New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1854-10-20
A WORD WE WOULD RATHER NOT SAY

safety first and spendor afterward.
|
A WORD WE WOULD RATHER NOT SAY.
| The spectacle is presented Of popular and Off
cial meetings in honor Of Captain Luce-for
what For suffering one of the finest vessels on
the ocean to be wrecked, and losing the lives Of
hundreds entrusted to his care-though not in the
extremity deserving his vessel, but sticking man
fully TO his post and allowing hi nself and child to
sink into the waters. All honor to courage; but
is this the time for public complime nts to hero
of the kind Is there nothing due the memories
of those who were lost by his neglect before the
vessel wes struck, and by his errors after Do
the people at Yonkers think the wall Of woe is
to be silenced by their resolutions And the
proposal of the New York Councimen that $500
be appropriated to purchase Captain Luce a tes-
tmOnisl, and that the Governors Room be
opened for him to receive his fellow citizens in,-
what will good taste and humanity say to such
things
We did not wish to pursue this matter Of the
Arctic, or to speak Of it thus plainly but the So
called representatives of the people in this City
have taken il up in the manner We have men
tened and we feel constrained to say word
we would rather avoid saying. Besides now is
the time for impressiDg on the community the ne
cessity Of reforming the recklessness which m srks
our travel by sea, equally heller skelteras by land
Hear what Mr.. Smith, one of the passengers in
the Arctic, says
During the day, up 10 the time of the accident
the weather had been quite foggy, and was some
hat ad and all vnarO
deck seeing The weather thick that fancied not
more than three four of the ships lengths ahest
could be seen, and che going on at full speed, Without
oHg alarm beH steam whistle, or other signal beng
sounded al intervals IN such manner as had been
deeHst0med 10 m a FOG on other rcssels."
Here We find death and destruction almost in
sisted on by carelessness Of the most hagrant
kind. But after the collision, we must say the
management was little better. The first error
was sending away the mate GOurlie, to look after
the other vessel, instead of looking after the
Arctic. A capital blunder, too, was to try to run
ashore when the water was rising 30 fast that it
would quench the flames before getting half way
to lsn6. When the mate was gone, the captain
appeared unequal to the occasion. IL the ship
he'd stopped running a raft could have been made
in one hour to carry all the passengers. Four
spars lsshed to four life boats would sustain four
hundred people. Filled with water-casks lashed
| to the spars, and on the center DOORS boards,
&c, it would have sustained the passengers,
crew, and provisions, leaving two boats to go for
assistance.
But there was better raft already made. The
upper deck of the Arctic would hsve supported
everybody aboard. This could have been cut
loose in one hour, so that it would have Aoated
when the hull sank. II was held by light wood
work and three-quarter inch bolts. Two blows
with an axe upon the iron plate that held the
head of the bolt would have severed ii. In re-
gard to the quarter-bOats We may also mention
that they were tested before use by loading them
each with eight hundred pounds Of pig iron aud
sixteen men each.
Captain Luce during the catastrophe was un-
certain Of purpose; he gave and withdrew orders,
while adheriDg to one which made the vessel take
water at the rate Of one foot in ten minutes.
From Mr.. Smiths statement we further learn
that system Of management or concentration Of
"efort was never commenced or applied to any
lore object" And the Captain ma! no control,
either, over his men, and, we must say il, quite
as much from his own fault as from any other
cause. To maintain control and especially
in difficulties, was the chief reason why the
Captain was given the command, and it was pre-
si.ely under the belief that his abilities would
rise with the occasion that hundreds entrusted
their lives to his supreme care But at the crisis
every eowardly, sordid rascal aboard did as he
chose, and the Captain had no power over the
mutiDy, but il had its own course-the passengers
helpless in their extremity and seeing the only
means for their salvation taken away from them
BY the very men who were paid to aid them. We
repest, this was the Captains fault; a man of
the right stuff for a commander always ,ciH have
discipline on bis chip.
Besides, compare the wreck of the Arctic
urder the circumstances with the saving of
the steamer Republic. Thi. vessel on the
Pacific coast ran on rock which perforated
her bottom. She got of and went CD her voyage
TO Acapulco, where, laying at the cOaliug ground,
she wss suddenly found to be sinking, and was
drawn as near TO the shore as possible, where she
sank nearly 10 her gunwsle. The assistant engi.
neer, eOTeeiVing it possible to mend her, Owed
down, and on discovering hole reported to his
chief the nature oft. He then took rule Owed
down again and measured the hole. lie next re-
turned and fitted block to the size and lining it
with canvass or blankets, secured the 'eak aud
subsequently covered it. Then the ship was
pumped out and the voyage completed to Pana.
ma. The Arctic needed such man.
We repeat We should not have gone into thi,
critical examination Of shortcomings. but We ind