The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1875-05-15 00:00:00

nearly £2,000 was announced by the Lord Mayor at the
close of the meeting.

The death of Mr. Stevens, the sculptor, leaves un-
finished the Wellington monument which he was
commissioned to execute a few months after the
Duke's death in September, 1852. This work okart is,
however, so far advanced that Mr. Steven's pupils
will be enabled to complete it from the designs which
he has left. It is to be placed in St. Paul's Cathedral,
where both Wellington and Nelson were buried.
Certainly, if honour is to be paid to any man, the
memory of the Duke of Wellington ought to have it.
Earl Russell has told us how, in the year 1810, while
travelling upon the Continent he was impressed with
the extraordinary military skill shown by the Duke
in the construction of the famous lines ,of. Torres
Vedras, which baffled the French Marshal Massen?
for months. From the year 1803, when he gained
the Battle of Assaye, to 1815, when he finally
overthrew Napoleon, he was engaged in constant
warfare; yet it is a mistake to suppose that he
was a callous-hearted man. On the contrary it is
recorded that on the night when he rode over the field
of Waterloo, with its reeking carnage, and listened to
the groans of the wounded, he wept like a child. It
was at such a time that the great conquerer realised
the truth of Byron's noble lines in the Siege of Corinth—
"There is something of pride in the perilous hour,
Whate'er be the shape in which death may lour,
For Fame is there to tell who bleeds,
And Honour's eyes on daring deeds.
But when all is o'er it is humbling to tread
O'er the weltering field of the tombless dead,
Sec worms of the earth, fowls of the air,
Beasts of the forest all gathering there;
All regarding man as their prey—
All rejoicing, in his decay!"

WRECK OF THE MAIL STEAMER
" SCHILLER,"
The following is the Daily News' account of the wreck 01
the steamer Schiller
"A terrible disaster has occurred off the Scilly
Islands. On Friday night the mail steamer Schiller,
on her voyage from New York to Plymouth, ran on
the Retarrier Ledges during a dense fog, and in a few
hours became a total wreck. There appear to have
been upwards of 350 persons on board, though on this
point accounts vary, and of these only about forty
have been saved. The Scilly Isles is the name
given to the cluster of rocky islands lying twenty-
seven miles west-south-west of the Land's End,
and forty-two from Penzance, the nearest port
of communication with the mainland. These isles,
with their outlying rocks, embrace an area of
fifty to sixty miles, and from time immemorial have
been a source of the greatest danger to mariners, and
as dense fogs prevail at the entrance of the English
Channel, a lighthouse has been erected and lightships
stationed with fog bells. Dangerous rocks exists far
out from the islands. These rocks rise perpendicularly,
and have deep water close home to their ledges. The
Schiller struck the rocks in the most dangerous part of
the isles. Close to the reef on which she struck is
Gilstone Rock, upon a portion of which Sir Clou-
desley Shovel's fleet were wrecked in 1707, when
returning from the expedition against Toulon.
Several notable persons and nearly two thou-
sand officers and seaman were drowned on the
occasion, in thick and stormy weather very similar to
that experienced by the Schiller. Near to, also, is
Little Crebawetham, upon which the Douro was, in
1848, lost with all hands; The Gunner Rock, where a
Smyrna vessel struck, and the crew had a marvellous
escape in the night; Jacky's Rock, where the Thames
steamer, in 1841, from Dublin to London, foundered,
only four out of 64 being saved, and Rosevear Island
and Gorregan. Rocks, where scores of mariners have
met with watery graves within the memory Of the
present inhabitants. In the vicinity of the Bishop's
Rock, owing to large numbers of sunken ledges around,
the sea is lashed into great fury.
In 1849 the first attempt to build a lighthouse on
Bishop's Rock was made. The building, formed of
cast iron columns sunk in the rock, and braced and
stayed by wrought iron rods, was completed up to the
lanthorn, but in 1850, before this could be added the
whole edifice was swept away, the cast iron pillars
snapping off like so many sticks. The present lighthouse
is of granite, and the Lighthouse -Commissioners
describe it as magnificent, and, perhaps the most ex-
posed in the whole world. In rough weather the
waves go over the top of it 110 feet high, the sea
being heavier than at the Eddystone or the Longships.
The illuminating apparatus, which could not pierce
the fog for a third of a mile on Friday night cost up-
wards of thirteen hundred pounds. This was the
character of the locality on which the Schiller was
stranded.
"About one o'clock on Saturday morning the look-
out man at St. Mary's heard the firing ofaa gun. He
did not imagine it was a signal of distress, and, be-
lieving that the Schiller had been unable to show
lights in the fog and had fired her gun as a signal that
she had passed, telegraphed to this effect to Plymouth,
where the tugboat and the Post Office officials got
ready to receive the mail steamer, which about ten
they learnt was a wreck. The first that was known
of the wreck at St. Mary's, the chief island, was the
arrival about eight o'clock of the boat of Mr. Obadiah
Hicks from St. Agnes containing seven men of the
Schiller, who had been washed ashore on the
island. The fist officer was amongst them, and
he reported that one mast of the Schiller was
gone and the other was crowded with people. The
St. Mary's lifeboat was at once despatched to the
scene, being towed out through Broad Sound by the
steamer Lady of the Isles, amidst the greatest excite-
ment. Meanwhile two fishing boats observing the
wreck hastened to it just in time to pick up seven men
who had either dropped off or been washed off from
the mast. Two of these were, however, either dead
when hauled in or died soon after. Plenty of aid
from all the islands was soon on its way to R.etarrier,
but ere it arrived the last mast had gone, carrying
away scores who had endured the agonising suspense
of the night. About ten o'clock the cutter Rapid
arrived at St. Mary's with two men rescued from
some of the rocks, and at noon Mr. Smith Dorrien,
Lord of the Scily Isles, came with the welcome
news of the safe arrival at his island home of Tresco of
twenty-six men and one woman in two boats, one of
which had during the fearful night touched at Bryher,
an island somewhat nearer the wreck. The rext arrival
was a St. Agnes boat, bringing the bodies of four men,
two women, and a little boy and two bags of mails.
This was followed by a boat bringing a man who had
been picked up alive in Smith's Sound. He was float-
ing on a piece of the Schiller's broken lifeboat, and
must have drifted a very long way, for he was two and
a half miles from the wreck as the crow flies. The St.
Mary's lifeboat, too late to save any on the mast,
picked up 25 bags of mails.
"By eight in the evening 42 men and one woman
had been saved, and 23 bodies had been brought ashore,
some having drifted four miles north of Scilly. The
rescued were received with the utmost kindness by the
iuhabitants of the various islands to which they were
carried. Mr. Smith Dorrien, at Treeco, took the 27
landed there into his own residence. In the evening
barrels of flour, more mail bags, and light wreck-
age, were washed ashore. The heavy weather
and fog continued throughout Saturday, and the
people worked at considerable risk. Late in the
evening a fishing boat, the Robert, arrived at
Penzance, the captain reporting that when returning
from the Scilly Isles fishing grounds she passed through
quite two hundred floating bodies, many of them
women and children. They were being driven by
wind and tide towards the mainland. Three bags of
mails were picked up ; a passenger's bag, bearing the
name of D. W. Percival, Barnstaple ; a parcel of
letters and papers, evidently washed out of a mail bag,
and directed W. Piffelt, South Shields; and a bundle
of three pocket-books, containing a card inscribed
Charles Bredemyer.
"The &hiller was a first-class screw steamer, owned
by the Eagle Company, of Hamburg. Her length
was 380 feet, breadth 40 feet, and depth 24 feet, and
her gross tonnage was 3,421. Her engines were 600-
horse power nominal, but worked up to 3,000. She was
built under special survey at Napier 's-yard, Glasgow,
in 1873, and her machinery was also certificated in the
same year. She was specially built for the Transat-
lantic trade, and was making her seventh homeward
passage from New York when the sad catastrophe
occurred. The Schiller left New York on the 27th
April, passing the bar the day following. She carried
59 first cabin passengers, 75 second cabin, and 120
steerage, 251 in all; her crew numbered 100, so that
there were 354 souls on board. In addition to the
American mail she carried an Australian and New
Zealand mail, a total of 250 bags, and about 300,000
dollars in specie for Cherbourg. It was her intention
to call at Plymouth and land the mail, about 25 pas-
sengers, and her specie, and then proceed to Hamburg.
The Schiller was expected at Plymouth on Friday
evening, so that she was about twelve hours behind
time in consequence of leaving New York late. Cap-
tain Thomas, the commander of the Schiller, though
an Englishman by birth, was a naturalized German.

The following is the narrative of Edward Poglmanny,
the second officer of the Schiller
"It was near as I can say about ten o'clock on Friday
night, when as I was sleeping on my sofa in my cabin I was
suddenly awoke by hearing the steam pipe whistle sharply
blown. I thought at once that the weather was very thick.
I turned round and almost at the same moment heard and
felt the ship striking. I jumped up in a moment to rush on
deck, but before I had got up a few steps I met the first
mate, who ran down exclaiming that we were shipwrecked.
In a moment we were both on deck again, and I ran to the
bridge where the captain was. When I reached him he had
Just telegraphed down into the engine-room to go astern ; but
the water rushed over the deck, and, seeing that the fore com-
partment had filled, I told the captain that to go astern would
be of no use. The ship then heeled over to starboard and the
captain ordered the boats, of which we had eight, to be got as
quickly as possible. I ran to the quarterdeck and we lowered
the two quarterdeck boats. Down to which there was
immediately a rush. I then went to the maindeck, where the
chief officer was launching one of the boats. It was very
heavy. Of the eight boats we launched seven. There was
very great difficulty in launching more of them on account
of their weight and the way in which the vessel lay with
the waves dashing over her. At length we succeeded in
launching No. 5, and were then ordered by the captain to
take charge. There also had got into the boat three male
passengers, a woman, and seven of the crew. As I
went over the side Captain Thomas called out, "Good
, by old fellow; remember me to my friends." He after-
wards again called to me • but, although I heard
him, I could not reply, tieing so exhausted. As the
boat was being lowered, a big wave came and swamped
her, and we were all capsized. We managed, how-
ever, to recover the boat and kept her up as much as
we could. She was, however, full of water, and we had to
stand in her all the time. For three hours we beat about at
the mercy of the waves, utterly unaware where we were, so
dense was the fog and so dark the night, till, at length, we
saw a gleam of light overhead, and recrxnised the Bishop
Light. We were, however, utterly unable to make either the
light or the wreck, which we saw, as day dawned, a long dis-
tance off. Both masts were then in her, and were crowded
with people. All our efforts to reach a place of safety were
unavailing., and we chiefly tried to keep clear of the rocks.
Eventually the fog lifted a little and I saw St. Agnes. Before
we could reach it the fog fell again, and we were drifted a
long way by the current. When the fog lifted we found
ourselves under the same rocks of which we had to keep
clear. Then we rounded the Islands and came to a spot
where a ship was at anchor. Shortly after which we landed
at 'lmmo."
•