could know that after four days of thick fog. Even if it were not doubtful how far the compass can be relied on in an iron ship, there is no certain means of estimating the imperceptible effect of currents in the ocean. In point of fact Captain Thomas was several miles out of his course without knowingit. But hedid not know that he had nearly crossed the Atlantic, did know that the coast he was approaching is dangerous, and he had no moral right, in his ignorance as to whether his ship had been deflected from her course, to imperil the lives of his passengers by advancing further so long as the fog continued. Even constant sounding (and it does not appear that there was any sounding at all) would not have insured safety unless he knew that he could approach land only by a shelving shore, and he cou'd not have known that in his total ignorance of his whereabouts. Had he headed his ship the other way and sailed slowly back and kept moving slowly back and forth for a distance of a few leagues, until the fog lifted, he would have pursued the only proper course that was open to him in his certainty that he had nearly crossed the ocean, and his uncertainty as to his distance from a dangerous coast, veiled from his eyes by a heavy fog. It is painful to criticise the dead, but the press owes a duty to the living. Still, the fault of Captain Thomas was less his own than that of the company which employed him. That company, like all the new companies, prides itself on quick passages, making them the means of bidding for the patronage of an impatu nt public. A long voyage is tedious, sea sickness is disagreeable, danger is despised by thoughtless ignorance, and the joint pressure of employers and pas sengers is not easily resisted by a commander whose place and popularity depend on the shortness of his trips and the punctuality of his arrivals. We hope the steamship companies will learn wisdom from the disasters which shock the world and shake confidence in their lines, and that they may give such instructions to their officers as will preclude future calamities like that which overtook the Schiller. It is noteworthy that the oldest line of transatlantic steamers—the Gunard—has never met with a loss, which is a pretty conclusive refutation of the idea that these shocking disasters are due to accident and not to mismanagement.