Star.
London, England, 1825-10-27 00:00:00

LOSS OF THE COMET.

FROM TUE GLASGOW COURIER OF TUESDAY.
The. lamentable catastrophe continues to engage the
symptthy and attention of Glasgow to a degree unpre-
cedented. The alarm and anxiety on Saturday were
rat..
tienlarly great, as it was known that another steam-
(t4 e Stirling) was to leave Fort-William about the
same time, and many were ignorant in which bolt their
hiends might have embarked. The Stirling, however,
came in on Saturday, in safety, and so far relieved the
atuti.ty and fears of many, when the public feeling and
sympathy became exclusively ditected to the fate of
tbe tinft.rtnnate sufferers who were cn board the Comet.
The account of two of the bodies cast onshore being
black:, is, we learn, incorrect. So also them is reason
to believe is the account of the loss of the Lady of a
Cdonel in the army, with seven children.
Of titt,t cause and result of this fatal accident, little
remains to be told. One fatal shock laid open the bow
er the Comet. In a few minutes the unfortunate in-
mates were precipitated into the deep—the Cutlet
instantly filled, and di,appeared, and the stormy wave
rolled over the spot as roughly as berme, and as swiftly
as it rr thing had happened. The number of persons
tie bard has tint yet been ascertained, and we believe
can only be correctly ascertained when the friends of
thole who itave perished have from every quarter (and.
these distant) from whence the passengers by the
Comet had been collected, come fbr ward to state the
same. The number on board has been variously esti-
mated at from 60 to 100. In addition to the names of
those lost, we may mention that of a young man named
Frazer, belonging to Fort William, who accompanied
his young friend, Mr. bl•Braine, on a visit to this
place. Amongst the number saved, not mentioned
in our last, there are, Captain Campbell and Mr.
Cameron, of Fort-William, and a woman of the name
of Munro.

When the intelligence reached Edinburgh, it occa-1
sioned a sensation equally great as in this place. The
Lord Advocate premptly set off for Greenock, and in
his way took with him J. Cuba D irlop, E q. Sheriff-
Depute if Renfrewshire: upon the examination before
them of prrsors and passengers belonging to the Comet,
warrants have been issued fur the apprehension of the
master of the Ayr, and others implicated in this sad
affair. The pilot of the Ayr was examined and com-
mitted to otiyus on Sunday. A warrant is issued
to opprehet:d the pilot of the Comet, and bring him
to exatninat;on, and yesterday Miltines, the master
of this boat, went down to Greenock, to be ex-
amined before the same authorities. A serious in-
vestiga;ion into the matter will no doubt take place.
The public demands it, and will not be satisfied with-
ora it; and not only so, but that some strong re-
gui.nions and precautions should be adopted, to prevent,
as far as human foresight and human laws can prevent,
die recurrence of calamities such as this, which cover
districts of country sills mourning, burst asunder
numbers the nearest and dearest ties, and plunge fami-
lies and friends and relations into the most poignant and
uretrievable affliction and distress,
The bodies of Captain Sutherland, and his young,
saiiahle, but unfortunate wife, had not been found yes-
Imlay forenoon. it blew so hard that nothing could be
done to reci..ver from their watery bed, any more of
the bodies of the unfortunate sufferers. In all forty-
one have been brought ashore, and every attention is
pail to' their lifeess remains. Ic will be seen from our
list of names, that besides Mr. Mac Allister, there is an-
otter respectable Gentleman belonging to Edinburgh,
Mr.ltollo, W. S. found amongst the dead. Ile has,
we regret to learn, let a widow and a young and nu-
merous family to .deplore his untimely fate, and the
grertea misfortune which caibefal them.
31is. Giant of Laggan had. a narrow escape. She
was at Baliahulish, waiting for the boat to come roand
to G!aso,ow. She stood on the shore, having taken
lumen of her friends; but as the Comet approached
she Ire.itated, the weather appearing gloomy, and re-
trcting that the Stirling was to pass neat day, she re-
solved to proceed in her, and accordingly the Comet
was allowed to pass, and the Stirling passing during
the night, she missed her intended conveyance.—
Four Gentlemen (two Mr. Martineaus of Lyndon, and
Mr. Glover, tcc.) landed from the Comet at ltothsay,
arid thus escaped the clinger, though the time taken up
in landing them delayed the Comet, and left her to
meet the Ayr at the fatal point where she did.
A buoy has been fixed overthe wreck of the Comet.
She lies about 150 to 260 yards from the shore, in
about from 90 to 25 fathoms water. It is intended to
race her if possible. Till this is done, the extent of the
calamity and loss will not be ascertained, as it is proba-
ble a bee t rumb. r of persons were drowned in the
cabin and steerage, and who, in the confusion to get on
deck, c risi not effect their purpose. No time ought
to be lust in going about this business. At this lea.on
of the year the weather cannot be depended on for a
day, and one stormy night may dash her to pieces;
" I have lived," says an informant, .‘ at Gourock
for a considerable number of years, and identify my-
self sitar the people, and am proud to say, that to a
man they have behaved in the most praiseworthy
manner, active and zealous in the highest degree, toiling
by day, and watching by night."
The scene at Gourock on Saturday was distressing
beyond measure. Relations were coming from all
quartets in search of their friends, many of-them un-

certan whether they were in the Comet, or coming by
401 n? other opportunity. Others were not kt pt so
long in suspense, but their hopes were at once blasted
by the awful spectacle of their lifeless friends stretched
out benne them. Two pointer dogs swam athore.—
rimy ;tai lost their master; they lay down at the end
of a house in Guurock ; they refused all food, and:
could lint be made to leave the spot. The following
particu'ais we insert in the words of a Gentleman, who
was at the place on Saturday, lid who has been k•nd
enough to lay them before us. " We left the Bron.nie-
law,"- says he, "at ten, A.M. and reached Gourock at
one o'clock. During the passage, one young man
informed n.e of his errand t.eing to ascertain the fate
of a brother and sister, the former on his way to Com-
plete his studies at College.. On arriving at Kempoch
Point, Be first object this person recognised, was'
his sister's body. Sne had just been landed by
one of the boats, and looked a fine young woman
I observed a Bible and some money, &c. taken from
her pockets. By the time I reached the scene of mis•
fortune, four bodies had been previously found, by as
many b-ats. One or two other boats were preparing
their tackle, and a steam boat, called the Sovereign,
had commenced trawling with a net. Dating my stet',
which did not exceed an hour, the tevt:ral boats had
been successful. 1 saw nearly a doz-n bodies brouAht
orr shore, pairs of which had been fished up together. At
(4)e 11'131 of the net, three bodies mere rinsed. One 01

these Was the body ofd rtan who had seemin,Ay strip-
ped for the purpose of swimming. !He rung con-
spicuous (at the distance of five or six hundred yards)
on the side of the vessel, sustained by the bottom of
the net. He app: tired from the shore to be naked, but
I think some part of his dress was on. On being landed, '
the bodies were exposed for recognition. I saw the fea-
tures of several. They, iwigeneral, appeared not much
distorted. One young boy, about twelve or thirteen, I
looked as if he slept, so pl +cid was his countenance.
So ► e instances were, however, truly terrific. A young
woman had been grappled by the throat or face, and '
.whv borne from the water's edge, her face downwards,
with her long loose hair dripping with blood and
trailing on the stones, the heart sickened at the
spectacle. The pockets of the sufferers were I
examined, if possible, to a:certain their names.—
No legal or responsible person seemed, however, to !
conduct the duty, n r could I discover by what means 4
the several articles turned out were preserved from
spoliation. In some pockets were found trinkets of no
mean value, and money to a considerable amount. 1
After this investigation, the bodies were carried on bar-
rows to the Church, where they remained till removed
by claimants, or to Greenock. The unfortunate cause
of the catastrophe, the pilot of the Ayr, was in attend.
ante. He appeared to take some interest in the seaich,
but expressed much disk leasure at the interference of
the trawling boat, which he insisted would only hurry
the bodies out ro dee,or water. This man bitterly corn
plained of the public judgment in all ibuting blame to
his boat. He declared that the Comet had rio Felt,
and was not perceived till in actual coetact with the
Ayr. By Mr. It.'s watch, the hour of the morn-
ing was a few minutes from two. At that period the
moon was set. It would be difficult to describe the
fee.ings excited by the vicinity to the scene, and the
entire recentness of the calamity. To know that the
eye rested on a given spot of not many yards circum-
ference, within the boundaries of which were extended
the pale and shrivelled corpses of so many persons,
unscathed by disease and unpolluted by col rop•ion, and
farther to think of the uncalmed distraction of perhaps
a thousand relatives, over whose threshold the rumour
had passed, but w fro as yet remained unconfirmed in
their uncertainty, was to experience a state of mind at
once harrowing and deeply sympathetic. I left the
scene with much unwillingness, as I have no doubt
many interesting recurrences were afterwards witnessed
by the spectators."
The Master and those connected with the Ayr, have
published an eiplanation or defence of their conduct on
this melancholy occasion.\Ve insert it, bin must state that
we consider it a very lame one ineleed.With regard to the
cause of the accident, it appears that both parties were
greatly to blame; the Comet, we must acknowledge, the
most.lt is the subsequent proceedings of the Ayr to which
blame, and serious blame, seems to attach. We are far
from wishing to judge of any one in such a moment with
harshness or severity ; but the most ordinary presence
of mind would have suggested to any one, in the situa-
tion of the Mas:er of the Ayr, that if the Ayr was in a
sinking state; the proper course to take was, to have got
out her boats to save her own crew and passengers, and
also all he could of those to whom he had left no suc-
cour, but such as he could afford ; and moreover, to
have run his vessel into Gourock, or ashore at that plate,
in teal of running off to Greenock, nearly three miles
distant, without once endeavouring to raise the alarm,
or let the inhabitants cf Gourock knov) what had taken
place. This certainly WAS the course to pursue, and
this certainly was the course a seaman would have
adopted, and which, in fact, two seamen belonging to
the Harmony, passengers on board the Ayr, attempted
to do, by getting out her boat to relieve the crew and
the passengers of the Comet ; and who, in doing this
sensible and judicious act, had nearly lost their own
lives, by the Master of the Ayr putting the steam upon
the vessel, and dragging the boat under water !
We do not, and cannot for a moment suppose, that
any one connected with the Ayr, did this from a cold-
blooded disregard of the lives of their fellow-creatur ec,
in such an appalling and heart-rending scene as pre-
sented itself to their view, but the defence put forth
raises our regret, and lays before us the cause of such
catastrophes as that which we are called upon to con-
template—the want of proper seamanship and igno-
rance of nautical affairs, on board of the steam-boats,
on this occasion. So great was the latter, that the
helms of both vessels were put the wrong way ! and
thus the catastrophe was hurried on which might have
been avoided. Had proper and experienced seamen
been on board, this would not have taken place, and
had such been on board either of the boats, and more
especially of the Ayr, then, when the fatal stroke took'
effect, they would have known what to do—what to do
to relieve the greatest sufferer—what was the state of
theft own vessel—the danger she was in—the power of
affording relief to the other, and have been able to
convince and to direct her crew and passengers, that
their nearest port for safety was Gourock, and moreover,
that their duty commanded them to stay by the wreck
of the Cornet till every living being was saved.
The following s:atement is Irons the proprietors of
the Ayr:

" The Ayr left Greenock about one o'clock in the morning, car.
tying a light a-head, which the regulations
.of the river demand.
All hands were on deck ; two or three of whom were looking out
at the bow. The master bad been on the paddle-box frequently,
calling to the men to look out well, until they concluded themselves
abreast of Goorock (for it was now dark, .the moon setting at 40
minutes past twelve) when he went et to adjust the binnacle-light.
Returning td resume his station on the paddle-box, and before he
bad reached the rail on the quarter-deck, a cry of ' boat a-head,
and starboard your helm,' was heard from the men stationed at
the bow. The vessel immediately answered the helm (now star-
board), but the Comet's helm appeared to be to port, and the yes
-
sets in consequence came in contact. When the Ayr got away
from the Comet, the master of the former ordered the small
boat to .be lowered down in order to render the Comet assistance.
—ln the hurry, however, the boat filled with water, and about this
time the Comet disappeared. Every exertion was made by the
master to bring the Ayr round to the place where he presumes'
the Comet was, but it was some time before the vessel answered
the helm, and when at length she slid so, no trace could be found
of the Comet. At this time the passengers of the .Iyr (who before
the crash had been below), apprehensive of their own danger, for
she was then leaking much, grew clamorous that the master
should run the vessel ashore, and implored him, with hands around
him, or rather upon him, to do so, and to save their lives. He,
therefore, seeing all attempts to rescue any of this Comet's people
ineffectual, put about and returned to Greenock. The Comet had
no light, nor did Captain Al'elelland hear any voice front her until
the vessels met."