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Lyttelton Times, Volume LVI, Issue 6494, 20 December 1881, Page 4

When a disaster happens, Englishmen, it has been said by somebody, immediately relieve their feelings by angrily asking whom can they bang. This is the feeling most appropriate to the sad disaster of Friday in Akaroa harbonr. The story is almost incredible. A man falls overboard, and, missing a life-buoy thrown to him, swims off towards the shore, or nowhere in particular. A boat is lowered; the men in her not finding any thole-pins make bat lumbering progress. Shore boats put oat, too, bat the unhappy swimmer gets tired before anybody can reach him, and is drowned. Such is the story. The first thing that strikes every thinking mind is that the miserable accident was preventiblo. What are boat® carried by steamers for ? We may as well at once remind the Union Company that they are carried, amongst other reasons, for saving life under the very circumstances which occurred on Friday evening at Akaroa. That being the case, we may farther remind the Company that in order to be of any use for the main purpose for which they are intended, boats must be ready for instant lowering. It is a stubborn fact, that if a boat is not ready for instant lowering, she is useless. She might as well be drawn op on a beach a thousand miles away. We do not know whether the Penguin had a boat ready for instant lowering; but wa do know that the boat which was lowered was not one of the steamer’s boats. It was, no doubt, very humane of the owners of that boat to lower her promptly for the purpose of saving life. But they were unprepared for any emergencies; and, as a natural consequence, they found themselves, at the supremely critical moment, without a very necessary portion of their gear. We understand it is the custom, when boats are carried up and down the coast in this way, to take all the gear out of them for fear of damage from the sea, stowing it on deck. The question arises why was the important Work of saving life left to amateurs, who were known to be in a condition of nnpreparedness for the work.. Ships, especially passenger ships, ought to be sufficiently well found and prepared to do their own work. The ship’s company should never give place to amateurs. If one of the Penguin’s boats, properly found in everything, bad been promptly lowered and despatched, that unfortunate man might not have lost hie life. Wan a boat, in the proper condition, ready F The question is very important to all who travel in passenger steamers. Another question is very important, especially in connection with pleasure trips by sea. We may as well at once say that information, which we believe to he excellent, has reached us to the effect that the unfortunate man Gunn was intoxicated when be mot with his death. That many seamen will get too much liquor whenever they get tho chance, is a fact too well known to require enlarging upon. Prudent captains, when they want the services of their men, taka precautions for diminishing tho chances of drunkenness. On a pleasure trip, when a vessel carries a great crowd of passengers, it is particularly necessary to keep tho ship’s company sober. It is more than probable that the passengers will not bo all sober by any means. If the crew get into the same condition, Heaven help the steamer that has to make a coasting trip of some hours after dark along on ironbound coast. It would bo interesting to know whether tho crew of tho Penguin wore allowed on shore during the regatta at Akaroa. or whether the man who lost bis life by drunkenness got supplied on board by injudicious passengers, a large proportion of whom are to bo found on every excursion trip. Tho matter ought to bo probed to tho bottom, in the interest of excursions by sea. Wo cannot forget that when vessels go out on pleasure trips, sobriety must bo rigorously enforced; otherwise pleasure trips will become some day the occasion of horrifying disaster.