The Sun.
London, England, 1862-08-27 00:00:00

QUARANTINE IN THE 7HAMES.

At this moment an iron screw steamer lies in the
Victoria docks at Blackwall, on board which cer-
tainly eight people, if not nine, have very recently
died, in a manner which has been sought to be con-
cealed or mystified, on a return voyage to this coun-
try from a port in the Bahamas, which she has com-
pleted within the last few days. The vessel, which
is called the Melita, is of about 800 tons, and be-
longs to Messrs. Begbie and Campbell, of Mansion-
house-place. She has arrived in the Thames under
circumstances so calculated at first to inspire alarm
that they have been brought prominently and spe-
cially under the notice of the Commissioners of
Customs, and also, it is said, of the Board of Health,
in the public interest. She left Nassau, New Pro-
vidence, so recently as Aug. 2, having previously, it
is said, run the blockade at Charleston. She had on
board a crew of some 50 officers and men and 23 pas-
sengers,with a general cargo, including about 25 bales
of cotton. On the voyage home, which lasted barely
20 days, no fewer than seven of the passengers and
the engineer of the vessel died of yellow fever,
it is reported, and were buried at sea.
The captain and two of the passengers landed
at Dover, leaving the ship in charge of the chief
mate and a pilot. She then steamed up the
Thames, evaded the quarantine regulations at
Gravesend, and arrived in the Victoria Docks on the
morning of Wednesday or Thursday last. There
she was boarded and overhauled in the usual man-
ner by Mr. Richards, an examining officer of Cus-
toms, who, in the course of his seareh, heard from
some of the crew in an incidental way of what had
happened on the voyage, and which he deemed it
his duty to report immediately to head-quarters.
He and two or three of his assistants, with a pilot
named Brooks and some other people who had gone
on board, apprehending nothing wrong, were con-
demned to remain there, as were also all the sur,
viving passengers and crew, during three or four
days and nights. The vessel was pushed off into
the basin, detached from the quay and away from
the rest of the ships, while a vigilant guard was
kept over her lest any one on board should
escape,
and, what was most likely, lest any one should ap-
proach her. A foolhardy man, detected in the act
of attempting to take a bottle of beer or spirits on
board, was put under arrest for the greater part of
a day. Another who had gone on board before the
discovery was made, threw a written message on
shore to explain his absence to his family, but it
was seen and kicked into the basin. It is, of course,
matter of surprise that a vessel so circumstanced
should have eluded the quarantine watch at Graves-
end, but that is explained in a manner which would
seem to imply both laxity on the part of the Cus-
tom-house authorities there, and evasion on that of
the officer in charge of the steamer. Ordinarily,
when a vessel arriving from a foreign port is chal-
lenged by an officer of Customs at Gravesend, the
captain is asked a series of set questions as to the
health of the crew and passengers—whether there
had been any deaths on board, and the like. That
is said to be the invariable rule with respect to
sailing vessels, but it would appear to be some-
what relaxed—one scarcely knows why—in the
case of steamers when under full steam, the officers
in charge of which are usually impatient of
being stopped in their course to reply to all the
prescribed interrogatories, especially when they
are themselves satisfied with the sanitary condition
of the vessel. In such a case the customary ques-