Connecticut western news., 1875-05-21
THE WRECK OF THE SCHILLER.
The Responsibility for the DIsaster--TO M A Whom Does 1t BelOnHe

The Responsibility for the DIsnster.-TO S Whom Does 1t BelOngs
 The loss of the steamship Schiller, says the New York Herald, is one more proof of the utter helplessness of man when brought into conflict with the fearful forces of nature. The sea, which had again and again borne this fated bark in safety to her port, unexpectedly became her grave. We may calculate as well as we can the causes of this disas- ter, but we must not leave out of the problem the ilimitable forces of nature. The sea rises in rebellion against man and avenges her apparent subjugation by 1nstlrrections against which human struggle is useless. Ships sail from peaceful ports and are never heard from again; 8 thousand fathoms low they founder. Armadas are sunk in the un- sounded depths, and still the gray and melancholy waste, old oceans unmonu- mented graveyard, hides in it's profound abysses innumerable victims. It breaks upon the beach with delight, but it's music has an undertone of grief-a dirge older than the race of man.
 No more terrible conquest of the ocean is recorded since the Atlantic was wrecked off the coast of Newfoundland than that of the Schiller, noble steam ship. The Schiller left New York for Hamburg April 28. intending to stop at Plymouth and Cherbourg, but was wrecked upon the Scilly Islands, south west of England, on the Cornwall coast. This ship bore from New York more than three hundred lives, all of whom had reasonable hope of 8 safe and speedy passage. Ocean travel has be- come in the opinion of the public as safe as travel upon land. Steamers are continually crossing the Atlantic, and no traveller fears them more than we fear the street cars of the city. To go to Europe, or return thence, is now pleas ure trip, unattended with danger or ex- citement, with possibly distant ice berg or @ storm to make the passage entertaining. But the sea will not be disappointed of her prey. She exacts her penalty; she is memorable in de- manding her toll, and it has been fear fully paid by over three hundred pas sengers upon the Schiller, which now, with her cargo of dead, lies fathoms deep off the iron-bound English coast.
 The Schiller was a new steamer, built in 1878, and was stanch and sound ship. The Eagle line, to which she had belonged, is bankrupt, but the steamer did full credit to the Glasgow shipbuild- CTS who had launched her on the Clyde. Her passage from New York was evi- dently smooth and safe, until the ninth day of the voyage, when she struck upon the Retarriere lodges, near Bishops Rock, of. to the southern point of the Scilly Islands. A heavy fog prevailed at the time. If the reader will glance at the map he will see that the Scilly | Islands fol m natural obstacle to Ply mouth sound and, indeed, they have been heaped high with wrecks-high as ever the dead have been heaped in bat tle-in the records of modern naviga, tion.e They seem to invite shipwreck and to stretch a rocky, threatening arm between the hospitable shores of Eng land and the adventurous West. Cooper, in one of his admirable sea novels, has described 8 narrow escape of an Ameri can ship from ruin upon the Scilly Islands, the rocks upon one hand and the English cruiser upon the other. Modern science has done it's utmost tc l reduce the dangers which the Scilly Islands present to the navigator by plac ing lighthouses upon the dangerous reefs: But in this case the lights were shrouded in fog. In darkness the Schil Ter, "that fated bark, built in the eclipse and rigged with curses dark" rushed upon that unmerciful barrier. The ses was rough, preventing boats on shore from going to her relief, and of the three hundred and seventy persons o1 board the ship less than fifty are knowr to have been saved. There is word O. tragedies embodied in these cold ant barren facts.
 The responsibility of this awful ship wreck seems to rest with the officers O. the ship. There was no storm, whicl might have placed the steamer at th' mercy of the waves there was simply { fog and the darkness of night. There were on board of the Schiller the citizens of New York, Philadelphia and othe cities, who sought pleasure or business advantages in Europe. Some of then were returning to their old homes to se' their friends, others were for the frs time seeking the delights and marvels O. European capitals. Hundreds of then were suddenly ingulfed in the devourine waves, without hardly moments warn ing of their fate. It cannot be that al event so terrible and apparently so un necessary shall be overlooked as mere accident of nature. Neither storm no fire nor collision with other vessel caused the destruction of the unfortunat, Schiller. She was lost upon coast vel known to experienced sailors upon nt new rock, but on ancient reefs of i'm memorial danger, and somebody mus be held to an awful responsibility. Oceal travel can never be safe if such acci dents, as they are wrongly called: arr tolerated We trust that the investiga tion will be swift and thorough, and tha the guilty persons will be fully punished if they have not already met the penalt. of their own neglect. Ire sea is merci less to the guilty and the innocent alike and therein is the more reason why ma1 should be just.
 Peace or War.
 The London Telegraph, in an edito