The Northern Daily Times. — 1857-01-22 (Liverpool, Merseyside, England)

STEAM-PACKET SHIPTYRECirS.  During the fourteen years the Royal Mail Steam-packet Company has been established it has lost eight ships—three in the Gulf of Mexico, one in the Bay of Biscay, one on the coast of Spain, and the rest in the West Indies. The value of these ships, with the property belonging to the company on hoard of them, was above half a million sterling. This amount is independent of the value of the cargoes and of the private property of the passengers that were on board the ships. The most memorable of these wrecks were those of the Amazon, the Tweed, the Forth, the Tay, and the Solway. The Amazon was destroyed by fire, and all the rest by striking upon rocks or running on shore. Two of the commanders of the lost steamers perished with them, and those were the captains of the Solway and Amazon. With respect to the latter, all the officers except one went dow❑ with her. Altogether nearly 300 persons perished in the eight steamers. The loss of the Amazon was the most frightful calamity of all. The next in its degree of horror was the wreck of the Tweed. After about half her crew and passengers had perished, nearly 100 despairing men were huddled together for three days on an almost submerged islet in the Mexican Gulf, which was surrounded and ;guarded by voracious sharks. The Peninsular and Oriental Company has also lost several packets ; the chief of which were the Great Liverpool, the Tiber, and the Pasha. The Pasha was lost by a collision in the Indian ocean ; and the Great Liverpool and Tiber were destroyed by going on shore on the Peninsula coast. A great loss of life accompanied the destruction of these steamers. The commander of the Great Liverpool cemmitted suicide soon after the loss of his vessel. Cunard's Company has, in its turn, lost some steamers ; and Croskey's Company has lost two ships. All of them sunk on the other side of the Atlantic, but their loss was unaccompanied with loss of life. The destruction of the Arctic steamer, one of the Collins' line, was attended with scenes of fearful interest: This ship was sunk near the American coast by a collision. It would be a breach of etiquette and a mark of cowardice for the commander of a wrecked ship not to be the last to leave it. Shame for the loss of the ship is no doubt sometimes the motive which has induced a captain to remain on hoard until the last ; but a more common and equally powerful incentive, probably is his natural love for the ship in which he has often triumphed over the hurricane and ridden upon the raging ocean. The only message which Captain `taller, of the Tyne, sent to Southampton was that " he was going to stick to his ship ; " and the old skipper of the Northern Belle last week refused at first to be saved, as he had resolved to sink with his vessel. Scores of New York merchants went out to welcome Captain West, of the Arctic because he had "stuck to his ship to the last." Not ono of the captains of the wrecked mail steamets we have mentioned everforsook his ship until the last person on board had left it, and in those instances where all could not get away the commanders perished with them. A great blessing will be the telegraph across the Atlantic in announcing any disaster that may have occurred to an Atlantic mail steamer. When the accidents occut red to the steamers Atlantic, He►mann, Amazon, Solway, Tay, and Tweed, fearful anxiety prevailed in the United States. West Indies, and England, which would have been of short duration if there had then been any means of instantaneous communication between Great Britain and America. The private property of passengers lost in the mail steamers which have been wrecked, must have been of great value. It has been said that the Bank of England pays its expenses by the value of the notes that are issued and never returned. A large portion of such notes are lost in mail packets. None but those who have lived at some packet port, such as Southampton, can imagine the sufferings and anxiety of parents, children, wives, and sisters, related to men and officers on board the mail steamers which run on such hazardous voyages, nor is it easy for a stranger to comprehend the piety and sympathy which such anxiety and suffering evoke.—Daily