The Sun.
London, England, 1867-06-04 00:00:00

MISSING SHIPS.

Scarcely a day passes but in the columns of the
newspapers may be seen these two ominous words
heading a short paragraph announcing the sailing.
of some vessel from one port for another, and con-
cluding with the words " has not been heard of
since." Each disappearing vessel adds another to
the vast list of the un told " tales of the sea." A
valuable ship, loaded with a rich cargo, suddenly
vanishes from the track of her voyage, and her
officers and crew vanish with her. The ship and
the cargo are fully insured, and losses by the owner
and the shipper are recoverable. The lives of the
officers and crew arc not so insured, and their I( S
to their wives and families is irrecoverable. This is
the exact difference felt by the two classes of people
whose interests are most closely connected with the
life of a merchant or trading vessel. As the risks of
a voyage are increased, the owner and shipper sim-
ply pay an increas d rate of premium on the in-
surance, and they make themselves safe ; but the
very fact, possibly, of this certain safety for the '
pockets of the owner and the shipper may tend to
make them callous as to the safety of the crew. It
is certain that in any revision of the laws govern-
ing the maritime marine of this country, such as is
now contemplated, more stringent provisions than
exist at present will have to be made for the preser-
vation of life at sea, and the present gambling—for
such it can only be termed when compared with any
provision for the safety of a ship's crew—of recoup-
ing owners of ships and their cargoes measured at
its proper value. Insurance makes men bold in
their ventures. If, however, it could be possible
that no such means existed for reimbursing the losses
of ships and their cargoes at sea, the list of ships
thus annually lost would be very far below the exist-
ing average, and the saving of human life would be
in a proportionate ratio. Many a good ship has been
destroyed by the uncontrollable power of the storm.
alone, in which no human aid could have saved
her. Others have been lost by the incompetency or
errors of judgment of those in charge of them, or by
reason of the unsoundness of hull, machinery, spars,
and rigging, or of ground tackle. But there is
another cause of the loss of seagoing ships, which
appears to have received less attention at the hands
of the legislature than it has deserved, from the con-
spicuous part it has played in the loss of life and
property at sea--viz., the suitability of vessels in
their tonnage, build, and engine-power (if steam-
ships), to work over the track of their allotted
voyages. To illustrate the truth of this assertion it
is only necessary to take up the records of the past
winter, which tell all that will now ever be known
of the loss of four steamships, with all hands, out of
five which passed the Scaw for England on the 29th
of December of last year. All five were screw
steamers, four laden with grain only and the fifth
laden with grain and cattle. The four vessels
carrying only grain were of a tonnage and power of
engines so small as to render them quite incapable
of contending with all the fury of a wintry gale in
the North Seas. Deep-loaded and with high bulwarks
the open space between their poops and forecastles
were simply wells to hold the water which might
break on board in any gale they met with, until it
finally swamped them. The fifth vessel, the Mary,
twin screw, was bound to London, and was one third
more tonnage than the other vessels, and with more
than twice the engine power. Her upper deck was
also covered in fore and aft, with a spar deck, wbich
prevented any possible lodgment of water that
might break over her. The Mary was the only
vessel of the five that arrived home from that voy-
age, and her log alone, therefore, holds a record of
what occurred in that passage across the North Sea
after leaving the Scaw. On leaving the Scaw in
the afternoon of the 29th of December, the weather
was moderately fine for the time of the year, but
after passing the Cattegat the wind freshened, and
at 7 p.m. it blew violently from the S.E., with snow
and sleet. From 7 p.m. until midnight the wind
veered gradually round to the eastward and to the
strength of a hurricane. At 4 a.m. on the follow-
ing morning the wind was at N.E., blowing with
terrific force, a tremendous sea getting up and fol-
lowing, and at times breaking over the ship in im-
mense volumes. In this fearful turmoil of wind and
waters, it would have been instant destruction to
the ship and all on board to attempt heaving her to,
and the engines were therefore kept going ahead at
their greatest speed, and the ship held straight on
in her race with the immense waves which rushed
after and past her, or broke on board over the stern
and quarters. All openings to below from the spar
deck were, however, securely battened down, and the
waves only broke upon it to fall back baffled into the
bowling tempest which had thrown them up. A
sudden change of wind to the opposite direction at
midnight on the succeeding night got up a gale
ahead, but the Mary kept her course, and eventu-
ally arrived off Thames Haven, but ten hours after
her time, with the loss of only one bullock, and with
no damage to machinery, hull, boats, spars, or rig-
ging. lfer safety was no doubt owing to her fitness
for a North Sea winter voyage, in her tonnage, en-
gine power, and the possession of a spar deck,
which prevented any portion of the immense
bodies of water which broke on board of her find-
ing its way below. The want of these three great
requisites in a ship pursuing such voyages was
undoubtedly the cause of the loss of her four com-
panions, who must all have filled with the fol-
lowing seas and foundered in that winter's gale.

MARKETS.—This day.

HAY.

SMITHFIELD —Meadow hay, £3 03 to £4 5s ; clover,
£4 Oa to ..£5 lOs Oil; and straw, .£2 to £2 Gs per load.
A dull trade.

CUMBERLAND—Meadow hay, £3 Os to £4 bs Od; clover,
£4 Os to .£.5 lOs Od ; and straw, £2 to .£2 6s per load.
A fair supply.

WIIITECHAPEL—Maadow hay, £3 to £4 58 Od ; clover,
£4 Os to £5 1O Od ; and straw, £2 to £2 6s per load.
A slow trade.

COLONIAL.

TEA.—Business has been inactive, operations on the
part of the trade having been deferred until the public
sales of China produce, which commence to-day ; 21,578
packages are announced for competition, of which 16,159
are without reserve.

suGAß.—There has boon a good demand from the trade,
and priees have shown a slight upward tondoncy,
particu-
larly for superior qualities of West India. In the refined
market quotations are firm, common lump being quoted
43s per cwt.
.COFFEE. —For colonial descriptions thero has been a' fair
inquiry, and plantation and native Ceylon sell realily at
fully previous values.
RICE.—Tho transactions on cleaned descriptions have
beon of an exceedingly limited character, and have led to
no material change in values.
TALLOW. —The market remains steady, but without
animation. Tho horn production is still good, and nar-
rows the demand for foreign. Speculatively, however,
there has been rather more inquiry for distant periods of
delivery. Our quotations are —Spot and Juno, 43s 3d
to 43s Gd.; old Y.C., 42s 9d ; October and Decembor, 445
3d to 44. Gd; December, 41s 91; town tallow, 413 91 nett ;
Australian sheep, 458 to 455 91; beef, 42s Gd ; inferior
mixed and weak, 42s to 393. No Odessa or South Ame-
rican offering.
Cocoa nut oil is quiet. Cochin and Ceylon maintain late
prices, 568 to 49s respectively, but there is a good quantity
of Sydney offering, 453 to 438 fine and good, 42s to 40s in-
ferior kinds. Palm oil quiet, 39s 10:1 to 40s fine Lagos.

LIVERPOOL COTTON MARKET—This Day

Market opens with a good demand at improving
price, particularly for America. Sales probably
15,000 bales.

MULBERRY-TREES.—The mulberry-tree was in-
troduced into England, early in his reign, by James 1.,
who spent nine hundred and thirty-five pounds in plant-
ing them near his palace, and by royal edict, about the
year 1601, offered packets of mulberry-seeds to all who
would sow them, for the purpose of encouraging the
cultivation of silkworms for the promotion of silk
manufacture in this country. The royal patronage ren-
dered the tree so popular, that there is scarcely an old gar-
den or gentleman's seat which had existed in the seven-
teenth century, in which a mulberry-tree is not to be found.
In 1609, Sieur do la Foret, who had in France a nursery of
five hundred thousand plants, travelled over the midland
and eastern counties of England, for the sale of mulberry-
trees, and distributed not less than one hundred thousand
trees.— Dickens's "All the Year Round.'
THE CATTLE PLAGUE.—The number of cases of
rinderpest in the kingdom of Holland for the week ending
May 25, was 39.
- -

A quantity of sprats, mullet, and mackerel were
caught on tilt) Dorsetshiro coast last Week.