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

, Stourittibse Obstrber.

SATURDAY, MAY 15, 1875.

THE WRECK OF.THE "SCHILLER,"

kin 1111 the people of the British Islands Were
rejoicing at the arrival of the long-deferred
*lug, and the bill-sides and the valleys were
looking their best in the freshness of the npw
and luxuriant vegetation, a gioo re is cast over
the land by the tidings of a terrible disaster il-
lustrating anew the dangers of the seas. This
time the story is not one of a ship being caught
in a fierce storm, and being beaten to pieces b„
mountains of water. It is not the tale of al')
ironclad in full sail being overturned by the
tempest at dead of night, and sent to the,bottom
of the sea, there to remain in tact for lips. It
is not the chronicle of a collision in mid-ocean,
i
where two gallant ships, going n in
direc-
tions, crash into each other, and one or both
founder, and go down from the shock. In the
ease before us a fine 3,500 ton
~steamer, with
United States, Australian, New Zeeland mails,
800,004 dollars, a large general cargo, and 355
human beings on board, left New York oa the
aSth of April. All went well as she made her
way by day and by night over the Atlantic, and
it is only when the shores of England are ap.
proached that the dangers of the voyage begin.
To the human freight on board the thought that
the coast of COrnwall was a scene of lurking
peril could never have occurred. An ocean pas.
sage, even in a steamer, is a monotonous affair,
and we may rely upon it that the voyagers were
glad enough at the sight of that land which they
were, however, destiued never to reach. No one
who has watched the leaping of the giant billows
upon the towering cliffs of that ironbound shore
Can ever forget the spectacle. The vast Atlantic
WSTOP, which, in their career across the oceae,
might have engulphed ninny a noble vessel, roll
la there with tremendous force, as though they
had gone forth coopering and to conquer. Sud-
denly, after an unchecked course of three thou-
sand miles, they find themselves pilled up, re.
pulsed, and beaten hack by perpendicular ledges
rising to an iruniense 'leis/ht. The waves re.
treat with a roar which almost seems to tell of
their discomfiture at having met a force more
irresistible then their own. They return aajim
only to meet with the
and again to the ChArge,
same fate. At times, when lashed into fury by
• westerly gals, they drish themselves upon the
eh& with • violence:, the sound whereof would
would be appalling eat for the knowledge that
the foundations of those everlasting hills are
well and truly laid. The rock stands still and
stern as 'kali, inotiuuless and immoveable ;
e wrathful boiling sea is all frenzy and agita-
tion, but the sea tinds its !wester at :21-4, and al-
though the waves continue to roll after the
storm which causes them has ceased, their ter-
bulen me ee gradually cal down, and they seem
to give up the idea that the sea shail overwhelm
the nuiti. TheY ibuY wage perpetual war against
it. if they please, but Higher Mind and a Fir-
mer Will th,n the:rs kias said " Thiet far shalt
thou go nd Ito farther I" And even the %inn,
*144" "v 01111114 obo7 that Voice.

But when the sea has been mastered and dis-
comfited by the changeless rocks, it only ap-
pears to he more vengeful upon any unfortunate
ship which accident throws into its power. Here
was the Schillsr, for instance. Her voyage had
been a calm and prosperous one. On arriving
off the Scilly Islands one of those dense fogs
which so often overspread the chmtnel enveloped
both the islands and the main in a shroul whieh
proved to be of evil omen. Yet a fog in the
English Channel is a contingency which is by
no means of nnfreqnent occurrence and any
miscalculation of position by those who are
naviglting, a floating town ought not to he pos-
sible. The Cunard steamers make their way over
, the Atlantic in the midst of fogs of such density
' as e'en the people of the Metropolis have never
witnessed. Yet a Cunard steamer has never
been lost. The fog which caught the Schiller
obscured the warning light of the Bishop's Rock
Beacon, and the clangonr of the bell was either
unheeded or unheard. At ten o'clock on a May
night, scores of the passengers rejoicing in the
fact that they were now within a few hours dis-
tance of Plymouth, the Schiller found herself
upon the dreaded Retarrier Ledge, not far from
the lighthouse which was to have warned her.
The rocks having pierced the:unfortunate ship's
side, the sea rushed in and secured an easy Vic-
tory. The triumph of the waves was all the
' more complete, from the fact of the vessel hay-
ing laughed to scorn their threatenings over
thousands of miles of their surface, and now
tha the cruel reef had done fir them what they
had Leen unable to accomplish for themselves,
the waves poured mercilessly in, as though the
credit of the onslaught had been solely their
own. There was a heavy western swell on at
the time, and wave after wave swept cruelly and
remorselessly over the doomed ship, only a few
minutes before a thing of life and beauty. There
were only four fathoms of water under her, hut
these did their work as effectually as though
they had been four thousand. Each break of
the billows carried into eternity scores of human
beings. What did the wild waves say then!
They hissed, and fotned, and surged over the
Retarrier Ledge, just as they have done for ages;
but this time there was a mocking laugh in their
echoes which told of the delight with which they
had seized their prey. Down—down into their
hopeless depths they dragged the passengers of
the ill-fated bark, stifling their cries to Heaven
for mercy. The agony must have been but a
brief one, and it took but a short time for the
sea to do its unerring work. When the sound
of the last voice had been stilled in death, the
waves murmured on as usual, as though they
wist not of the havoc they had wrought.
Yet the " Schiller" deserved a better fate.
She had been no common corsair sweeping the
ocean, carrying war where there was no war,
setting fire to fleets of peaceful merchantmen,
leaving death and destruction in her wake. She
was engaged in an enterprise which takes the
spreading sail in every quarter of the globe, and
, wherein many a splendid vessel gets worsted in
the strife. Twenty years before, to a day or go,
an almost equally disastrous wreck took place
off the Cornish coast. On the Ist of May, /855,
the emigrant ship "John" struck on the. Mana-
cles Rocks, and 200 souls perished. Too soon
was their anticipated home in a distant land ex-
changed for whabitation at the bottom of the
sea. Then as now there was neither hurricane '
nor storm, but a thick haze overspread the Chan-
nel, and in the midst of it the emigrant ship
was be sten to pieces with lamentable loss of life
Is we turn from such sad details well may we
ask, " How can these things be 2"