The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1854-05-16 00:00:00

NAVY PAY, &c., BILL.—A clause of this, bill, reciting
that it is desirable to give encouragement and facilities to
all who may be desirous of entering Her Majesty's navy,
provides that it shall be lawful for any servant to join the
navy, though the term of service for which he may have
been hired shall not have expired ; and a justice shall ad-
judge him a reasonable proportion of his wages for the
time he has actually served, and make an order for the
payment, and, if not paid in four days, a warrant shall be
issued for levying the same by distress and sale of the
master's goods,
THE WnEcn OF THE EncoLkno.—We have been fa-
voured with some details of the loss of the Ercolano, the
ship in which Mr. Halsey was a passenger, by Captain
Townshend, R.N., M.P., who had them from Sir Robert
Peel :—The latter said that, feeling ill from the motion of
the vessel, he was sitting iu his carriage, which had been
moved to midships on account of the heavy rolling of the
sea, smoking a cigar, when suddenly, and without the
slightest warning, a collision occurred. A large vessel (the
Sicilia) came upon them at the rate of 11 or 12 knots an
hour, running for eight or nine feet into the Ercolano, and
literally " doubling her up," The collision was so sudden,
and death so imminent, that there was no time for con-
sideration. Sir Robert had just time to spring out of his
carriage before the funnel of the steamer and the apparatus
of the galley fell against it, and threw it overboard. To
take off his coat, his trousers, and his boots was the work
of a moment. His servant was standing by him—an old
and valued servant, much attached to him ; and in that
awful moment Sir Robert found calmness enough to say a
few words to his faithful servitor,—" Good by ! God bless
you! Nothing can save us ! In a few minutes we shall be
in the other world ; but be comforted, I have made a provi-
sion for your daughter" (the old man's only child). The
old servant said he would never leave his master; but Sir
Robert, feeling that there was no chance for either of them
except in prompt and individual activity, exclaimed, "You
cannot help me Do the best you can. I shall jump into
the sea ; " and then took a strong leap to escape thee ddy
caused by the sinking vessel, which he happily cleared,
In the sea Sir Robert got hold of something, which he
supposes to be the bowsprit of the Sicilia, which was car-
ried away at the moment of the collision. Then he got
hold of a chain, and finally of a piece of the wreck'. to
which he found three other persons, one of whom he thinks
was his old servant, were clinging. In this position he
remained, the sea rolling heavily, for three quarters of an
hour. One by one his companions relaxed their grasp on
the floating portion of the wreck and dropped exhausted
into the sea—their grave ; and at last he alone remained
holding on till he was picked up by a boat belonging to
the vessel which had run them down. TM that moment
Sir Robert never lost consciousness or self-command, but
once on board the boat he sank into a state of insensibility
from which he was restored in the 'engine-room of the
Sicilia. Sir Robert says he heard the cries of people in
distress from the Ercolano before she sank, and he thinks
that lives might have been saved if proper means had
been taken. Mr. Halsey and his family, and many other
passengers, he believes, were below in the cabins, in all
probability asleep, at the time of the collision, and the
doubling up of the vessel would prevent them from get-
ting on deck ; but Sir Robert thinks that if the Sicilia
had remained about the spot till daylight she might have
picked up some of the passengers, who would probably
have been washed out and found clinging to the wreck.—
Neetfurd Mercury.