The Sun.
London, England, 1844-10-05 00:00:00

SHIPWRECK OF THE WINDSOR
CASTLE STEAMER.
On Tuesday, the Windsor Castle, an iron steamer,
plying. between Edinburgh and Dundee, left the latter
town at the same hour with her Majesty's yacht,
having about two hundred and fifty passengers, the
greater part of whom had come from Edinburgh with
the steamer that morning, in order to witness the
embarkation of the Queen. The Windsor Castle is a
small steamer, originally built for the river naviga-
tion of the Clyde; and the number of passengers that
was on board completely crowded her deck. She
sailed repeatedly round the royal yacht previous to
starting. When the royal squadron cleared the es-
tuary of the Tay, they stood out to sea, while the
Windsor Castle, which was, as might be expected,
soon left behind, stood right across the Bay of St.
Andrew's, for the Frith of Forth. For some time all
went well; the night was fine, and the weather calm,
the wind blowing gently from the north-west ; and
in the centre of St. Andrew's Bay, which is generally
considered the roughest part of the navigation, on the
east coast of Scotland, the sea was so smooth, that a
number of the passengers commenced dancing on
deck. This continued for some time, till the dancers,
wearied with their exercise, desisted. The royal
squadron being now nearly out of sight, most of them
went below.
Matters went on in this quiet manner till about
half-past seven o'clock at night, when a dark object
was seen looming directly in front, and not twenty
yards distant from the vessel ; this was at once ascer-
tained to be the Can Rock Beacon, a mark of warning
to point out a dangerous ledge of rocks running from
the land a considerable distance out to sea, and the
extreme point of which is marked by this beacon.
Instantly the word was passed to stop the engine, and
then to back it, and as instantly the word was
obeyed, but far too late for safety, the vessel surged
onwards and struck the beacon on her larboard bow,
when she reeled back and heeled on her beams as if
stunned by the blow.
Then began a scene of the deepest agony and de-
spair. For a minute, indeed, all was hushed in silent
consternation, and we believe the general feeling was
that all was over, and that she would go down in-
stantly. But as the vessel glided off inside the
beacon, and still held on her course, the whole
magnitude of the danger rose to the view of the
passengers. From the darkness of the night no land
was to be seen, and the minds of all on board ap-
peared to be made up to meet death in the course of
an uncertain but very brief period. It would have
been interesting for a spectator, could one have been
found sufficiently abstracted' from his own fate, to
mark the various feelings manifested by his fellow-
passengers, varying as they did from the highest point
of moral heroism to the extreme of pusilanimity.
Several ladies, of whom there were many on board,
behaved with the greatest fortitude; clustering to-
gether on the quarter-deck, they calmly appeared to
await the fate that might betide them. But the great
majority gathered amidships, uttered the most piercing
shrieks; and one lady in particular, throwing herself
on the deck, rolled from aide to side in the intensity
of her agony. Nor were the male sex more abundant
in moral courage. Several gentlemen howled as fran-
tically as did the ladies, most of them grasped the
pieces of wood that lay on the deck, in the hope that if
the ship should sink, they might support themselves
by these means. Two men in particular stripped
themselves to the shirt, prepared to brave the last ex-
tremity by swimming. One cry was unanimously
made to Captain Greig, the master of the steamer, to
run her ashore. The Captain loudly assured the pas-
sengers that there was no danger—that she was per-
fectly tight ; at the same time he immediately gave
orders to the helmsman to get as close to the land as
possible • and in a short time the land, which was
only about three-quarters of a mile distant, though
from the darkness of the night it could not before be
seen, began to appear on the starboard bow. This
and the loudly-repeated assurances of safety on the
part of the captain, appeared for a time to calm the
majority of the passengers; but others who had gone
below forward, returned and assured their compa-
nions that the ship was fast filling, and in a few mo-
ments more this truth began to be frightfully appa-
rent, the ship was settling fast, and the water in the
hold, surging from side to side of the vessel, caused her
to threaten every moment to turn on her beam ends,
which we believe was only prevented by the passengers,
running to the one side as the vessel heeled over ore
the other. Still the vessel was gradually approaching
the land, which was now close at hand, and did not
appear to be very inviting. The land is here low but
rocky, with sharp ledges running diagonally out
to sea, and to run upon these appeared to be cer-
tain destruction to the vessel. Still es the night was
fine, there was every probability, that if she grounded
at all, she would hold together till all the passengers
could be landed. The running ashore, however, was
still a matter of uncertainty, for it appeared, though
this was not known to the majority of the passengers
till afterwards, that the water was coming in fast,
that there was great danger of the engine-fires being
put out. Some moments of intense anxiety then
passed ; the vessel was evidently settling ; her way
was greatly slackened ; and the lurchings were every
moment more tremendous, when fortunately her keel
at last touched the bottom between two of the ledges
of rock of which we have spoken, and the steam. was
immediately let off. All danger was now felt to be
pissed, at least among those of the passengers whom
fear had not altogether deprived of judgment; but.
still there was a general cry, especially among the
women to be set on shore.
This, however, was a work of considerable diffi-
culty. It turned out that the only boat on board—
the only means that had been promised, in case of
accident, to save the lives of about 250 people—was
a small stern-boat, which, when now brought into
action, was only capable of taking ashore six pas-
sengers at a time I Fortunately, the calmness of the
night, and the settled condition of the stranded ship,
.had by this time restored nearly all the passengers to
their senses ; and when the boat was brought along-
side, the cry of " the ladies first ashore," was at once
attended to. One man was, however, landed and
dispatched to Crail, a fishing town about two miles to
the south, for other boats ; and in the course of about
an hour, three large fishing boats were alongside,
and conveyed a great number of the passengers on
shore. Still there were about fifty left on board ;
who, after waiting for some time for the return of the
boats, which was longer than was expected, resolved
to reach the shore over the bows or the vessel, which
sees now left dry by the receding tide, so that, in oil°
way er another, the whole of the passengers got
safely to land in about an hour and a half after the
vessel had struck, and about two miles from the scene
of the collision. The vessel continued under way, after
the shock, for about twenty minutes.
Arrived on shore, the male passengers made their
way, en foot, to drail, where they were hospitably
received by Mr. Merson, the minister of the parish ;
Mr. Webster, the parish schoolmaster ; Mr. Dickefei,
of the Golf Inn: and by every other inhabitant that
could spare a bed for their accommodation. The ladies
were mostly accommodated for the night in the farm-
houses near the place where they came ashore, parti-
cularly by Mr. Crombie, of Kilvvinning, under whose
house the vessel came ashore, Mr. Tod, of Balconibie,
and Mr. Morton, of Craighead.
We understand that the vessel went to pieces next
morning.
Two faults in this wretched business were very
apparent. The first was, that no look-out had been
kept at all. The Can Rock Beacon is familiar to
every navigator of the Fife coast, and was passed in
particular by this vessel twice every day. Nothing,
therefore, but gross negligence could account for the
vessel running upon an object so conspicuous in itself,
and marking rocks so dreaded by mariners. In fact,
the Windsor Castle had no business inside the Can
Rock at all. The next fault was in having no pro-
vision for saving life on board. The boat which was
produced was unworthy of the name, and would
inevitably have been swamped, had it been resorted to
at sea. The loss of life from the want of boats has
been so dreadful in former instances, that it is sur-
prising the public do not insist on steamers carrying
something like a respectable amount of accommoda-
tion for passengers in the shape of boats; and failing
the public, it is surprising that Government do not
interfere.
It ought to be added, in conclusion, that after the
accident the conduct of the captain, Mr. Greg, who
is the son of the proprietor, was distinguished for
coolness and activity.—Morning Post.

(From the Ca edonian Mercury.)
We refrain in the meantime from expressing any
opinion on the circumstances which led to this
melancholy catastrophe. It cannot, however, he dis-
guised, that at the time it happened the sea was com-
paratively calm ; that the beacon against which the
vessel struck is one with which all who have the least
pretension to knowledge ZI? that passage must be
thoroughly acquainted, and, knowing it to be a
dangeroui point, those in charge of the Windsor
Castle should be able to give some satisfactory ex-
planation to the public, otherwise all confidence in
such means of conveyance will be withdrawn. From
the inquiries we have made, we learn that the vessel
was, at the time of the accident, under the command
of Captain Greig, and that Mr. Black, who early in
the summer brought the Windsor Castle round the
north of Scotland from the Clyde, was acting as pilot.
It is said that the steamer, in consequence of the
smoothness of the sea, had made more progress than
was calculated upon, and that the leading light on the
Island of May was not distinctly seen, the atmosphere
being hazy at the time, and that these two causes
combined to mislead the pilot, and make him think he
was farther out at sea than he really was.
Several seafaring men have given it as their opi-
nion, that had the Windsor Castle struck the North
Carr Rock stern on, she would immediately have
split in two, and all on board would have been,
consigned to a watery-grave. As it was, it ap-
pears the vessel, which is made of iron, made a