WRECKED OR MISSING.

Patea Mail, 23 October 1880, Page 4

WRECKED OR MISSING.

THIRTY years’ LIST OF DISASTERS. No fewer than (!2 steamers have been wrecked on tho Now Zealand coast since 1857—in 23 years, tho value of the vessels alone which were destroyed being estimated, at a very moderate compntatation, as more than half a million sterling ! It is noteworthy that in proportion to the number of steamers trading in our waters, the proportion of those wrecked is far smaller than formerly. But there is another list to which attaches a still more weird and dreadful interest, that of 77 vessels belonging to or trading with this colony which have gone to sea and have never more been seen or beard of. It is indeed most mournful to think that within this comparatively brief period and with our comparatively small trading fleet, as many as 77 vessels and 844 fellow creatures should thus have silently passed away, to be no more seen of men. For it must be borne in mind that this list does not include all the shipwrecks, but only those which arc inferred from the total disappearance for ever of the vessels and those on board. What can be the cause of these mysterious disappearances ? Probably some clue may bo afforded by the third list, which comprises the vessels known to have capsized —“ turned turtle,” as tho saying is—through their ballast shifting, or through lack of insufficient ballast, or through being overmasted. No fewer than 29 arc actually known to have been lost in this way, and to these causes may be added over loading and improper stowage —especially of ballast.— Post ,