Whig and tribune. [volume] (Jackson, Tenn.) 1870-1877, 1875-05-15
SATURDAY, MAY Is, 1875.

SATURDAY, MAY 10, 1875.
SoRRow on TIE SEA- There are
some items of news so terrible that
they naturally call for prominent and
extended mention. Such is the wreck
Of the Ea gle line Steamship Schiller,
which sailed from New York on the
2Sth of April for Hamburg, by way of
Plymouth, Eng, and Charbourg
France, and struck on the rocks of
Scilly Isles, in the English Channel,
on the night Of May 9TH, at 10 O'clock,
when n fog rendered the beacon lights
on the island invisible, and the vessel
rushed upon the fatal reef On board
were the crew of 12O persons, and 254
passengers, of whom 311 are reported
lost. Owing to the fearful sea raging,
the boats could do but little good
Some of the survivors were picked up
while swimming, and some were sew
e,al times washed off the rock. The
Captain and second Mate were drown
ed. The steamer was lying with her
broadsidc on the rock at the time of
the dispatch. Great excitement was
caused in London on Saturday, and
extra papers were published. The
Schiller was 375 feet long-40 feet in
beam-32 feet deep in hold-of 5000
ton burden, and 5000 horsepower; was
elassed 900 Al, full brig-rigged, with
8 life-boats and iron decks, and en-
CINE could run IA or 10 miles an hour.
She was valued at 100000 and fully
insured. On board were six kegs con-
tanning 100000 gold, shipped from
New York 10 Paris, and $50 mail bags.
General merchandise, 800 bales of cot
ton, %, 900 barrels of rosin, 1000 bush
els Of corn, and a large consignment of
leaf tobacco constituted the cargo
The scenes of distress in London, on
confirmation of the news, was terrible,
and loud wailings were heard on every
side. <f'orty-threc persons were known
to be saved at . o'clock on Saturday
night.
The New York Tribune, on the day
of the vessels sailing, published the
names of the passengers bound for Eu-
rope, and from that list with such
names as Wasserman, Schmidt, Leon
hardt, Holzmaister, &c, running thro
it almost entirely, one can readily per-
ceive that this new and splendid steam
ship was crowded with American Ger
nuns, on a visit to the fitherland, but
dragged down to a sudden grave in the
deep, devouring sea. Milwaukee, Chi
cago, St. Louis, towns and cities in
Michigan, Illinois, Ohio, North Caro-
lima, Georgia, Iowa, and other States,
have furnished the victims of this oce-
an sacrifice, that will bring sorrow to
many homes in the old world and the
new. The value Of the cargo, exclu-
sive of the specie, was $4,000. The
100000 gold was insured for full val
TIC in three London companies, by Bal
lin & Co., the shippers, at New York.
But for the dinner and serenade given
TO Senator Carl Schurz in New York,
it is supposed that he would have ia
ken passage with his family on the
Schilla. Captain Thomas, who perish
ed with his vessel, was n middle aged
man, unmarried, a native of Germany,
but a British sailor, and was with diff
ficulty induced to leave the British
service to enter the Eagle-line. The
mail matter contained $4,000 letters,
besides papers. In addition there were
162 bags, constituting the mails from
Australia and New Zealand. And thus
with the great name of Schiller, be-
comes identified one of the most heart
rending stories in all the annals of the
sea. Captain Thomas died like Ro-
man, at his post, after doing all that
the best and coolest seamanship could
do in such awful emergencies, when
z-fog and midnight darkness wrapped
laundering vessel, with struggling,
Departing, shrieking men, women and
children, clingng to masts and rig
cling, and going down with the sweep
of the wave, to the awful sleep that
men call death. In the shadow of such
calamities stretching across the ocean
we recall the pathos OF that verse in
Falconer's Shipwreck:
aye lost companions OF distress, adieu!
Your tolls and pains and dangers are no
more;
The tempest now shall howl uuheard by
you,
While Ocean smites In vain the trcm-
hlin. shore"