208 



"Good discipline; no confusion. Passengers behaved 

 splendidly." 



There were 162 passengers on board, of whom only n 

 were saved ; the total saved was 36, and the lost 236. 

 It may be presumed that four out of the seven boats 

 lowered were swamped ; and it may be that the greater 

 part of the time that intervened between 7.20 P.M., when 

 the ship struck, and 10.50 P.M., when she foundered, that 

 is 3j hours, was occupied in getting out the boats. It 

 seems strange that with seven boats and a "crew 85 strong" 

 a larger number of persons were not saved, the night being 

 "moonlight, fine, clear overhead, no breakers," and shore 

 only four miles distant. The circumstances probably admit 

 of satisfactory explanation. 



The case of the steamer Bahama, lost when* about a 

 week out from Puerto Rico in April 1882, is another 

 melancholy illustration of failure of the boats as means for 

 saving life. Two of her four lifeboats were swept away in 

 a gale, and the captain took command of one of the two 

 remaining. It proved a deceptive refuge, incapable of 

 keeping keel downwards for many moments, although a 

 so-called " self-righting lifeboat." The captain and twenty 

 men with him in the boat were drowned. Thirteen men 

 were saved in the fourth lifeboat ; the remainder of the 

 passengers and crew perished. In the case of the barque 

 Langrigg Hall, wrecked near the Tuskar in December 

 1882, three out of the four boats carried were smashed 

 before the captain's order to get them out could be carried 

 into effect. 



In January last the Cimbria emigrant ship was struck 

 by the Sultan, and sank in the North Sea. Heartrending 

 accounts of the sufferings of the passengers were published 

 at the time. The ship carried eight boats, but notwith- 



