The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1873-04-02

gerous and difficult on any sea, the Prospect
light could so easily be mistaken for the other.
The captain is saved and, as he will have to
answer for this blunder before the proper
Court. we shall not examine it any further. The
main and unavoidable question for which
owners and agents az well as ships officers
will have to answer is, How came it that after
bare ten days at sea the supply of coal was
exhausted2 There is no Sinking this point,
for it is the plain fact above all others, and
independent of the last blunder in seaman
ship. that the loss of these seven or eight
hundred lives is upon the head of those re-
sponsible for the shortness of the coal.
In England, just now. member of Parlia-
ment Mr.. Plimsoll, is agitatng to obtain a
law against the rapacity of shipowners in
sending rotten ships and overloaded ships to
sea, careless of the consequences in loss of
life SO the insurance is covered or the re-
uuSOO Coov Huyb aot WAc PAOpOAVy AAO
has been crying out against the coal
trade and coasting trade in particular; but
scarcely could he have dreamed that from q
pretentious company of transatlantic steam
ships he should SO soon obtain such a fearful
example of this inhuman rapacity. Over one
thousand souls on board and barely eleven
days coal in season when storms are to be
expected and three weeks voyage is
among the easiest possibilities This
speaks more than the weightiest invective
that Junius ever penned. We presume that
the provisions were calculated with similar
meanness. Everything was on the scale of
the coal Coal was dear in England but if
it WAS worth it's weight in gold supply
for at least sixteen days should have been on
board Was it the few shillings advance on
the price of English coal that sent this
steamer to sea 30 meanly coaled2 1t will
be recalled here that economy of fuel was one
of the first boasts of the owners Of the steamer.
The terrible irony of that boast will now ring
in the ears of thousands of bereaved
families. With the economy Of fuel came
the economy of space for bunkers;
and another question here intrudes that must
be answered-Was the space that should
have been used for fuel turned into space
for more cargo and more passengers?
II il the more likely Of the two PROPOSE
tons The saving on the coal would have
been little; but if it could be saved and
at the same time the space represent fifty or
sixty extra passengers the double greed would
be satisfied. II is greed, greed, greed. A
contemplate avarice has murdered over seven
hundred human beings, for we scout as pre-
posterous the idea that the Captain sailed
in ignorance Of the amount of coal
he had on board. Look where we will in this
black story, the fact that murder has been
done stares us in the face. The few dollars
that might have been gained will weigh but
lightly beside the shrieks of the passengers who
fell, benumbed, from the rigging into the
watery gulf below. 1t is sickening, horri-
BILE, revolving story of criminal rapacity-
negligence is out of the question. The final
question comes How many more of these
ships cross the Atlantic week after week SINH
larry freighted and similarly coaled?
Up to the present writing no record of the
saved or lost of the passengers has reached u.s.
There is, we fear, little reason to hope that the
loss viii be lighter than at first stated. We
learn that among the passengers were
Mr.. William II. Merritt and wife,
Miss Mary Merritt and Miss Annie
Scrymser. of Fifth avenue, New York.
Among the poor AZ well as the rich the fear
full tidings will spread their desolation. In
one family Of sorrow all classes will be mingled
and levclled No greater calamity on the ocean
for many years has appealed to mems
sympathics n this will appeal. May the
plying eye Of the Almighty look down on the
bereaved and stricken We appeal to the
justice Of man for punishment on those
guilty % the crime that led to the catastrophe.
a.
90 enc Decision ef the United states