The Patea Mail. Established 1875. MONDAY, DECEMBER 10, 1883. THE TRIUMPH DISASTER.

Patea Mail, Volume IX, Issue 1123, 10 December 1883, Page 2

The Patea Mail. Established 1875. MONDAY, DECEMBER 10, 1883. THE TRIUMPH DISASTER.

The steam line which Messrs Shaw, Savill & Co., intended as an opponent to the New Zealand Shipping Company, bids fair to assist instead of damage the local company. Two of Shaw, Savill & Co.’s steamers have now come out to New Zealand. Both made long passages compared with the time of the other line,. and their performance has been capped by the Triumph breaking her back on the rocks at Tiritiii. The accident is considered to be one of the most marvellous ever recorded, and cer tainly the circumstances are astounding. The Triumph sailed from Auckland for Wellington about eight o’clock at night; the pilot left the ship at nine and gave the captain his course which would lake the vessel about six miles clear of where she struck. Yet in a little over an hour after the pilot leaving, the Triumph was ashore at She appears to have run full tilt at tho light-

house and gat within a couple of hundred yards of it before coming upon the rock which has ended her career. To have got into this position she must have been steered at least six points off her course, and it seems incredible that such a mistake should not have been discovered by those on board and that top with a lighthouse staring them in the face, a silent but sure indicator that they were rushing headlong to destruction. How the accident came about is, we repeat, past comprehension. The night was clear and the weather fine ; a true course was given, and at the time it was given the steamer was a long way off danger. But in spite of all, the Triumph met with disaster. And it might have turned out very much worse. Fortunate it was, indeed, that the immigrants had been despatched South by one of the Union vessels; still more fortunate was it that the Triumph remained hard and fast on the rock, or there is no saying but what some of the 70 or 80 hands on board might have met with a watery grave. But although there has been no loss of life, the damage is serious enough, and is likely to give the direct steam service a bad name at Home. Let us hope that the New Zealand Company’s line will not suffer in consequence of the Triumph mishap. Their steamers, by the rapidity of their passages and their general management,, present a great contrast to the Shaw, Savill line, on behalf of which tremendous efforts have been made by the Agent-General, and some members in the Assembly. The subsidy business of last session was not altogether the correct thing, but we should think the local company will have but little difficulty in securing better recognition when.the House again meets. Their line is quite good enough, even for mail purposes. It would cost less to send mails by the Company’s vessels than it does by way of San Francisco. The time would be about the same, with the advantage that the money would bo kept in the country.