THE VICTORIA CATASTROPHE.

Southern Cross, Volume 1, Issue 16, 15 July 1893, Page 7

THE VICTORIA CATASTROPHE.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir,— Until the result of the official enquiry becomes public, theories as to how. the collision took place bad as well be. held over; hut there are many of the details, even now to hand, which are very suggestive. When the Gamperdown hacked water, at the order of the admiral, we are told that the compartments injured were immediately flooded, and in a few minutes the ship; capsized, “the screws revolving furiously in the air.” We are told that all hands were ordered on deck, and to jump overboard,' but we are also told that many perished in the attempt to remain on hoax’d, doing what they considered to be their duty. It is also a fact that about 400 men have been lost. It would therefore seem certain that when the great ship turtled, a great many men were still below. Now, what became of those men? Were they dx-owned ? Some of them, many of them most likely, but there may have been some, perhaps a good number’, who were not drowned, but remained alive in the air, imprisoned in the various compartments, as if in a gx-eat diring bell. The ship would x’each the bottom—eighty fathoms—in less than a minute, and with considerable violence, and it would therefore be possible fox’ men having them senses to fully realise what had happened. Those compartments which had any opening to the sea underneath would, at that depth, have the air contained in them compressed to about 200 pounds per square inch, and how long a man could respire such an atmosphere, if he could do so at all, is probably unknown. But there are compartments which could be closed on all sides, and if there were men in those, they would certainly live for some time, realising what had happened, and where they were, perhaps even with lights burning. It is appalling even to think of, but if it did occur, there are plenty of men who, even under such circumstancs, would make some sort of record of their experiences ; and if the Italian inventor, or any one else, raises the ship some strange revelations may be expected. —Yours etc., Geo. Mackie. Makarewa, July 11th, 1893.