The Sun.
London, England, 1858-03-25 00:00:00

Pas'set
yea,. -213' lifrgo; mailioglrets
have heen,lost. Seven of these havet.sone 4
e n
in tl4e North Atlantic, three in.the GatlEof Mexico,
three in the China and Indian seas, of Vin "the-Bay•
of Biscay, and three on the Portuguese anaill,enish
cemt. The'value of the seven packets lost in the
North Atlantic, withtheir cargoes, is estimated at
two millions sterling. Since 1853, 2,000 persona
have perished, and 10,000,000 dollars' worth of
.property has been destroyed, in the wreck of United
States coisting mail packets. Out of the twenty
ocean mail packets lost during the last dozen years,
ree, wilt all their crews and passengers, were
lost, and their fate never heard of. One, however
was burnt while going at full speed, and a great
wally on board perished in the flames. Another
was run down in the Chinese sea by a packet going
in the same direetion, the lights of the fornasr hay,
ing been seen from the latter when miles a-head:
Tne most dreadful of all these shipwreCks, perhaps,
were the foundering in the Atlantic Ocean of the
President, the Pacific, and the City of Glasgow,
from which not a soul survived to tell the tale.
Months elapsed before all hope was eltinguished
in the breasts of relatives that some, at least,
•.f tee passengers and crew might somewhere
turn up alive. A most harrowing story, too, is
teat the burning of the Amazon, and also that
of the striking of the Tweed on the Alacranes. The '
e,,gineer of the Amazon could not turn off-the
steaw, and the ship went bounding and blazing
Hong on tl.e ocean, while those who escaped were
'tunrsed with the nose of the paddlewheels and
the waves, together with the roaring of the wind
ind flames, and the shrieks of 'he dying on board.
In the else of th 4 Tweed, scores of persons were -
devoured by sharks as they jumped from the sink-
ng s'iio. Last year a mail packet was wrecked' in - • -
the Incite!, Sea, and an offieer and troops were on
11,a, d her corning from the Persian war. As soon
s th,-37 escaped from the wreck and;rum *Wed,
the officer and col tiers fell down on their knees,
ind the f,_:rm,r reverently gave thanks to Heaven
.:or their pr.-&-.rvation. A few months afterwarde be •
gained au immortal name in avenging the atroci-
tes of ariwnpore and relieving Lucknow. it is
unnecessary t,.) say that this was Henry Havelock.
We have j.ist beard of the wreck of the" mail

packet Ava in the Bay of Bengal, having on board
he la lies and children who had escaped a fright-
ful death in Lucknow, and whose sufferings and
aang., it appears, were not to cease even after
-,hey left India, and were under British protection
on the sea. Power, the eminent English cmedian
as wal as a rneniber of one of ducal families, perished
in the President. Eliot Warburton, the author of
" The Crescent and the Cross," whose graphic pen
was ab-art to be tipped in he gorgeous hues of
Central American scenery, was lost in the Amsz-n.
A rich passenger on board the Arctic offered 30,0001.
to whoever could save his life, and there is no doubt
that any one who could have done so would haVe
received the reward, but no one was able to earn
it. A passenger on board the Brazil mail packet,
which went ashore at St. Alban's Head, last year,
offered 500/. to a coastguard-man if he took him
safely ashore, which was done, and the man received
a cheque for the amount. The sufferings of some
of the survivor s of the lost mail packets have been

terrible. It is feared that one or two of the survi-
vors of a mail steamer, which was wrecked a short
thee since, were saved from starvation only by re-
course to cannibalism. The mail packet Tay went
ashor- many years ago in the West Indies, and the
captain and crew abandon -d her; an engineer,
errs ever, stuck to her arid saved tar, to be wrecked
afterwards in the Gulf of Mex'co. Furseven years
he Peni,sular and Oriental Company never lost el
si ip ; they then 1 st seven ships in 12 years, and
during the last of those years they have list three
ships. The Royer]. Mill Company t egan their career
by losing slurs' but latterly they have had better
luck. How the Pacific, the President, and the
City of Glasgow went to the bottom is a ye stion no
one: can answer. They may have struck against
icebergs, those marine glaciers which glide down
from the Pole towards the Equator, and from their
immense size are as dangerous to come in contact
with as grani.e rocks, whilst they cannot be laid
down in cherts, and are often enveloped in fogs
and peers, so that t 1 e only intimation a commander
has of their whereabouts is from their causing a
lowering of the temper :ture in the neighbourhood
in which they are. Some have believed that the
Pacific, the President, and the City of Glasgow
broke their backs and then foundered. When a
iong ship is resting its centre on the edge of an enor-
up.us Atlantic wave her stem and stern are entirely
unsupported, and heavily laden fore and aft, the
leverage there is immense, and the vessel may break
in two just at the fulcrum. Again, a long ship
may have t.er stem and stern supported by the edges
of gigantic waves and the centre may be unsup-
ported ; the weight of machinery and coal there is
enormous, and t e ship mey break in two midway
between the two fulcrums aud be doubled up. Ships
are now bed r_iii sui h a m,nner as to avoid all these
disastk The Peninsular and (Mental Company's
new ms.l i acket N. m sis is of enormous strength,
so I feet it eoe:d be difficul to knock her to pieces.
Iron mail packets are now in use 13:-caute they are
less likely to break up after striking than wooden
ones. The mail packet Tyne, which struck on a
rocky coast last year, was got off after being
knocked about there a couple of months, and no
lives were lost in her. Every one remembers the
iron steamer Sarah Sands, troop vessel, which took
fire in the Inoian Ocean a few months since. By
the most masterly skill she was kept under control
whole she was gutted ty the flames, which could
not ba get under, and then the troops got on
board of her again, and were saved in the bare
hull. Ships are now built with strength propor-
tioned to their length. Ti'e distribution of the
load of a ship is better understood, so that founder-
ing through a broken back will be less likely to
bittppi.u, and probably before long mail packets will
carry an electric light at the mast head, so that the
dangers of collisions in the dark and in fogs will
cease. The loss of a mail packtt with a number of
lives must be very trying to the feelings of a com-
.mander ; but the captains of our lost mail packets
often displayed a noble presence of mind and
heroism, which have been the means of saving
many. Many captains have perished in attempting
to ea' e their crews and passengers. In the
Am eon all bet one f the officers were burnt on
board. The inferior officers refused to leave their
captain. They assisted to save others, but they
preferred being burnt in their ship, because every
one on board could not leave her, One or two
commanders of the lost packets have committed
suicide after the excitement of the wreck was over.
The commander of the Tweed lived half a mile
from Southampton, the port from which his ship
hailed, but he never was seen in that town after

, -- -- -- —.—
the wreck, although he lived in its vicinity for
years. The commander of the lost packet Arctic
has displayed great heroism, and when he reached
New York the merchants and shippers went to the
railway station to welcome and sympathise with
him. Bat he was unable to receive their greeting,
and he passed sorrowing with downcast looks
through a lane formed of the chief commercial
citizens of New York, who stood mute and un-
covered to receive him. When the American
steamer Atlantic was supposed to be lost. a British
packet was the first to carry the news of her safety
to America. She kept fir.ng guns miles before she
arrived in harbour, and had every flag on board
I,ois'esl. Tons of thousands of New York people
turned out to learn the news she brought, and when
the hears . v, ice of the captain sounded through a
trumpet, "The Atlantic is safe," the whole city .
was 'brown into an ecsracy, and one poor woman
who had a bother on board the rai,sing ship went
mad wi, h j.iy. Half the packets that have gone
io th, boitom have been wrecked in consequence
of toe dal ing:y si)aving the land and cutting off
co de. s. Som- tit ei oub, t dly have 13-... en lost by in-
competent commanders who had , btained their sp•
point ,euts Through nt'erest rather than from merit.
Canards company have beau the most fortunate of
all Vie mail packet companies as far as the loss of .
ships is concerned. The Peninsular and Oriental
and the Royal Mail Companies have each lost about
the same number of ships. It is curious that almost
every courmandtr of a lost mail packet has been
steam-packet
rigidlyeOl-
blamed by landsmen for not using the lead, and
yet every sailor declares that it is almost impossible
for a commander of a mail packet, compelled to
atravel night and day at a racing speed, to use the lead
miznoeiretliaoinds.doTltiisiniter ought n allt
qu:red into by the government. During the last
twelveyears six
panics'in the
or seven millions' worth
has been dew. royed end h duu i eds of lives have been
104 . in mmisery these losses have
ail packets. The
caused is incalculable. 1 But is dawning.
Ships a new era dawning.
Ship like the Leviathan cannot be trifled with,
an,i if she is i...ucessful ..he present mail packets will
soon be superseded, and life and property on board
Leviathan ;learners carrying mails will be far Hafer
than they have hitherto been. —Daily New

CT iOBD AND CAMMUDGE AT RAti. ..—Tbe treireTS
struggle tor the champior-bip
losifl :131 1 the mie:Witre:in"Londonhich i
to come cif on Sator lay next, is exciting great interest.
All the eutties air completed,
y si racesl
el a
rpel
u:
left ever
ri witnessedn
Exeter
oxneet eorfct on
nle .
and in active prac•ice. Toe betting appears to be nearly
expected to hecTioie:
equal, ifanything, blisbtly in favour of Oxford. It 38
boats6xfftobr edbufiimniteesntb
theui
el e•Tl,ahbaFtnensed.
lately in poaseateion of Branum College.

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ITRE LOST IIfAII,STBAM 4 '-: ...
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Smile one should write ttoliatory 0 astir' $_ rT
packetis. No novel or roman soul , e ba-OW-ttl .:' J
int, refit the account of -schb t'ai4tidesirtietion of life
and pffoperty in connection ititlistheseinbeitektlisil -I%
the herc.isin,-suffering, and haiziar-eadth esaapw--of--- •
some Of .their crews and Pte . Wigan go,
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last twelve years about twenty lamer rruki1,,,,,,1'.4...