New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1873-04-02
man. The Supreme Court has very properly
reversed this decision, and ordered reassess-
ment of damages on reasonable basis.
A CALAMITY At SCI.

A CALdhIT1 III oEd'
An unexampled catastrophe is added to the
long list of those which form the terror OF
the sea. The steamship Atlantic of the
White Star Line, bound from Liverpool TO
New York, short of coal, laboring IN
heavy gale, went ashore, yesterday morn
ing. on the coast of Nova Scotia about thirty
miles from Halifax. and is total wreck.
OF the one thousand men, women, and children
on board over seven hundred were drowned.
This is the brief, bald story. The narrowing
details--the struggling in the sea, the wild con-
fusion, cries, and prayers, the bubbling groan
and bowling gale-these all must be filled in
by the shuddering thought of the reader who
securely sits at home and scans the record
which makes so little of great sum of hor-
ror. Many of these poor drowned creatures
we're immigrants bound to the New-World.
The ship was full of them when she went
ashore on the rocky coast of Nova Scotia.
where many noble craft has gone to wreck
before now. The vessel was short of coal,
though only on her twelfth day out. The
passage had most likely been heightened by
the improvident supply. and at o'clock in the
morning, in gale of wind and rain, strug-
Cling under sail, the good ship was hurled on
to her fate. People will Immediately ask,
Who is responsible InquisitiOn will be made.
nd nd off on
vive to tell their tale Of heroic endeavOr or
inefficiency. Now we can only await SORROW
fully the full details.
This is the great disaster of the halfcen-
fury not since the British frigates st. George
and Defence were wrecked off the coast of
Jutland, in 1911, has any such frightful loss of
life been added to the sorrow of the sea. In
that wreck 1000 men were drowned. The sinking
of the Royal George off Spithead, in 1882, when
Admiral Kempenfeldt went down with his 600
men, was long celebrated in song and story
as the great catastrophe by sea for many genera
tons. The wrecking of the Royal Charter, on
the Anglesea coast, in 1859, when 446 lives
and much treasure were lost, sent thrill of
horror throughout the civilized world. That
same year, too, the Pomona was cast away on
Blackwater Bank and 1916 men were drowned.
The Austria, burned in mid-ocean the
year before, lost 461 persons On the Pacific,
which disappeared in 1856, there were 1856
people; and on the City of Glasgow, never
heard of since 1854, there were 4S0. Of the
Arctic, we in America have still sorrowful
recollections; 300 men, women, and children
were lost On that ship, off the coast of New
foundland in 1854. On tho same dread
line of coast the Hungarian, with 800 people,
was cast away in 1866. The sinking of the
Northfeet in the English Channel last Janu-
airy, was the latest great sea disaster until that
which we now record. BY the wreck of the
Northfeet 1876 persons were swept out of the
world; but the story of the herOism, chivalry,
and dauntless courage of Knowles and those
who went down with him, will endure so long
as men love to talk of bravery in the face of
death.
All these great sacrifices of human life are
profoundly tragical. Men die in battle, de-
Tending their country or some precious princi-
pie and they count it sweet to sacrifice them
selves thus. But the sorrow of the sea is the
wall over life, love, and happiness helplessly
swallowed in the Implying waves. There
are no monuments for those who go
down into the deeps, unknelled and I'M
cof6ned. These calamities, occurring at such
short intervals, show us how helpless even
science, skill, and long experience are in the
grasp of the mighty forces which rule the sea.
Shall we, at least, fail, in the midst of our
profound sorrow for the lost and for the
bereaved survivors to gather up whatever
may remain for guidance to future safety and
security on the terrible seat