8 



The ship had on board, belonging to many different regi- 

 ments, 13 officers, 9 sergeants, and 466 men ; 20 women 

 and children; and a crew of 130 officers and men. The 

 ship struck upon a rock near Simon's Bay, South Africa, 

 on the 25th February, 1852. It was a calm starlight night, 

 favourable for floating those on board if they had had 

 readily available anything whereon to float, but they had 

 not. There were boats for a small fraction only of their 

 number, and of these some were so stowed away, as usual, 

 that they could not be got out and put to use. Three boats, 

 however, were lowered, and in these the women and chil- 

 dren were calmly rowed off from the fast-sinking ship. 



Captain Wright, a survivor, says of the noble fellows left 

 on the wreck, " Every one did as he was directed, and there 

 was not a murmur or a cry among them until the vessel 

 made her final plunge. The officers had their orders, and 

 had them carried out as if the men were embarking and 

 not going to the bottom ; there was only this difference, 

 that I never saw an embarkation carried out with so little 

 noise and confusion." " So died they, heroes and men 

 complete." Many of the gallant fellows fell victims to 

 the ravenous sharks with which the sea swarmed. Land 

 was in sight when the ship struck. Of about 640 souls on 

 board only 97 escaped with their lives. 



The loss of the La Plata telegraph cable steamship in 

 the Bay of Biscay in 1874, conveys also its distinctive 

 lessons on the subject in hand. The boats that should 

 have contributed benefit and have given some sense of 

 safety, actually increased the danger of the situation, and 

 did mischief on their own account. A heavy sea tore away 

 one of the boats from the davits, and the davits again turned 

 in upon and rent the ship's side, admitting the destroying 

 flood and accelerating the ship's doom. One of the boats 

 was smashed in lowering, another fortunately got clear, and 



