The Gisborne Standard AND COOK COUNTY GAZETTE. Published every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday Morning. Saturday, Octodes 8, 1887. ENQUIRY INTO THE TASMANIA WRECK.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume I, Issue 51, 8 October 1887, Page 2

The Gisborne Standard AND COOK COUNTY GAZETTE. Published every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday Morning.

Saturday, Octodes 8, 1887. ENQUIRY INTO THE TASMANIA WRECK.

Be just and fear not; Let all the ends thou aim’st at be thy country’s. Thy God’s, and truth’s. ’

Our readers will no doubt remember the wreck of the P. and O. Co.’s 4,500 ton steamer the Tasmania off the coast of Corsica, and the cowardly conduct of the crew. On August 8 the Court of Enquiry gave their judgment, and state that “ more reckless navigation has seldom been brought to the notice of the Court.” Captain Perrin, unfortunately, is dead, and cannot be called on to account for the course he took, but it is stated that the primary responsibility for the disaster must be shared between Captain Perrin’s fatal desire to save a few miles and his second officer's flagrant heedlessness.

The wreck leaves a painful lesson on record for the benefit, it may be hoped, of future generations. Passing over the foolish act of the dead captain, what a disgraceful narrative is forced on us I Englishmen deserting their companions in the hour of danger! A vessel alone worth £1 20,000 is run on the rocks in the effort to save a few miles. When the vessel strikes, three of the boats, through accident or carelessness, are broken up, and then a shameful rush is made for the others. The fourth officer and carpenter were the foremost in the rush and refused to obey the captain, though the second and fourth officers behaved well. Had the third officer had a spark of manliness in him, after he got ashore another boatload might have been got on land. But no 1 where was the skulking cur ? —“ away for two hours attending the lady passengers up a hill” I It is only charitable to the sex to assume that the ladies did not know they were in company of one who would be a disgrace to the canine breed.

And the conduct of the carpenter, the stewards, and the passengers, whom the lifeboat had brought safely ashore, was even worse. They actually refused to help in putting the boat back in the water for a return voyage ! Is it possible to think of such heartless wretches as descended from human flesh.’ A man who, in the frenzy of the moment, killed his fellow-man, would hardly hope to escape hanging, but these villains who watch their companions in misfortune sinking into a’watery grave, and shrink from hold, ing forth the hand that might save them—who used brute force to get the boats, and then when the excitement is over refuse to give succour to their mates, escape any punishmen* whatever, except the censure of the Court!

Our telegrams gave a better face to the thing by making it appear that the deserters were all Lascars, but in the opinion of the Court these men were no worse than the others, and certainly not -as bad as might have been expected under the circumstances.

There were, happily, one or two individual exceptions to these dreadful charges, but in the words of the leading English newspaper, " many examples of heroism will be needed to take out of the memory the evil savour of this wretched tale of officers scampering irom’their ship and passengers, and of a set of Englishmen of all ranks turning their backs on their deserted companions in a shattered wreck, and withholding the least endeavor to succour them ”

It is only fair to add that the Court exonerated the Company from any blame.