Year: 1875



 v senser. s5REk

 The New York World says:. sIt.is for~I tunates forathe interests of. the travelling public that the only cabin passenger who was saved from the wreck of the Schiller should have been a worthy and sensible German citizen of New York, who seems to have had his wits about him to the last in circumstances depressing and be- wildering enough to have dazed the in tellect of many 8 stout soldier or seaman familiar with danger and with death. This gentleman, MT. Henry Stern, has given us, in his simple and striking mar rative of the ghastly events which he witnessed, and of which against his will he was part, the means of forming quite as fair judgment, we suspect, of the causes and the course of the catas- trophe of the Schiller as we shall ever be able to get at from any formal investiga- tion.

 MT. Stern's narrative confirms in the first place the impression produced upon all persons familiar with Atlantic navigation by the first telegraphic &C., counts of the disaster, that the Schiller was driven upon the rocks of the Scilly Islands mainly through the failure of her commander to resort to the use of the lead for the purpose of ascertaining the precise position of his vessel. For Mir. Stern is careful to state that "for sev- eral days previous to the 7th of May the weather was so thick and hay that it was impossible to take any observa- tions," and it is tolerably clear that a passenger who had noted this fact would have noted also the attempts of the con- mander to make up for the loss of his observations by the use, of his lead, If any such attempts had been made.9 St5At eight o'clock on the evening of this fatal day." MT. Stern tells us, there arose 8 very dense fog and all sails were f1rled and the engine reduced to half speed" ," This was but two hours before the ship struck, and yet we get no intimation from MT. Stern that even then any effort was made to ascertain the position of the ship. Without the slightest wish hastily to impugn the character of the unfortu- nate captain of the Schiller, who at least paid with hisclife the forfeit of the fear ful fate into which his passengers were hurried, it is impossible to consider this revelation as any thing less than mon strous. What Professor Pierce is re- ported to have said aof the American coast, that any captain who brings ves- sel full of passengers upon it without sounding ought, in case of shipwreck, to be hanged for murder, may be at least as truly said of the dangerous ocean=way through which the Schiller was thus blindly urged. ~4- A'-'- @--- ''-

 But MT. Stern's evidence goes much further. He informs us that on the evening of this day at least, day so pregnant with doom to scores of inno- cent people, the discipline of the Schil- Ter, like her course, was left to chance and to destiny. "There was fearful state of excitement and confusion, says MT. Stern, z on board. Many Of the crew and passengers were intoxicated, one of the officers having celebrated his birthday that evening"" It is not easy to read this statement without indigna- tion. Whether we are to understand that the jollifcation to which Nh. Stern bears witness took place with the knowl- edge or without the knowledge of Cap tain Thomas, is absolutely immaterial. The discipline of an Atlantic steamer on board of which it was possible for one of the officers of the vessel to "cele- brate his birthday" by distributing strong drink to the passengers and the crew cannot have been what it should have been. We are certain that upon the vessels of at least one transatlantic line the celebration" even of great national or cosmopolitan holidays like Christmas and the Fourth of July is strictly forbidden at sea; and we should be sorry to believe that this is not the case upon many other lines. It is very possibly true that every steamer which leaves these shores for Europe carries a larger or smaller number of passengers who might be ignorant and idiotic enough to think it a recommendation of a particular line that festivals and jun keting should not only be permitted but encouraged on board during the voyage, But it is as much the duty of the re- sponsible managers of Q transatlantic line to forbid such performances as itis the duty of railroad directors to pre- vent silly people from risking their lives on the platforms of railroad trains in motion, or from treating the engineer to whisky and water at way stations. MT. Stern does not give us the name of the officer who thus unwittingly indeed, but wltlessly also, made for himself hoi- day at the cost of thricea hundred lives and we do not know therefore whether he shared himself the fate he was so in strumental in preparing for his fellow voyagers. But MT. Stern's account o1 the scenes which followed the striking of the ship upon the rocks bears witness only too eloquently to the extent of the evil which s'lived after" his carouse. We heard a great deal about the mis- conduct of the crew of the Arctic at the time of her destruction in the mid ocean, and still more about the panic and excitement among the crews of the Vile du Havre and the Europe, but we cannot at this moment recall any story of a shipwreck deformed with more 1 fevolting features of brutality and sell fshness on the part of the ships com

 pany than those which MT. Stern, him self German and evidently @ man o character and of common sense, charges upon the seamen, and therefore upo1 the officers of this unfortunate German steamer. E--, 70 | MT. Stern makes 1t quite clear that but | for the defective signal system now il use on steamers of all nations, and fol the absence, noted by the coroner's jury | aG the Ocllly 1Slands, or any efncaclous means of establishing prompt communi cation between the lighthouse on the Bishops Rock and the main shore, many more persons than actually were saved

 if not, indeed, the whole ships com pany, might have been rescued But il

 is fair inference from his picture of the internal condition of the stranded shit that even under the actual disadvantage of the position, a great deal more. thar was done might have been done to ge

 the women and children at least out O.

 the vessel, and to give the poor creatures chance for their lives on the open sea

 had the commander of the Schiller really had command of his men. Whether i

 was specifically his own fault, or the

 fault of the system on which the ships