The Sun.
London, England, 1866-02-12 00:00:00

Fearful Collison in the Bay of Biscay.

PLYMOUTH, Saturday.
This afternoon the ship Queen of Beauty, Capt.
Chapman, from London for Melbourne, put back to
the Sound, having on board the crew and passen-
gers of the Wanata, lost in the Bay of Biscay, when
on her passage from Liverpool for Melbourne.
The Queen of Beauty left the docks on Jan. 2,
and in consequence of heavy weather brought up in
the Downs, which she did not leave until the 23d.
On Feb. 6 at noon she was in lat. 46 13 N., and
long. 10 15 W. Towards midnight she was a little
to the westward, standing, with her bow north,
under single reefed topsails, foresail, mainsail, jib,
spanker, and staysail. The wind Was from W. to
W.S.W., with a very heavy sea running from N.W.,
and a thick haze hanging low on the horizon. The
captain was on deck. A ship was reported on the
lee bow, and the Queen of Beauty's after yards were
thrown aback immediately to avoid a collision, but
this was impossible. The force of the blow was,
however, diminished, and the stranger was struck
on the port side just abaft the fore rigging, and
was cut down nearly to the water's edge. She proved
to be the ship Wanata, 1,437 tons, Capt. Todd, be-
longing to Messrs. Baines and Co., of Liverpool. The
Wanata left on Jan. 26 with 183 passengers, chiefly
Government emigrants, including 60 single women.
Among the passengers were two clergymen, Messrs.
Walker and Lawson, Miss Markham, Mr. Tucker,
Mr. Gourley, Mr. Shaw, and Mr. Withington.
Her crew consisted of 45 officers and men all
told, of whom 28 were seamen, including 10 or 12
Swedes, Italians, and other foreigners. The Wanata
had experienced very heavy weather, and just be-
fore the collision was standing on the port tack, with
her bow south, under double-reefed topsails, foresail,
main trysail, and fore topmast staysail. The col-
lision took place during the second mate's watch.
The proper lights were exhibited, one being a red
light on the port side. Immediately after the colli-
sion the carpenter was lowered down to try to patch
the hole, but in this effort he was unsuccessful, in
consequence of the heavy sea running. The ship was
laden with iron, and a general cargo, and towards
the morning the crew broke into the hold, and be-
came drunk, disorderly, and mutinous.
Previous to the collision one of them had to be

placed in irons for disobedience. On the morning of
the 7th the doctor was assaulted when preventing
some of the crew from going among the single
women. During Wednesday the weather was so
boisterous that no attempt could be made to transfer
the passengers to the Queen of Beauty, which con-
tinued near. The pumps were kept going chiefly by
the aid of the passengers. On the morning of the
Bth it was considered that the Wanata could not be
saved, and at 9 a.m. preparations were made for
conveying her passengers and crew and some pro-
visions to the other ship. For this purpose the long-
boat was placed in charge of the boatswain, and the
two lifeboats under the command of the mate, Mr.
M'Clelland, and the second mate. They were kept on
duty until nearly dusk, Capt. Todd and Dr. Stone,
the surgeon, being the last to leave the Wanata ;
their boat was nearly swamped. At 730 p.m. the
Wanata was observed to be on fire, apparently aft,
1 and her mizenmast was supposed to have been burnt
out. It is conjectured that when the crew went be-
low to rummage the passengers' cabins they set the
ship on fire accidentally.
The Queen of Beauty is what is termed a " short
ship," and had but one passenger. Owing to this.
circumstance to second cabin and saloon were fortu-
nately unoccupied, and were appropriated to the use
of a portion of the passengers of the Wanata. By
the collision the Queen of Beauty lost her jibboom
and cutwater, and had her bulwarks damaged. At
8 p.m., on Thursday, she bore up for Plymouth.
Captain Stoll, R.N., the Government emigration
officer here, has made arrangements for the reception
of the passengers in the depot at Stonehouse. Messrs.
Wilcocks and Weeks have taken charge of the Queen
of Beauty, and the crew of the Wanata have either
been sent to the Sailors' Home or despatched by
rail under the authority of the agent of the Ship-
wrecked Mariners' Society.
The crew of the Wanata appear to have made
great depredations. One woman passenger has lost
a purse containing seven sovereigns ; another lost a
gold watch. Dr. Stone has missed a package of very
valuable papers.
It is supposed that had the ships locked at the
time of the collision both would have gone down
immediately. Each was aback. The Queen of
Beauty, 1,235 tons, was built at St. John's in 1861,
and is under charter by the Black Ball line. The
Wanata was built at New Brunswick in 1852.

SUNDAY.

All the passengers belonging to this ship were
safely landed last evening from the Queen of Beauty
in the Sound. The emigrants are in the depot at
Stonehouse, and express themselves well satisfied
with their quarters. They make grave complaints
of the conduct of some of the crew of their ship,
especially of White (an Englishman), Kennedy and
illicinan (Irish), and a man named Cox, all of
whom were frequently intoxicated after the collision.
Among the men two Spaniards, one of whom quar-
relled with a shipmate on Sunday, the 4th, and was
put in irons.
They state that on the 6th, about two hours after
the collision, Captain Todd sent some whisky to the
steerage passengers, who were working at the
pumps, when Alicman and another seaman knocked
the messenger down, stole the bottle and drank its
contents. On the 7th, Cox struck the second mate
on the quarter deck, and was put in irons ; but he
broke from them and freed himself. On the 9th,
when on board the Queen of Beauty, Micman was
discovered in possession of 141 b. of tobacco, and
some of the passengers' clothing ; he was put in
irons by Captain Chapman.

In reference to the Wanata, the passengers state
that previous to the collision she was pumped every
watch, about a quarter of an hour each time, and
that the collision did not cause much leakage. The
hole was stopped by the carpenter with boards
covered with oakum, canvas, tar, and two or three
coats. They consider that had she been British
built and not so old the master would not have
abandoned her. The officers of the ship say that
when put on the starboard tack she made six feet of
leakage in ten minutes, and that it was necessary to
keep her constantly on the other tack.
There is a statement by the passengers that the
Queen of Beauty was seen half an hour before the
collision ; that the Wanata's port light was not
burning briskly, and was taken in to be rectified,
and then replaced. The Queen of Beauty's stem
broke into the steerage berth of Jonathan M'Neil,
who, with his wife, was asleep at the time ; he is a
returning Australian, and was slightly injured. The
young women emigrants, about 60, chiefly Irish,
are in charge of Mrs. M'Avoy,:,matron. Many of
them are badly supplied with clothing. With the
exception of the master, chief officer, second officer,
and doctor, all the crew of the Wanata left Ply-
mouth at 6.45 this morning for Liverpool.

FREEDMEN'S LABOUR.—The Memphis Avalanche
dares to say that the experiment of freed-
men's labour has proved a success. The field
of industry is so wide and diversified that
accounts from it are naturally various and con-
flicting ; but there can be no doubt that the
average of results is that of success. There are
difficulties to surmount ; there are prejudices to
overcome
ofreome ; but it is the lesson of wisdom and the
part
policy to make all the virtue we can of neces-
sity, and not to abandon what is already in our
hands for rash and visionary adventures. The
labour of the negro is ponderous and inaccurate ;
it lacks the skill and the moral stimulus of educated
industry; but after all that can be said on the sub-
ject, it must be admitted that a labour naturally
tractable, trained in long habits of servitude, and
accustomed to the soil, is much more serviceable to
the South than any imported and strange labour can
possibly be.

The Unitarians in New York city have lately
raised $300,000 for missionary purposes.

-~

THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 12, 1866.

trate, who had been cashiered. He drew attention
to the difference of the system pursued at the refuge
and that followed at the casual wards of the work-
houses, and the successful precautions taken to de-
tect deception, prevent abuse, and to enforce order
and good conduct. Another important benefit
afforded by the refuge, was the effort made by the
committee to find employment for those who were
compelled to become recipients of the charity. It
had been said that recent legislation had prevented
the necessity of these refuges, but that was not the
fact, seeing that the class for whom the refuge was
provided was altogether a different one from that
which resorted to the workhouses. In conclusion
he moved that the report be adopted.
Mr. W. H. GLADSTONE, M.P., seconded the
motion, and congratulated the institution on the
improved position, both in funds, influence, and
usefulness, the refuge occupied now as compared
with last year. There were various opinions as
to refuges, but his view was that they should re-
gard them as supplemental to the workhouse. The
casual ward was the great difficulty of the work-
houses. There were two classes who availed them-
selves of the casual wards—the outcasts of society,
the criminals and vagabonds of the metropolis, and
those whom misfortune had reduced to destitution,
and who by a little help might rise again to a posi-
tion of honest industry. The great objection was
that those two classes were herded together in
casual wards, and thus the moral and decently con-
ducted were exposed to the disgusting ribaldry and
profanity which characterised the morally degraded
who under this system were their companions. It
was for the most deserving of these two classes that
the refuge was intended, and until police or other
regulations were introduced for the purpose of effec-
tually separating those classes in the casual wards,
refuges like that at Newport-market would continue
to be necessary.
The motion was adopted.

The Bishop of OXFORD moved that the results of
recent legislation, as at present carried out, had not
diminished the claims of the existing voluntary
night refuges on public support.
The motion was seconded by Commodore RYDER.

Sir H. HOARE moved a resolution in favour of
making further exertions towards establishing an
industrial school for the boys received into the re-
fuge. This was seconded by Mr. RANKIN, and
carried.

A vote of thanks to the chairman concluded the
proceedings.

Army Schools in France and England.

The following remarks, which will be read with
interest, are taken by us from a very able paper
upon the subject in the current number (February)
of Bentley's British Army and Navy Review :

The pressure of public opinion on Parliament and the
military authorities has already produced the most satis-
factory amelioration in the condition of our soldiers—
almost all the grievances of which they had, until lately,
but too just reason to complain have been redressed. The
degrading torture of the cat is now never had recourse to,
except as punishment for the most serious crimes, and
even in such cases the maximum of lashes had been re-
duced from 500, heretofore not unfrequently administered
to 50, so that we may reasonably hope for its total aboli-
tion at no distant day. The meritorious soldiers too have
had their pay increased, by means of good conduct allow-
ances, attainable by all, to an amount beyond which it
would perhaps be injudicious, having a duo regard to the
preservation of discipline to augment it.
The sanitary condition of their barracks has been greatly
improved. Their sleeping-rooms are well ventilated, and
their food is good and abundant—while such of them as
happen to be married, are either provided, or about to be
so, with separate lodgings, which will relieve them from
the indecency of the manner in which they were hereto-
fore compelled to live, so that it may be truly said, that
everything re luired to minister to the personal comfort or
well-being of our troops, has been already, or is in process
of being, secured for them.

Neither was the cultivation of the soldier's mind over-
looked, during the progress of these most desirable and
admitted improvements in his means and method of living
—au expensive (when estimated by the amount of infor-
mation it professed to communicate) system of regimental
education was devised for his intellectual improvement,
Parliament willingly and liberally supplying the necessary,
funds ; but its efficiency has been destroyed by radical de-
fects in its organisation, add founding our opinion on the
facts revealed in the second report of the Council of Mili-
tary Education, we regret to say, that it appears for so
far, and after a trial of now some year's duration, to have
resulted in an undoubted and deplorable failure. Educa-
tion is not and never can ho made so acceptable to tho
British soldier, who rarely ambitious and still more rarely
attains military rank, through his own personal mei-A.4
and exertions, as it is to the French ono, who on entering
his service has the highest honours of his profession held
out to him, as prizes surely to be won, by perseverance,
good conduct and courage ; and who accordingly labours
assiduously, in his humble sphere, to profit by the instruc-
tion, which will render him capable of correctly perform-
ing the duties of the high military rank, should it be
his goad fortune to reach them. Yet in the French ser-
vice, notwithstanding that much diligence and attention
to their studies might reasonably be expected from the
soldiers (who aro taught that they carry " La Baton do
Marshal dans leers Gibernes") on account of the ultimate
benefits which they may probably derive from them—at-
tendanee on the regimental schools is made compulsory—
while in ours, where no such stimulants to exertion exist,
tho soldier is loft at perfect liberty to avail himself, or not
as he pleases, of the educational advantages, which the
country provides:for him, and to this cause may mainly be
attributed the failure of our regimental schools, to accom-
plish the objects for which they were designed.
The very composition of our army should have taught
those having control over its education the futility of
making attempts to extend its, benefits of learning,
while leaving it optional with the class of men, who, for
the most part, fill its ranks, to indulge in the idleness or
intemperance which where the main causes of their en-
listment, or voluntarily to undergo the slightest degree of
mental exertion ; the more irksome, because never before
enforced upon or practised by them.

It is unfortunately the fact, that the vast majority of our
recruits volunteer for service, only when they find them-
selves unable to gain their bread by other pursuits, or are
entrapped by the recruiting sergeant when in a state of
intoxication. The expecation of leading an easy life, while
enjoying good food, is the sole motive which induces the
former to become soldiers, and the latter, quickly repent-
ing the step they have taken, desert, if :they can auom-
plish their evasion, or, failing in their attempts and being
unable to buy themselves off, retire from the service, upon
the termination of their first engagement. Now it is evi-
dent that men actuated by such motives or enrolled by
such means will have no taste for mental improvement,
that those who can already read and write will rest satis-
fied with requirements which they consider sufficient for
their purposes, while those who can do neither, seldom
feel inclined to submit to the labour necessary for acquir-
ing a knowledge of the simplest rudiments of learning,
which might exercise some influence on their future pro-
spects. The number of those who enter our army in the
hope of obtaining promotion is extremely limited, and
such persons, as a matter of course, have already received
an education very far in advance of that afforded by the
regimental system, which is in truth, as at present carried
out, useless to all classes we have enumerated —to the illi-
terate and unwilling to learn or partially instructed, be-
cause they are not compelled to attend the schools—and
to those desirous of enlarging the sphere of their know-
ledge, because the scope of the instruction which the re-
gimental teachers impart, is far below that by which they
have already profited.

A bachelor and a young lady bought some tickets
in partnership in a lottery at the recent Sanitary Fair at
Milwaukee, agreed to divide the proceeds equitably. They
drew a double bedstead, a baby-crib and lunch basket, and
the question is, how to divide them, or whether they shall
not use them jointly,

[ADVERTISEMENT.]—That the fearful annual mortalay of
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and with it the danger of life, we were simply to study how
to increase the vital force by imparting new and pure blood,
upon which the harmonious development of the whole frame
depends, has been successfully proved by Du Barry's inva-
lids' and Infa..ts' Food, the Revalenta Arabica, and its
thousands of cures annually. It yields three times as much
easily assimilated nourishment as the best meat, and for
children it is the best substitute for human milk. Dr.
Routh, physician to the Samaritan Hospital for Women and
children—the best authority on such matters —in his admir-
able publication on Food, says—Amongst the vegetable sub-
stances, th .t which comes closest to milk in its composition
is, without doubt, Du Barry's Revalenta Arabica Food, con-
sluing both phosphoric acid in abundance and chloride of
potasflum ; it also includes casein, the same principle which
is found in milk in its constituent parts. No wonder, there-
fore, that under its influence many children affected with
atrophy (wasting away of the body), and marked debt ity,
have completely recovered. I have given it with the Areatest
advant.,ge in such cases; and so far as I may judge from my
own experience, practice fully carries out what theory,
from a knowledge of its composition, led us to anticipate.—
In tins, lib., 2a. 9d.; 21b., 48. Cd ; 5:b., lls. ; 121 b., 215. ; 241 b.
405.—Barry Du Barry and Co., No. 77, Regent-street, London;,
also Phillips, tea dealers, 8, Ring William-street; likewise
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Bishopsgate-
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54, Upper Baker-street; 103, Tottenham-court-road; 96,
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mists.—Beware of BDuriolus imitations.