WRECK OF A CHANNEL STEAMER Disgraceful Behaviour of the Male Passengers. (FROM OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.)

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 206, 4 June 1887, Page 4

WRECK OF A CHANNEL STEAMER Disgraceful Behaviour of the Male Passengers. (FROM OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.)

London, April 20. The accident to the Channel steamer Victoria, which ran on the rocks off Dieppe in a fog early last Wednesday morning, seems to have been a most deplorable business. The night service to Paris via Newhaven and Dieppe is the cheapest available, and most o f the passengers by the Victoria (only 90 ltogether, fortunately) were middle-class French excursionists returning from an Easter jaunt to "perfidious Albion." Naturally, therefore, they were not the best sort of " Mossoos," and, when the catastrophe occurred, lost both their heads and their courage promptly. Nor do the English " 'Ames" present seem to have behaved much better. Fortunately, the captain and officers were good men and true,and kept cool, or every soul on board would certainly have gone to its account. A lady passenger supplies the following description of the wreck : " Every thing gave promise of a charming passage. The sea looked so lovely that I remained on deck for nearly an hour after we went out of Newhaven ; but the weather being bitterly cold and the wind freshening, 1 went to the second-class cabin, the first-clas3 one being rather crowded, and cases of sea-sickness numerous. When below I found myself close to a nun who was engaged in her devotions. When she had finished 1 ventured to get into conversation with her. I learned that she was English, and going to teach in a convent in Normandy. She seemed a little nervous, and I, to strengthen her courage, said that wrecks were unknown on the Dieppe line. An old lady here joined in the conversation, and said she rememboredawreck twenty-two years ago. It was caused by a steamer running on a rock just outside Dieppe harbour during a foggy morning. The name of the vessel was, she said, the Alexander Read. She was a cousin of the captain. After that I lay down, and was considerably shaken by the

increasing swell of fclv© sea, but managed to sleep for a few h6urs r and was awoke by a man coming round to ask for -tickets. I i then got up and went to- the other cabin for some parcels I had! left; there. As I was just descending the stairs I felt the ship go to smash, and was by the violence ot the shock thrown head forwards to the bottom. I suppose I should hare lain there like a log, for I was seriously hurfey had it not been for the sense of danger which was so keen that I bounded up and got on deck. The ship was, I could feel, lurching forward, and the deck was a steeply inclined plane towards the figurehead. Men, women, and children came rushing up. We wore in a thick fog, and unable to see beyond the ship. I could not see well the fore part. My friend „ the nun, joined me. I must say that the seanaen and the captain wero wonderfully cool, brave, and unselfish. But how describe the fearful cowardice of some of the passengers, or their hideous conduct as the boats were- being taken from the davits ! Everything was done so fast that my impressions are muddled. A strong pair of arms belonging to whom I do not know swung me into a boat. I had at first tried to get inlo the ono that sank, but a wretched, troublesome woman, the ono whose shawl caught in the tackle, so delayed tilings that my unknown saviour thrust me into the one which took me to land. I think after a certain point the rock must have kept the phip from utterly foundering. Some gentlemen fired revolvers hoping that they might be taken as tokens of distress. lam not aware that a gun to signal distress was fired. There were some men who acted like perfect savages in cutting the tackle of a boat to try to got it for themselves. It was an awful feeling being in the boat on a very rough sea and with a wind that began to howl. As we were putting off from the sinking Victoria the oarsmen pulled as if for their very lives to be quickly out of the voi-tcx of the vessel. Wo were quite in the dark when we got off from the lanterns of the ship, for though day was going to dawn, the fearful fog encompassed us. A seaman insi&tcd that we weie close to Dieppe, and that the best thing to do was to merely stand on our oars, for that we should soon see where we were, and be guided by the coast. Nevertheless, we were driven fast along, we knew not whither, for some time, and then when the fog cleared we found we were running parallel to the coast and getting on towards Fecamp. I wonder we ever got in there. The waves wore heavy and skittish. They often threatened us with immediate destruction. We were huddled so close together that nobody could turn round, and the boat seemed to me so heavily weighted and sunk in the water that I was in terror lest it should foundei*. Some of the ladies were too knocked up to mind what happened. We tried to .signal when we saw a lighthouse on a headland, but the handkerchiefs were too saturated to fly. I shall never furget how my heart bounded when we were taken in to Fecamp, to which port the news of the wreck had been telegraphed. The agony of those separated from relatives and in suspense about them was too poignantfor them to enjoy the feeling that they were themselves saved. When we all got to land the innkeeper and port authorities were very kind. I, like all myjeompanions, was drenched, and I began when life was safe to feel how badly I had been hurt. We had a whole family of Jees, a Mi&s Holt, a Miss Alice Roberts, a Mrs Temple, a Mrs Strathorn, and a Mrs Warlet, and Sister Euphemia. The others were foreigners The four sailors and steersmen were English."

NARRATIVE BY THE MATE. The second mate of the Victoria, Mr Joseph Pope, was mainly instrumental in saving over sixty passengers. He has been thirteen years in the Channel service, and has been wrecked three times. He gives the following narrative : — We left Newhaven at 11.30 on Tuesday night for Dieppe, having on board nearly a hundred passengers, most of whom were mst and second class. All went well until about four o'clock, as well as I can remember, when I was called on deck. The ship had not struck then. 1 quickly threw on a few clothes, and darting up to the deck I reached the bridge two minutes after I Avas called. The moment I saw the captain the latter said to me, "It is funny we have not seen anything." I said, "How many revolutions has she made ?" referring to the ship. "Go down to the engine-room and ask the chief engineer," he said. I did so, and was told the ship had made 8,800 revolutions, which, in the ordinary course, would bring us close into Dieppe Harbour. Suddenly land loomed right ahead, showing black. The captain then gave the order " Hard a-port," and I saw that it was distinctly conveyed to the man at the wheel, for I was on the bridge the whole time. The order to ' ' hard aport" was given with full speed ahead. I was looking through the glasses at the blackness in front, which seemed to me to be high land, little, little expecting that we were so close inshore, when suddenly the ship bumped on a rock. We did not know where we were. The funnel gave a shake, and the first shock was so slight that I thought it was a big sea that struck us. Then the ship, still going towards the cliffs, gave a crash, and it seemed to me as if the bottom was being torn out of her. This roused all the passengers to a state of frenzy. From that moment all was work to save life. I said to the captain, "We are ashore," and in answer to this, in full resonant tones, the captain, who never for a moment left the bridge or command of his ship, shouted out, " Get the boats over !" It was my duty to superintend this work, so I ran down to the dock and reached the port quarter-deck boat, which was the firs'* one. We prepared for launching from the davits. All the people, some ninety in number, when they saw the boats being got ready,

Lost all Control Over Themselves. Great inon, who should have known better, climbed the rigging, and even got as far as that part of the mast which in a sailing vessel is called the crosstrees. The men yelled and shouted like maniacs. lam ashamed at the cowardice they showed. We were doing our best, but what with the howling of the men, the shrieking of the women, and the multitudinous cries all round, it was hard to control my presence of mind. However I did it I do not know, but I went away to carry out the captain's instructions, and commanded the lowering of the port quarterdeck boats. A large number of people, the moment it was seen that wo were prepared to lower away, rushed to the side of the steamer, and crowded into the boat. lam ashamed to say that most of these were men, whose cries more alarmed the ladies, who were clambering around, than anything. I gave the order ip lower away from the davits, and when the boat was lowered, with its over-cargo within a reasonable distance of the water, 1 left the spot, and did not see what subsequently happened to the freight. I saw afterwards that the boat hung by both davit ropes, and was completely filled with water, and I believe that the over-number she carried must have swamped her, and all the people, with the exception of the two whom I saved with the second boat, must have

been drowned, unless somo were expert swimmers, as the sea was running verynasty and choppy at the time. The mate subsequently launched the other boats successfully with full load of passengers, who Avere saved. After that he went to the port lifeboat, on the other side of the ship, and took command of her. The captain gave him the order to save as many lives as lie could. As he brought the boat round to tlio starboard side he only saw two people alive, two men who were clinging to the submerged No. 1 boat. These were nearly paralysed with fear and cold, and were tlio only ones saved from the swamping of the first boat. Having dragged them into the boat he ordered them to he down in the bottom. They obeyed, more dead than alive, and he thought no more of them. They wero Frenchmen. Having filled up on tlio starboard side of the ship, which was rapidly tilling, he steered for the nearest landing place, and afterwards made three other trips to the ship, taking off all the crew, the ship's papers, etc., safely. The captain, chief mate, chief engineer, and a few of the crew embarked in the last boat, and stood bj" until it was seen to be impossible that any good could come by our remaining, so they rowed into Dieppe. There they met tho&e that we had landed at Capo d' Aille, and these were full of .gratitude, and expressed their great thankfulness for our services in landing them in safety. The other two boats we heard landed their passengers about 30 miles west of where the Victoria struck. The mato says : I can only liken the panic on board to that of a theatre, which is reported on •fire. The people cried aloud, screamed, rushed here, there, and everywhere, knowing not v hat they were doing. The men climbed the rigging, and screamed as women. I know nothing of the children reforted to be in the fore cabin drowned, but have heaid that it is so."