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

Another frightful disaster on the sea comes
with its roll of horrors to us. The steamer
Atlantic. of the White Star Line, is total
wreck ON Meagher's Rock, of Prospect, Nova
Scotia, with the appalling loss Of more than
seven hundred lives. But meager details of
the wreck have reached us. She ran ashore at
two O clock on the morning of yesterday, and,
out Of over nine hundred and City passengers
and the usual crew, but two hundred and fifty
reached the steep rocks of the coast alive
Among the saved, it il stated, there is not one
woman, not one child All not brought ashore
have. undoubtedly, persisted. as the ship
became total loss. To look alone at this in
the naked numbers of the persisted suggests
such widefelt, heartrending sorrow, that the
mind recoils from its contemplation. The de-
tails OF . battle. with its mighty death
roll would not 40 touch the general soul as
this disaster, with it's helpless women and
children. sitting their cries in the visible arms
OF death When we remember with what a
freight Of faith and hope the emigrant steps
ON board the ship; when the love that is left
behind and the love that SO often lures on
are thought Of, we can be certain that in
scarcely any similar number of men
and women can higher and more active
| emotions be centred than in the human cargo
Of an emigrant ship When they awake in
the dead Of night with the great ship break
ing her giant frame upon the rocks it is the
extremity Of human agony that rushes in on
the heels Of sleep. after few frantic moments
~ be followed by the pulseless sleep of death
amid the tumbling and the raving of tho
waters. Then the sorrow lifts from the
broken ship and scatters over two continents,
where il seeks out and wrings the hearts of
those who were watching for the faces that
will not come, and those whose prayers. love
and wishes followed them from the home land
across the sea. such In the awful matter Of
human lives il the loss Of the steamer At
lantic. Q name long TO be sadly romem-
bered. II IL little more than two months
since the ship NorthAcet was sunk
off Dungeness England. by collision.
when four hundred and thirty human
beings persisted. There the cause of the
fatality was plain. and the abandonment by
the Spanish steamer that ran the Australian
emigrant ship down has been condemned as
murder bya higher authority than the law
which failed to reach the offenders. With the
facts, 80 far al learned, Of this latest addition
to the tragedies of the sea before us. we must
proceed to judge what or how much criminal
ity attaches to those whose duty it was to pro-
tect the lives and properties lost.
The iron steamship Atlantic was . long.
narrow vessel whose lines resembled a
pointed lead pencil She was three thousand
seven hundred tons register, four hundred
and twenty feet long by forty feet beam. She
was not two years old. having reached New
York from her first trip on the 23d Of
June, 1871, after run OF ten days
and few hours. She possessed ''all
the modern improvements, steam steering
gear, compound engines, &c. but the most
Wanted feature Of all was the economy Of fuel
by the use Of steam at low pressure after il
had been used at high pressure. With this
arrangement il was calculated that she could
be run at full speed ON fifty-fve tons of coal
per day. All that could make travelling easy
and sumptuous for saloon passengers
was done. Safety. speed and CON-
fort was the constant phnse Of the
owners, and the performances OF the
line in rapid passages had raised
its vessels suddenly into favor. Ten days in
Summer time, We are aware. Is not an extra
ordinary passage; but they made swiftor trips.
and the advertisement seemed nothing bat a
fair statement Of fact We are the more
willing 10 admit this as the sequel goes b
prove on what light chances lives and rcpuia-
ton are stakod. The ill-fa,ed Atlantic started
from Liverpool on her last voyage ON tho 2osh
Of last month. She put into Queenstown Coz
mails and passengers on the 2lst aud then
proceeded on her transaGlaphc way. The
weather was boistcrous, but she did not On.
counter any severe storm. and. considering shs
time Of the year, made remarkably good time
After being at sen barely tcn days Il WAS
found that the supply Of coal was almost En-.