TRAGEDIES OF THE SEA.

NZ Truth, Issue 138, 8 February 1908, Page 8

TRAGEDIES OF THE SEA.

THE MERIDIAN STRIKES A REEF. Emigrant Brig Maria Collides with a 'Berg and Drowns 1 12 Persons. The Cranky Dalhousie Turns Turtle— Only One Survivor.

Poor souls, they perished; Had I been any god ol power, I • would Have sunk ' the sea within the earth. ■ ••* ..o£ e'er. .; It should the ..good ship so have '■•'■ swallowed, and ttfc© freighting, souls with her. .% —Shakespeare. "I' thinlt the -principal cause of the : losses of British ships," said f Captain iFitzroy; Who was being examined befbre a. committee of the Heuse of Commons,' "has been the neglect or incompetency of these m c»_ajn_nd of them.- It is Very rarely that any ves-sel-is lost except ia consequence of neglect".: or mismanagement. In-say-ling,, [neglecSt, . I mean "not attending sufficiently •to the p»sitio» «f the ship,./ to. heavinft the lead, ] to; ; taking all bfehoae precautions which" ought .to : be .taken, by a good seaman-anxious for /the; safety of .ids ship, and knowing how 4o take care of her.; and mr competency from not knowing how to make proper >* observations fpr ascer-? Ttaiiung the ship's place, and tibt being practical seamen acquainted with their duty, and/.not having had , ; SUFFICIENT EXPERIENCE either as: master- or:, rhates ;of mferchant ship's' to entitle them- to take under; their charge, k hot only the ship and cargo, but the lives of all who are embanked on. board." ■ A-td Captain F_tzroy spoke Irom {reaira of practical expedience. His evidence, tends to ■ show that, making a . fair amount of . allowance . for the number of .coffin-ships; that the insurance companies allow, tp put ta sea^ ignorance and. carelessness are" at the bottom pf almost -all maritime disasters. Of. course,, every shipwreck is credited to the. weather, and the canr stain and mates . are lauded to the slides .'as -heroes who. battled manfulr iy against perverse fortune until hat--ure «aye out. ■. But. usually it is drily a.. white lie told m charity of dead men.; ...-;-. i . . ..'■_■■ a ■■■■ *• . • Many shipwrecks serve, as warnings against a laxity of watch When approaching land. Such was the case ' With the Meridian^ wrecked oh. the i island of Amsterdam on August 24, j '3.853. The Meridian left G-ravesend'; for Australia on June 4, With' a ; crew •f 24, a large cargo of merchandise, and 84 passengers. It' : accounts be correct, there was something more than a laxity of look-out, for, a few hours before the wrecking, ih the Indian Ocean, the Meridian passed anr other vessel bound for Sydney, .and the captain, wishing to maintain his advantage, was induced to steer m 'such a way as to run too cl«se to lire island of Amsterdam. The WEATHER WAS BOISTEROUS, and the shock occurred when the crevir seemed, to have imagined the ship to be some miles distant from the is--land. On looking out, it was found that the. ship had struck on a reef, of rocks about a, quarter of a mile off the island, ' and shortly afterwards she was. driven from the reef upon the desolate shore of the island. At the first crash,, the stern-post and rudder .were washed away, admitting ttie'wa£er into the stern of the vessel. But this proved a source of - safety to the passengers, for many tons of "water poured into the. cabins tb-oiigfi"tbe broken skylights on deck, and this water, instead of drowning the persons who were cooped up- m the cabins, toxoid an exit through the fractured hull ,of the ship, The sec-ond-cabin passengeirs, who had scarcely, time to get out ol their berths— th? water suddenly rising between iieckg i ..up to their necks— were Jbrought into the eiiddy, where they passed a wretched night ot nine hours' duration. , About the xuiddip of the night the ship parted m; two, [the after part,, containing the pas- , _engers,.. being, separated Ifom the bow. As .soon as daylight appeared, St was. geen that the mainmas,t, had if alien so as !to form a bridge from the cuddy door to the shore, and allong this they scrambled Ho the island, whence all hands were rescued fey. a ffassing vessel. -' a ■ a - .-' a ANOTHER' SPECIAU CAUSE ' {61 shipwreck are the icebergs floating about the Southern Ocean and •jthe North Atlantic, and it is'difficult to. .see how a_iy -ship can avoid (these night • time, unless they heave to. On May 10, 1849, the brig Maria was. sailing from Limerict to .Canada, with a crew of 10 hands, and 111 emigjeants. • She seems to. have feeen am. old vessel, and was very probably unseaworthy, like too, many other emigrant ships .of that day. When about fifty miles? from thetcoas-t Df Newfoundland she ran into an iceberg with terrific force m the dark -• jof early morning. fter % was etove m, and the next minute • the sea was pouEirig into the hold, with (the Violence almost of a cataract. A piercing shriek was heard from below,'but it was oniy of a moment's duration, as the M&ria went down immediately. ■■ It -being the mate's watch, and all the passengers, asleep In their berths, he s with one seaman^ and a cabin-boy, succeeded m saving jtheir lives by one of the boats which floated from the wreck as she foundered. About twenty of the passengers managed to reach the deck just before the Maria went down, some of whom jumped on the ice, while iptbers clum* to the floating spars. Nine only, however v could be found, (together with two seamen and a l)oy, iwho had got on to the ice. Nothing iwas seen , of the master or the rest, of the crew ; titer all perished with ftKe remainder of the passengers. {Exposed m the boat to the most m» clement weather,' the survivors remained the -whole of the next day, until relieved- by a passing ship m the nick ot time. * V • Some of the calamities on shiphoard were attributed to a want of proportion m the build of the vessel. Such, tvns ,thc case m respect to the (D*lhoufii«, wrecked ofi! Bcichy Head | %. . • «^_a&__ .

lon October 18, 1853. The Dalhousie was a fine Indian teak-built ship, of i 800 tons, launched at Moulmein, British Burmah, m 1848. She became j one of j THE WHITE HORSE. LINE of Australian passenger ships. Hap- | pily, as matters turned put, the passengers on the intended voyage m i cfuestion were ' very few ih number ; J j hilt the freight waS- valuable and the ! crew consisted of 61 persons. A 1 tug towed the Dalhousie from London t© the Downs, where, after a brief shelter from a rough sea, she set. sail, and passed Dungeness on the way toward Beachy Head. About four o'clock, m. the morning, when the Beachy;, lighthouse appeared ahout eight or '■.'tea miles distant, the man at the wheel observed that the ship began to lurch deeply, giGing a long way over on her broadside, and being scarcely able to recover herself after a roll. Shortly afterwards the starboard quarter boat was carried away by a sea, and at about five o'clock the crew commenced throwing overboard water casks, sheep pens, and other, lumber. While this was going on, the ship gave a violent lurch to starboard, and a heavy sea at. the time going over her, washed vaway the long-boat. - The Dalhousie continued to lurch violently, and at half-past five she trolled -right over ; .• on her starboard beam, ends, ahd. remained m that position, with her masthead m the water, lying at the mercy of the sea, which'- then majde a clean breach over her, and ' Washed away the port 'quarter' boat. A great many, of the crew took: refuge m the main-top '? While Joseph Reedj-the seaman at the helm,-, and the ,only survivor of the catastrophe, -gp't outside the ship on the weather quarter gailery. To stand on deck Was, of course, impossible. ' .' Captain Butterw v orth, the commander of the vessel,- together with the chief and second mate, the cook, and some of- the crew, dragged through the nailery .window four' passengers. 'Reed apd another seaman succeeded m getting out of the water a young woman who had come out of one of : the poop cabins. They lashed her to ia snar, and placed her with the rest of her party on the gallery. Immediately afterwards : AN . ENORMOUS WAVE ; broke over the "ship, and washed off; .a man, his wife, and their four chil>dren, 'all of whom were drowned together. As it was evident that the ; ship could not remain afloat many minutes longer, Joseph Reed cut the 'lashings to which the young woman .had been ma_e fast, m order to aive her a chance for her life. But the x spar west adrift, the captain, one of the mates, and one or two seamen ; clung to it, and m a brief space of [time the whole were washed away '.and drowned." }'. At the time when the hapless Dal•housie actually went down, Reed was with the cook and the carpenter on the quarter, and a few oth,ea:s were holding on to different parts'•of the wreck. Ajj. the ship sank low- < >'er and' lower, Reed and the surgeon climbed one of the masts higher and higher until they reached the top, and when the top finally sank, Reed swam off to some planks near him. Hour after hour parsed. Reed was repeat- • edly washed off his plank, hut repeatedly ga-Jned his position again. He saw many vessels pass each way, but received no aid from tliem— he being am almost invisible speck upon the water. He saw his companions [drop off one by one from the floating [fragment's to which they had clung, j and sink I . TO RISE NO MORE. At length, ahout four o'clock m the! afternoon, he was observed, by the crew of a brig, who picked him up ;-and landed him safely at Dover. Reed believed that he was the only l living being who had escaped, the | wreck. He tfiad been ten hour's on his frail hit of wood, and had been Washed off at least a dozen times. There was much newspaper narrative at the time concerning the remarkable escape of -many persons who had taken their passages by the . Dalhousie, /but had preferred embarking at Plymouth, at. which port the .ship was to have called on her. way down the Channel. Oi course, she never reached it. Much indignation wan also expressed concerning the conduct of the crew . of a schooner, who, it was alleged, might have aided the unfortunate ship. IF SO MINDED. But these are matters apart from the question. Suffice it to say that, the catastirophe, m the opinion of nautical men, was caused by. the vessel being top heavy, and also cranky, trom the" stowage or shifting Of cargo. It was an opinion entertained : .t_at if Captain Buttnrworth had cijt away the masts while the ship remained on her beam ends both vessel and crew might perchance have been saved, since there does not appear to have been any rent m the hull below the water line.