The Liverpool Standard, and General Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1854-11-21 00:00:00

their families in the performance of their duty

manfully executed all that

as required of them

and even more, sparing no exertions to vindicate

the invincibility of the meteor flag of England, the
beacon of protection to the oppressed against all
the tyrants of the earth. In this enterprise of
danger many of them have fallen, and many may
yet fall before the task be fully performed. The

;haring none of ti

—is to cont.

which ti

lion of our common cause has ren-

dered de

,solate. It is a duty in which all should

doubly stimulated, as an appreciation not only of
the gallant deeds at Alma, at Balaklava, and at
Sebastopol, but in heartfelt sympathy for those
who have suffered so bitterly from the inevitable
casualties.

But why need we enlarge upon this theme ; it
meets an echo wherever the note is sounded, and
town after town, from John o' Groat's to Land's
End, have striven to emulate each other which
should be foremost in the cause. In our own

town the same spirit has been evinced—Ward-
meetings vieing with each other in the extent of
their liberality to the distressed—and the same
feeling pervading all classes, from the princely
merchant to the humblest individual.

THE LOSS OF THE FORERUNNER

THE improvements which have taken place in
navigation, in the construction of vessels, in the
skill of navigators, and in the knowledge of
tides, currents, shoals, rocks, and other points of
nautical experience, should have tended in a very
material degree to diminish the number of ship-
wrecks—disasters which are so often attended with
the sacrifice of human life. There appears, how-
ever, to have been recently a series of casualties,
not so much to the old-fashioned tubs which
modern science may look on with something like
contempt, but to the triumphs of ship-building
skill, to those vessels whose performances have
testified to their superiority. It is not many
months since the mysterious disappearance of the
City of Glasgow steam-ship, belonging to the
Liverpool and Philadelphia line, excited the deepest
commiseration for the four ht

adred human beings

on board of her, who were thus prematurely con-
signed to dusky death. Their fate was attributed
to the icebergs, which were known to be floating in
the Atlantic ; and, having heard nothing more of
her, no means were afforded for judging of the
conduct of those to whom she was entrusted. Not
long afterwards came accounts of the wreck of the
City of Philadelphia, a steam-ship, nearly new,
belonging to the same line. The consequences of
the disaster were much less, for the crew and pas-
sengers were saved ; but the wreck of the ship was
attributed to the reprehensible practice of pro-
ceeding at speed too near the dangerous coast of
Newfoundland. But, hardly had the excitement
occasioned by this calamity subsided, when the
intelligence was received that the steam-ship Arctic,
the crack boat of the Collins' line—the vessel whose
performances had only been surpassed by the
Arabia, with a few minutes to spare—had met with
1-e- I a shod

it more disastrous in its consequences,
not far from the scene of the former wreck. Here
was another instance of recklessness, for it was
shown that she was going at frightful speed not
far from the coast, in a dark night, and in a locality
where fogs are of frequent occurrence,until, meeting
another vessel, the dangers of a collision were past
all remedy.

But the catalogue of wrecked steam-ships is not
closed, for, a fortnight since, we had to record the
loss of the Forerunner, a fine steam-ship built by
Mr. JOHN LAIRD, of Birkenhead, for the African
Steam Navigation Company, and on her voyage
home, having just left Madeira for England. Last
week we published some further particulars relating
to the disaster, and also an extract from Mr.
DRIVER'S book on Madeira, descriptive of the place
where the accident occurred. Since then, Captain

remaining two, to

d without ord

)r discipline, we

instantly-over Crowded. At this juncture, two of the boats
having pushed off to reach a Portuguese fishing-boat,
which providentially passed near to us, a heavy roller
struck the ship ; she slid forward 'about half her length.

ler pro:

ienaicu►ar to the water as she descendec
of a stone dropped from a height

ghteen or nineteen souls were carried down in this
ghtful vortex, the quenched fires and steam roaring like

tge monst
rev, A...1411r.

Four or five only

elapsed

between t

and totally

in say-
It was