270 THE SEA. 



washed over by the breakers. Let the reader imagine, if he can, the sudden change from 

 the gaiety and hopefulness on board, the anticipations of soon reaching shore and home, to 

 that scene of wild terror and dismay ! 



About midnight the funnel fell overboard and smashed two of the starboard boats. 

 Soon after the fog cleared away, and a gleam of hope arose when the bright clear light 

 of the Bishop Rock Lighthouse shone out. But it was only momentary, and dense 

 darkness soon surrounded them. When the deck-house was swept away by a sea so heavy 

 that it ran up to the top of the mainmast, a heartrending cry, mingled with shrieks and 

 groans, rent the air. Nearly two hundred perished by this one catastrophe. Then the 

 captain gathered for safety some people on the bridgeway, the highest place, in the vain hope 

 of saving them. Every one, including the captain, engineers, and doctor, were swept off. 

 The riggings of both masts were now crowded with people. With every lurch the steamer 

 careened over to the starboard side until the yards touched the water, and the cargo began 

 to float about on all sides. Bales of wool and cotton, feathers, trunks, boxes, and woodwork 

 of all kinds, strewed the waves. 



A survivor one of seven who left the ship in a boat and was afterwards instrumental 

 in picking up others said that they cruised about the greater part of the night near the 

 vessel, and that the screaming all the time was heartrending, and lasted almost from the 

 commencement of the disaster to four o'clock in the morning, when it ceased. Alas ! by that 

 time nearly all had gone to their long account. The last screams he heard, and which he 

 could never forget, were from a little child. Mingled with all was the cracking of the 

 ship's timbers as wave after wave broke over her. One by one the lights disappeared, till, 

 at three o'clock, not one was left but the masthead light. 



A proportion of the bodies only were recovered, among them those of several ladies 

 wearing valuable jewellery; one had 200 in money upon her, which she had endeavoured 

 to save. That with 1,200 life-belts on board so few should have escaped seems nearly 

 incredible; but the panic and other circumstances help to account for the sad fact. The 

 second mate stated that he had much trouble in getting the passengers to understand the 

 importance of wearing them well under the armpits, and that if the belt got below the 

 waist it would at once force the head under water. From the position of some of the 

 corpses recovered, it is evident that many must have perished in this manner. In a number 

 of cases the lower strings of the life-belts had broken. The larger part of the dead were 

 buried on the various islands of the Scilly group.* 



The main features of this disaster teach some important lessons. "We find," says a 

 writer in The Lifeboat, "in this instance, a noble ship, under full control of steam and 

 sail; the captainf an able, experienced, and careful officer, whose devotion to his duty 



* The Scilly Islands, thirty miles from the Land's End, are 140 in number, and range in extent from one to 

 1,600 acres, several of the larger being fully inhabited. They are flanked by the grandest rock scenery, and 

 surrounded by reefs and rocks innumerable. 



t Captain Thomas had, we were told on other authority, navigated the Schiller across the Atlantic and past the 

 treacherous Scillies eight times. He imagined himself to be far from a point of danger ; and old sea-captains assert 

 that it is not uncommon for a vessel to be in advance of her commander's calculations in other words, she may 

 plough through the water faster than he is aware. In this case the sun had been absent for three days, and the 

 course had been kept by dead reckoning. 





