Glasgow Courier. — 1857-01-24 (Glasgow, Strathclyde, Scotland)

STEAM-PACKET SHIPWRECKS.  During the fourteen years the Royal Mail Steam. packet Company has been established it has lost eight ship,—threo in the Gulf of Mexico, one in the Bay of Biscay, ono 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 board 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 these were the captains of the Solway and the Amazon. With respect to the latter, all the officers except one went down with her. Altogether nearly 300 persons perished in the eight steamers. The loss of the Amazon was the most frightful calamity of all. She caught fire in the Bay of Biscay, and raced on with uncontrollable speed, all in flames as she was, the sounds, the conflagation, and the engines, mingling with the shrieks and prayers of the doomed passengers and crew. Human imagination never conceived a more appalling spectacle than this. 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 .vere 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 detroyed 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 committed suicide soon after the wreck of his vessel. Canard'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 by loss of life. The destruction of the Arctic steamer, one of the Collin's line, was attended with scenes of fearful interest. The ship was sunk near the American coast by a colision. Not one of the captains of the wrecked mail steamers we have mentioned ever forsook 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 accident occurred to the steamers Atlantic, Hermann, 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.