The Globe. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 1, 1876.

Globe, Volume V, Issue 531, 1 March 1876, Page 2

The Globe. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 1, 1876.

The mystery attaching to the loss of the ship Strathmore when on her voyage from England to Otago, is at last cleared up. The unfortunate vessel, it appears, was wrecked on one of the Crozet Islands in July last. The islands in question constitute a small group situated in latitude 47deg South. They are reported to be sterile, and the climate is not calculated to make a residence in them agreeable. The islands lie in the track of outward bound vessels, when they are running down their Easting from the Cape of Good Hope, but they are rarely seen, as Captains in general pass to the northward of them. They are occasionally visited by whaling craft, and it is fortunate for the rescued survivors that one Jof these periodical calls wai made by the Phoenix. The horrors of a residence of six months on such shores as those of the Crozet Islands, with the hope of relief from a friendly vessel growing fainter day by day, must have been almost insupportable, and the privations experienced by the whole party, which would fall with double force upon the female portion of the survivors, must have been great indeed.

The telegraphic information with regard to their rescue is scanty at present, but no doubt we shall know full particulars in a few days. Of the twenty persons rescued by the American whaling ship, the names of only five are given, leaving fifteen to be accounted for. This is one of the cases in which the usefulness of the cable just completed cannot be overestimated. By this time, no doubt, messages have been flashed to Bombay to ascertain the names of all the survivors of the ill fated ship, and in some cases the anxiety of friends and relations of passengers is at an end with regard to those in whom they are interested. The Government will, we should imagine, take steps to obtain the necessary information as to who have been rescued from the Crozets, as the cost of telegraphic messages to Bombay is not within the reach of everyone. Anything is better, to those who had friends or relations on board the Strathmore, than the state of “ hope deferred.” The sickening anxiety with which they will wait until the fifteen names still unknown are published can be imagined even by those who knew no one on board the vessel. The time that has elapsed since the ship was finally given up for lost, and all hope of anyone being saved abandoned, renders the revival of such hope exquisitely painful to those interested. Those that have been mourned for as dead are, perhaps, alive, while some persons will be buoying themselves up with the idea that their friends are saved, only to be more bitterly disappointed than ever when the names of the actual survivors a”e furnished. Under these circumstances we hope that a very short time will elapse before we are in possession of full particulars of the catastrophe, and the rescue.