The Barrow Herald and Furness Advertiser. — 1880-07-24 (Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, England)

SINKING OF A PASSENGER STEAMER.  !We have narrowly escaped the infliction of anlther terrible tale of marine disaster. During a thick fog on Saturday night two vessels came in tollision off Dungelitiess, and one sank almost immediately in seventeen iathoms of water. It I appears that the steamer Hydaspes, bound from London to Melbourne, was being towed down the Channel, when she came in collision with the homeward-bound Centurion, and went down near tee spot where the Northfleet sank from a similar cause a few years ago. Fortunately, in t.lis case the consequences were not 80 lamentable as on the former occasion ; for when it became or parent that the 113 daspes could not be saved, the passengers and crew were transferred to the Centurion and to the tug, those who were taken on board the formsr being ulti. mately transhipped to the latter, and all lauded in safety at Dover. It seems that the greatest order prevailed, and only two persons were at all injured. Ihe passengois and crew together numbered 88 persons, and in face of the almost miraculous preservation of their lives it seems a small matter to consider the loss of property. Neverthehms, it appears that this loss was very serious, as nothing whatever was saved. Th-re is a possibility, of course, that some of the properzy may be recovered by divers, but in any case the crnsequences of the collision must necessarily be dis ,strous. It is a singular cit cumstance that the man who was at the wheel on board the Hydaspes was also at the wheel of the Strathclyde when that vessel was struck and sunk off Dover four years ago. In due course we shall know how it bappenel that these vessels came into collision; but although such accidents are of not uhfrequent occurrence, no lessons appear to be learned which enable our mariners to prevent such accidents altogether. We presume that the collision occurred on the present occasion through the inability of the look-out on board the one vessel to discern the other; but science ought by this time to have provided a remedy for want of sight. Sound might surely be rendered available in order to enable befogged navigators to avoid running into each other. If Profe,s•mr Tyndall's fog•horns can be utilised for warning ships off rocks, we eh aild think the principle might be adapted for the purpose of warning ships off each other. The inventor who would do something effective in this direction would be a benefactor to humanity.  The total amount promised un to the present time towards the Wesleyan Methodist Thanksgiving Fund is £286,896. Thomas Berry, who will be exmuted on Tuesday next fee the murder of Caroline Adams at Erith, has made a full confession. A School-board fete at the Ciystal Palace was held on Saturday, when 4.000 Bibles and Testaments, given by Mr. Francis Peek, were presented to pupil teachers and scholars who had distinguished themselves. • John Key; condemned to death for the murder of his wife in Bethnal Green, has been respited. He is said to have been much °vet-corm when the announcement was made to him, and to have expressed himself as very grateful for the Queen's clemency. The House of Commons, by a decisive majority, has declared that in th ir opinion the erection in Westminster Abbey of a statue to the memory of the late Prince Louis Napoleon Bonaparte would be inconsistent with the national character of that edifice. The arrests for drunkenness on Sundays in the Irish counties decreased by considerably oyemonehalf in the year 1879-80 as compared with the year 1877-78—that is, after the passing of the Irish Sunday Closing Act. In the latter year there were 4,556 arrests, and in the former only 1,840. The latest American idea is to pave the streets with iron lah eke in sections, and to charge them with electricity in such a manner that carts, waggons, and fire engin,s will be able to dispense with horses, for they will merely carry an electric engine, and, taking the current from the road on which they run, will move about in any desired direction. Fsree