The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1875-01-09 00:00:00

SCIENCE AND NAVIGATION.

Within the short space of a month tidings
have been brought to the people of these islands
of two great maritime disasters, which make a
melancholy addition to the wreck register of
1874. The circumstances attending these
calamities were widely different. In one case a
powerful steamship was at the outset of her
voyage overtaken by a gale and beaten to pieces
in a few hours; in the other, a sailing vessel.
after having been at sea eleven weeks, and safely
traversing thousands of m les of ocean, was at-
tacked by fire whilst making her way over far-off
waters, and was totally destroyed, leaving but
three out of nearly 500 to tell the awful story.
In both instance there was a lamentable sacrifice
of human life, and those who had left their homes
with high hopes, and under apparently favour-
able conditions, have found a grave in the bosom
of the mighty deep. There are features in both
calamities which well deserve attention. We
are constantly told of the advances of science,
and of its application to every possible

contingency whicsh can present itself-. We read
reports of experiments with all descriptions of
life-saving apparatus, from tha cork-belt to the
patent air-raft, of the newest pattern and design.
Over and over again it has been shown to
demonstration, upon the placid waters of the
London parks, bow a portable air-raft, occupying
very little space upon the deck, can be inflated
_ _

in three minutes to a size capable of comfortable
holding eighty persons. Now this is all very
well on a fine summer afternoon, with plenty of
time for preparation upon the banks, so as to
enable the patentee to explain to the admiring
spectators the principles upon which his won-
derful invention are constructed. Surrounding
him is an eager and not a too critical holiday
crowd, who, all smiles and questions, 4 step deftly
upon the raft, and work it up and down the
ornamental waters, five feet deep, knowing that
if the machine capsizes, the very worst that can
happen to them is a summer ducking. But it is
a very different affair when "a mighty rushing
wind "sweeps the surface of the stormy main,
_

when the raft has to be launched, not from
terra firtna upon the calm surface of a lake, but
from a dismasted and disabled ship, vainly
straining and labouring for her life, gradually
settling down by the stern, and tossing upon a
boiling ocean. The experimenters in the park
can launch their raft in a total absence of peril,
while those upon the doomed ship often find the
waves sweeping over the deck, and breaking
upon it in tons. Besides, the very reflection
that life is in danger produces an excitement
which is not at all conducive to that careful
thought and preparation which should attend
the fitting out of an appliance upon which life is
to be preserved, after the rapidly-sinking vessel
has gone to the bottom of the sea. In the case
of the La Plata, which had three patent rafts on
board, not one of them was launched, and the
boatswain and quartermaster of that unfortunate
craft, who were so miraculously preserved, saved
their lives only by seizing one of the rafts which
floated towards them after the foundering of the
ship. A single one of these rafts, had it been
properly floated would have saved every soul on
board tbe La Plata; yet not a Angle one of
them was inflated in the hoar of need, and when
all hope of saving thil vessel was lost.
The circumstances under which the Cospart-
rick disappeared in mid-ocean were a contrast in
every way. Here was a floating town, on a calm
November night, wending her way towards her
destination at the antipodes, and promising to
make a prosperous voyage. It is" the witching
hour of midnigot," :aid the popuhrtion of all
ages we] e wrapped in sleep. Snide ily tl e
stillness of air is broken by a cry terrible et all
times even upon the land. " Fire 1" In the
town or in the village it means the destruction
of a house or its contents, which in all probability
are insured, and the inmates, except in extra-
ordinary cases, can escape, and watch the pro-
gress of the flumes from a safe distances. But
the meaning of such a cry at sea is a far more
fearful one, for it is known that if the fire once
pin the mastery, there is but s choice of deaths I
—buruints/ or druwaing. In the instance of the
Cospatrick, within an hour and a half of the
alarm being given, it was seen that ths chance
of saving the vessel was hopeless. In the first
place she would not answer her helm, for if this
could have been done, the flames might have
been confined to the fore part of the ship. But
fanned by the light breeze. they travelling along
the decks, ran up the masts, licked up the rigging,
and roared triumphantly when they has des-
troyed the last hope of the terror-stricken crowd
which they drove before them. All around was
the vast ocean—thous.tuds of miles of the anta-
gonistic element- which is brought to bear in
order to quench fires upon the land, but which
was apparently useless here. So there was no
alternative but for the flames to do their work,
and to convert the ship into a hissing oven upon
the surface of the deep. The poor creatures
who had been so terribly awakened out of dreams
of the mother country at home or of the land of
promise for which they had set sail, had no help
but, to leap into the sea out of a burning fiery
furnuce, and the inmates of all ages found one
common grave in the blue waters of the Southern
ocean.

The narrative of such a stupendous calamity,
coming at Christmas time, has made a profound
impression upon the people of this country, sated
with horrors as they bad already been. The
loss of life throngli such a simple occurrence as
the outbreak of a fire, was as great as in many
a sanguinary battle. Graveilotte—the most
fiercely fought en.4agernent of the last conti-
nental war. counted for 1,200 killed ; yet here
are nearly 500 unoffending souls swept into
eternity, scieetfic appliances heingin the broad
sweep of the sea powerless to extinguish the
flames, and two boats out of six being uritiurately
available for the s.wing of the panic stricken
inaltitude.which thronged around them. Verily
we have a great deal yet to learn in combating
, the dangers of the deep if a noble steaner in
tile thy of Bisc ty can be overpowered in an or-
dinary gale, and an emigrant ship can be re-
duced to a cinder of fire, and her human cargo
of men, women,and children, without distinction
of age or sex, swallowed up by the cruel and
remorseless waves.