THE GLOBE. SATURDAY, APRIL 30, 1881. THE LOSS OF THE TARARUA.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2238, 30 April 1881, Page 2

THE GLOBE. SATURDAY, APRIL 30, 1881. THE LOSS OF THE TARARUA.

The dreadful catastrophe which has happened at the Tois-Tois by the wreck of the s.s.Tararua on theWaipapa orOtara Reef will send a thrill of sympathetic grief through the community. To such as have relations or friends among those who have been so swiftly hurried to their last account, nothing, we fear, can ha said that can in any way mitigate their grief. The blow to them will be all the harder to bear because it is so sudden. The amount of danger now attending a sea voyage is looked npon as almost infinitesimal. For years, no wreck of a steamer, involving anything like such a loss of life, has occurred on this coast. Many years ago the “ City of Dunedin ” disappeared utterly ; and many years, again, before that, H.M.S. “ Orpheus ” was lost, with nearly all hands, on Manukan Bar; and again, the Tauranga was lost, with all hands, in the North. A considerable number of steamers have indeed been wrecked since these occurrences, but the loss of life has been in most instances nil, or at the most very small. But in the present case there is a steamer running on our most frequented route, filled with passengers, and going to pieces within sight of a crowd of people on shore, who are totally unable to afford the slightest assistance. Women and children have been washed into the sea without any possibility of rescue. Night seems to have closed on the scene with the terrors of the situation still undiminished. The bare facts as narrated in to-day’s telegrams will give a better idea of the terrible calamity than can any word painting, however effective. It is one of those cases where the solemnity and tragic nature of the catastrophe renders any remark almost an impertinence.

Turning from the results of the accident to its causes as narrated so far, it appears that the vessel struck in a fog, and that the captain and chief mate were below at the time. The searching enquiry that will he sure to take place will no doubt show why, when so close in land and when a fog rendered navigation particularly dangerous, one of the two persona principally responsible for the safety of the ship and the lives of the passengers was not on deck. Without in any way wishing to bo prejudiced, it does seem somewhat extraordinary, that in such a very dangerous state of affairs, neither of the two principal officers should be at their posts, more particularly when, in all probability, the vessel was keeping up her regulation rate of speed to perform her passage within tho regulation time. At the same time it may be doubted whether sufficient allowance is made by tho various shipping companies for the hard work to bo done by tbo captain and first mate in harbour. Absolute physical exhaustion may, after much labour in port, compel tho two principal officers to take some rest, and tho vessel may thus be loft in tho hands of tho junior officers, many of whom are, as wo all know, mere boys. Captains, too, aro accustomed to hug tho shore, because sufficient allowance is not made for the accidents of weather which they may meet with. A fast passage is placed above the safety of the passengers.

Then again, as to the reef on which tho Tararua struck. Although a barque was wrecked on the reof four years ago, and tho Gothenburg has previously struck on it, it does not appear that any

special effort has boon made to mark its whereabouts. There is a light certainly at Dog Island, the maximum radius of which appears to include the said roof, but its benefit, as far as regards the roof, would only be felt in the clearest weather, and in a fog it would, of course, bo not of the slightest use. No boll-buoy has, as far as we have been able to find out, been attached to the reef. The expense of placing one would have boon but small, and, had there been such a buoy there, the present calamity might perhaps have been avoided.