THE QUEEN OF THE THAMES.

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 176, 22 June 1871, Page 6

THE QUEEN OF THE THAMES.

After describing the wreck of the steamer Auckland, which took place on the 27bh May, between Cape Sclianck and C.ipe Howe, while on her way from Melbourne to Sydney, the Melbourne correspondent of the " Daily Times " writes of the Queun of the Thames as follows :—-The: — -The other wreck is in every way of a more important character. It is that of the splendid new steamship, the Queen of the Thames, which arrived here at the beginning of the yenr, after one of the finest passages ever made from England, and 'left in the middle of February, crowded with passengers, and regarded by nil as the forerunner of a line of noble ves^els to ply by the Cape route ; and now we learn that this magnificent ship is a wreck in Sbruay's Bay, near the Cape of Good llopo. The news, singularly enough, was brought on fcJiuvlay last, simultaneously to Adelaide and Sydney — to the former post by the mail steamer by way of Galle, and to Sydney by the steamer Maitlanil direct from tho Cape. It appears that when 26 days out from Melbourne, land was sighted, and a light was seen, which the captain mistook- for thelighthoiiHe on Cape Agulhas, at the extreme southern point of Cape Colony. About eleven o'clock the land was seen about h:ilf v mile distant, and some apprehension was occasioned amongst the passengers by the proximity of the shore. Bafore midnight, tho weather being clear and the sea calm, the vessel struck heavily on a reef. Tlie boats were launched, and the passengers and crew safely landed, with the exception of tho purser and two sailors, who were drowned. The passengers were then conveyed to Cape Town, and thence to England, and the vessel and cargo were sold for LI 6,000. A Resident Magistrate held an enquiry, and acquittal the officers of blame ; but the Grovernment was not satisfied with the result, and ordered a new enquiry before a properly constituted court. However, Ciptain Macdonald refused to give evidence, on the ground of a previous acquittal. Quite right too, I should say. He would not improve on this result, and it might easily be worse. The second court might very readily take a harsher view than that adopted by the " Resident Magistrate " — good man and easy ! Indeed, it appears that a much harsher view was expressed in some quarters, and the Cape " Argus " has an article attributing the loss to bad management. There appears to have been something wrong on board, the exact nature of which we do not at present know ; but the mate states that he took no part in the n-ivigation of the ship after leaving Melbourne. There was a feeling against) the ship while she was here, on the ground that the Captain's wife sailed with him, that she was part owner, and therefore in some sense her husband's employer ; that she was strong-minded, and therefore, in another sense, her husband's master ; and that altogether she was more captain than he was. Should this prove to have been the case, the issue will scarcely be quoted by the advocates of the claims of woman as an example of her (itness for the task of seamanship and navigation. The loss has fallen heivily on upon our insurance offices here, at Sydney, and at Adelaide, all of the principal offices being insurers to the extent of from L2OOO to LSOOO each.

A negro w'io came noar being drowned in being baptised, scrambled ashore and indignantly exclaimed :—: — 'Some gentlemen '11 lose an eighteen hundred doila-r m'rger sometimes by dis dam foolishness."

A forrespondent of the " Tsrisbane Courier" supplies the following test for determining the quality of kerosene: — " O:i receiving a tin of kerosene, sample it, then take two or three short pieces of Berlin- wool or unravelled string, dip them in the oil, lay them down, light one end, when if the flame rushes rapidly along, the kerosene is of too explosive a nature to be safely used."