266 THE SEA. 



Dover, also got to the spot, and succeeded in rescuing- twenty-one, ten of them from the 

 rigging. The total number thus rescued was eighty-five persons. 



The ship went down about three-quarters of an hour after she was struck, the captain 

 remaining at his post till she sank. One of the survivors states that he was standing 

 close to the captain when she went down. The former managed to lay hold of some floating 

 plank, and was borne to the surface. The captain, however, was not again seen. The pilot 

 and ten others had taken to the mizen-mast, from which they were rescued. The whole of the 

 officers perished. 



It must seem remarkable that while the Northfleet showed lights and other signals 

 of distress within two miles of shore during twenty minutes or half an hour no notice 

 was taken of them. When a ship is in difficulties in the night, it is usual for her either 

 to fire guns or to exhibit a flare of light. But here, even the vessels close at hand 

 thought that the ship was only signalling for a pilot; and at the time there were nearly 

 a hundred vessels at anchor in the roadstead, with their lights burning brilliantly. Those 

 on board the three ships nearest the wreck would have instantly sent help had they 

 imagined there was a vessel in distress, and they could have got to the ship in a few 

 minutes, for, though the night was dark and squally, it was clear at intervals, and any 

 boat could live, the sea not being rough. It appears that the Corona, an Australian 

 clipper, was lying at anchor within 300 yards of the NortJtfleet when the disaster occurred, 

 but neither the terrible shock of the collision, the subsequent cries for aid, nor the rockets 

 continuously fired from the deck of the sinking ship, could arouse the man who was the 

 only watch on deck to call up either his comrades or the officers of his ship. Various 

 reports were at first current as to the name of the vessel which ran the Northfleet down, 

 and which passed straight on her way, without taking any heed of the disaster she had 

 caused, though it must have been clearly known on board of her, if not it is to be hoped 

 to the full extent of the calamity. Suspicion attached to the Murillo, a Spanish steamer, 

 bound for Lisbon from Antwerp. The Murillo arrived at Cadiz on the evening of Thursday, 

 the 30th, having stopped at Belem, the entrance to the port of Lisbon, on the day before, 

 and having then been warned by a telegram to go on to Cadiz without landing her Lisbon 

 cargo. Upon her arrival at Cadiz an official inquiry was commenced, at the instance of 

 the British Consul. From the report of Mr. Macpherson, Lloyd's agent at Cadiz, it 

 appeared that her starboard bow had been newly painted black and red to the water line, 

 and her port bow showed marks of a slight indentation near the anchor davit. It was 

 stated, however, on behalf of her owners, that the painting was done in London or Antwerp, 

 before she started on her present journey, and that the indentation had been made on 

 entering the port of Havre two years before. An inquiry was instituted in the Spanish 

 Courts, and the committee appointed for that purpose declared that the Murillo was not 

 the vessel which ran down the Northfleet. The Murillo was therefore released. But 

 some time afterwards justice was avenged. 



The official report of the inquiry made at the instigation of the English Government 

 by Mr. Daniel Maude, stipendiary magistrate, assisted by Captains Harris and Hight 

 acting as assessors, stated that there was no doubt that the ship which came into collision 

 with the Nortk/Uet was the Spanish iron screw-steamer Murillo, trading between London 



