The Sun.
London, England, 1859-06-27 00:00:00

lighthouses contiguous to, or within long distances
of, each other should be of such distinctive and dif-
ferent characters as to make the confounding one
with another almost impossible, or at least impro-
bable ! We do not mean to say that such is not the
case as regards the lights now in question ; but we do
say that, as regards these and all other lights, the
authorities who are responsible for them should de-
vote the most serious consideration to the subject, and
that if theory suggests, or experience proves, that
any specific lights are liable to be mistaken for
others, no trouble and no expense should be spared
to remove that liability.
" Perhaps the only modes by which lights can
be diversified are those already in use, namely,
change of colour, and changes of appearance, by
being fixed, i.e., uniform and permanent, or by
having their light concealed at intervals, as in the
revolving and flashing lights. On account of the
comparatively short distances from which coloured
lights are visible' especially in thick weather, the
most commonmode of distinction is by partial con-
cealment ; but that is a fallible plan, as when seen
at a long distance, or if it be a low light, as in a
floating vessel; a fixed light may, through being
obscured by intervening waves, have the appear-
ance of being intermittent. Such a cause may have
misled the captain in the present instance, as the
Tuskar light is an intermittent one,whilst the floating
Blackwater light is fixed. In most caess of doubt
from such a cause, perhaps the master of a ship
could not do better than run directly for the light
itself, until near enough to feel assured of its char-
acter and identity.
Some years ago a proposition was made to the
Trinity Board, that a system of alternate colours
should be adopted—that is to say, that the light-
houses around our coasts should alternate in colour;
thus, for instance, commencing with a fixed bright
light, that the next should be a red light, the next
to that a green one, the next following a violet, and
then a bright light again, and so on in the same
succession. Thus . every fourth light only corres-
ponding, the distance between similar lights would
be so much increased as to make it impossible that
the one should be mistaken for the other. The ob-
jection to this plan was, probably, that the coloured
light was not visible at a sufficient distance. We
think that the idea was an excellent one, and that
it might be so far adopted with advantage, as that
the alternate colours should be used in combina-
tion with a bright light at intervals in each case, so
that every fourth light should be a fixed bright
light, the next following to be a revolving or flash-
ing bright light, with intermittent coloured rays,
to be followed again by a revolving bright light at
different intervals, and with the intermittent rays
of a different colour from the preceding: These
double•coloured lights at long distanCes would then
have the appearance of bright revolving lights,
visible at different intervals, by which interval
each would in general be known, whilst a nearer
approach would bring to view its coloured rays,
and remove all uncertainty as to its identity, or
make assurance doubly sure.
Another cause of loss of life in this case was the
destruction of most of the ship's boats; and, in-
deed, the inadequate number of them, for if all of
them had been safely lowered and filled with pas-
sengers. they could not have taken in more than
one-third of those on board the ship, for we learn
there were but seven boats when she left Liverpool.
As-we pointed out in the case of the steamship
Austria not long since, so again in the case of the
Pomona we must point out that if the law afforded
to emigrants and other passengers the protection
which it ought to do, by the enforcement of a suffi-
cient and suitable supply of boats, much of this sad
waste of human life might have been spared.
True, two of the boats were washed from the davits
by the sea; three of them, were stove or upset on
being lowered into the water; and of the two
wh;ch left the ship, one was upset in landing
through the surf. But if the boats had been in
twenty in number, which they ought to have been,
instead of seven only ; if they had all been life-
boats—real lifeboats, not sham lifeboats, which the
generality of ship's lifeboats are—but if they had
been White's lifeboats, or . Berthon's collapsible
lifeboats, or such lifeboats as those adopted by , the
National Lifeboat Institution, they not only would
not have swamped if stove in, but might have been
safely filled with passengers d aft
they had erwards, and have
taken them to the shore ; an if e
the last-named class, and had been uoset in lower-
ing, they would have righted again instantly after.
If each boat had been fitted with Clifford's lower-
isg apparatus, its chance, of being safely lowered,
with its complement of passengers, without injury
and without upsetting, would have been infinitely
increased. And if each boat had had a bow rope,
of sufficient length and strength, secured to the
ship, which should always be the case, had she
been upset she would not have gone adrift,! but
have remained by the ship, with the chance of
being righted, and of still being available to save
life.
Under such circumstances it may be fairly pre-
sumed that many boats full of passengers would
have safely left the Pomona, and even if some of
them should have been upset in landing through
the surf, which, from the ignorance of merchant