LOSS OF THE EAGLE SPEED.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 7, Issue 341, 15 January 1866, Page 2

LOSS OF THE EAGLE SPEED.

Thr Times lias the following article on the wreck of the Eagle Speed, and tie terrible lose of life:— A catastrophe unparalleled for horror and fatality has been reported from Calcutta by the last mail. The chronicles, indeed, of such disas* ters, ooptous and appalling as they are, might be searched in vain for any such story as is how ru* latod. Wo hardly know how to designate tlx* occurrence. It would hare been a shipwreck if it had happened at sea cf on a stormy coast wit lip

out a chance of help, but the circumstances were not of that character. The scene rather resembled those executions during the French Beign of Terror, when a number of victims were floated down the Loire In a vessel built to sink at. a given moment with all on board. However, the public •hall be made acquanted with the facts, and judge for itself. Two months ago a cargo of Coolies, that is to say natives of India, was consigned from Calcutta to Demerara, so that the labor-market of the West Indies might be stocked by importatians from the East. The trade is a regular trade, and hot only, recognised, but placed under certain restrictions to prevent abuses which might otherwise prevail. On tiiis occasion the ship Eagle Speed embarked at port Canning no fewer than 497 of these emigrants of whom 300 were men, 93 women, 65 little children, end 39 infants actually in arms. We must beg the reader’s attention to the classification of the passengers, and to the proportion of poor creatures —almost twoflfths of the whole—who would be utterly helpless in an hour of peril. The ship was commanded ■by a Captain Brinsden, and she-had a crew of 26 ■officers ami men, exclusive of cooks and cabin-boys. Captain Hoskins, the port-master, went on board Himself to see her out of the estuary, and a Calcutta steamer, called the Lady Elgin, under the command of Captain Heath, was ordered to tow her down the river. On this voyage she started on a Sunday, the 20(h of August lust, ono of the regular piLts, named Tardy, having been placed in charge of her. The first day of her voyage saw her as far as Haliday’s Island, whore she anchored for the night. On Monday morning she proceeded on her way, but the wind was high and the sea rough and at length, at 4 o’clock in the afternoon, the towing rope broke, and the ship and steamer parted. This accident occurred within about a mile of the Mutluh Stands, and before afresh rope could be passsed from the steamer the ship drifted towards these sands, and there struck. In about half-an-liour, however, she got off, but she had sprung a leak on the sands, and had nearly two feet of water in her hold. A little later that evening the steamer’s engines got out of order, and so, about 9 o’clock p.m. on the second day of the voyage, the ship anchored again. Before day broke on Tuesdaj it was found that the water was gaining on her, and though the coolies had been kept at the pumps from the first the water gained still, till at length she signalled the steamer that she was sinking. At this time the steamer was close by. It was dark, but daylight was not far off ; a couple of hours at the utmost would have sufficed for passing ropes from the vessel to the other, and by ten o’clock at latest the ship and its living cargo might have back been again at Halliday’s Island. For an hour, however, the steamer did nothing. During this time the ship had launched three of her own boats, one under Captain Hoskins, another under the second officer, mid the third under the pilot. Captain Hoskins made five trips with his boat, and O'ascd only when disabled by sunstroke. The second officer’s boat was soon stove in, and so was the pilot’s. Still there was yet one fine boat on board the ship and three on board the steamer, and about four o’clock in the morning the steamer did put one of these down, though the utmost difficulty was found in getting the rescued crew of the ship to man it. The pilot actually refused to return to the ship at all, though he understood the language of the Coolies, and could have given directions and order . In the meantime, the se me on board the immigrant ship was t rrible. There was nobody there who could speak to the Coolies or give them any instructions or encouragement. The spirit room had been broken open, and the brandy broached. All the Europeans were taken off safely, but it is asserted that the last who left endeavoured to set the ship on fire. At length, about half-past twelve, when 160 Coolies had only been saved,the steamerartuallypushcrheadabout, and returned to Port Canning, leaving upwards of 300 of these poor creatures to their fate. It was a slow and shocking one. The ship lived all through the night, and up to 7 o’clock on Wednesday morning, settling down in the water by degrees. Some of the Coolies threw themselves off on hencoops or spars, and floated to the islands, where they became the prey of tigers. One little boy survived to tell how he was drifted to the jungle with another about as big as himself, and how he saw him in the jaws of an enormous tiger a minute afterward'. The stronger Coolies clambered up the rigging and postpon. d their fate for a few hours, but at last death overtook them all, and when steamers at length returned to the rescue three boys clinging to the top of a mast were all that could be seen of the ship and her crew. Others were picked up subsequently on the water or in the jungle, but when the tale was made up it was found that of the 497 Coolies 265 had perished, only 232 had been saved. Of course a sacrifice so frightful has provoked and inquiry, and we are rejoiced to see that public opinion in Calcutta has been shocked as •everely as it will be in England, 'fhere appears to have been something wrong at almost every point. The ships crew were never mustered before starting, or it would have been found that, out of the 26, twenty, either from sickness or intoxication, were unfit for duty. The second officer was drunk, the boatswain was drunk, and eeveral of the crew were drunk and continued drunk all through the night to the next day. The first officer was ill and off duty, and the captain, though on duty, was ailing too. In fact, he alleged as a reasou for getting to sea that he wished his men to get right again after their debauches on shore. Then the vessel, it is said, must have been unfit for the voyage, or she would never have sprung a leak on the Mutlah Sands. As to the behaviour of the people concerned, there is a chorus of indignation and censure. Captain Hoskins, who did his duty better than any man there declares t hat the ship might have been saved with every soul on board, and this is proved to be • sound opinion byihe fact that after the steamer had left, the Coolies, aided by one European, did launch the remaining ship’s boat and actually take this boat safe to port* The excuse made by the captain of the steamer is that he had Only one day’s coal bn board, but this supply would, surely have enabled him to taka the ship back to Hallidsy’s Island; and at any rate, on .the. first dis•every of tup danger all the tteimpr’* boats might

have been launched, each trip of which, we are told, might have saved fifty lives. As to the crew, their conduct seems to have been what might have been expected from their character and condition. It was only by bribery that they wore at last induced to go and bring off their own captain from the sinking vessel. Thus, in the light of day, in weather not dangerous, in a mere river channel, within four hours sail of a good anchorage, and with a steaming actually on the spot and in company, nearly 300 miserable creatures were left to drown. The wonder is, indeed, that even so many were rescued, for the steamer herself when the abandoned the wreck took away but 179, and the rest were picked up floating on the water or stranded among the tigers in the jungle. More lives have occasionally been sacrificed by overwhelming and insurmountable calamities, but never before, we suppose, was there a loss at once so heavy and so avoidable. The weight of responsibility will be apportioned by judicial decision ; but enough has been acknowledged to show that accident has entered less, and misconduct far more, than is usually the case into this deplorable history of disaster.