99

COLLISION BETWEEN THE DOVER MAIL STEAMER "SAMPHIRE AND AN AMERICAN BARQUE OFF Dover.

A terrible catastrophe occurred in the Channel on 6th of December. The Samphire, one of the fine fleet of mail steamers of the London, Chatham, and Dover Railway Company, on the arrival of the continental express train at Dover from London, embarked about seventy passengers and the mails, and at eleven o'clock at night steamed away for Calais. The sea was comparatively calm, but the atmosphere was thick and heavy. When the steamer had performed four and a half miles of her passage, twelve minutes having elapsed from the time she left Dover, an American barque struck her violently on her port bow, and cut her well nigh asunder.

The barque turned out to be the Fanny Buck, of Boston, bound from Rotterdam to Cardiff. She is of about 500 tons burthen, and was in ballast. The violence of the collision was so great that the total wreck of the steamer appeared inevitable, and a rush was made to the small boats, the barque not having stopped to save the lives on board the steamer; and it was at this juncture that a most melancholy and fatal accident ensued.

A Russian count, in his eager effort to get into the small boat fell overboard. As he rose to the surface a life line was thrown to him

for his rescue. He grasped it, but through exhaustion, as he wore a large heavy cloak, he lost his hold and sank. On rising again, Captain Bennett, the commander of the mail steamer, jumped overboard and secured a line round the body of the drowning count; but unhappily, just as he was being raised into the boat, the line slipped from his waist, and the count sank to rise no more.

When the shock of the collision was felt, the passengers rushed from the cabins to the deck. The fore cabins immediately filled with water, but, by the peculiar construction of the steamer, the fore part can be rendered incommunicable with the compartments aft of the engines, otherwise the steamer would have immediately sunk. As it was, however, the vessel was able to keep afloat, though her bulkheads had filled and her bow was under water.

On communication being made with the shore, the Belgian mail boat, just arrived at Dover from Ostend, was sent out, and it towed the Samphire to the mouth of Dover Harbour by seven o'clock in the morning, the passengers having been landed in small boats.

The cause of the collision will of course be a matter for official investigation.

The steamer had her lights burning brilliantly, and those on board deny that the barque exhibited any lights. On the other hand, two of the crew of the barque, who scrambled on board the steamer, and were landed and received at the Dover Sailors' Home, declare that the barque had her proper lights up, and that they saw the steamer crossing her bows.

From the effects produced upon both vessels, the violence of the collision must have been terrific. The steamer, which is iron-plated, was stove in right down to the keel, every timber in her appearing to have been loosened. The barque, which was obliged to enter Dover harbour in the morning, was also much damaged. The iron plates of the steamer pierced to a depth of nearly a foot into the barque's timbers at the bow, her stem and cut-water were broken away, and she was stove in in several places, both below and above water. But the worst part of the affair is that it was presumed to have been attended with other fatal consequences. On counting up the party two ladies were missed, and as the last which was seen of them was, that they were seated in the fore-cabin shortly before the collision, it was supposed that they must have been drowned in that compartment of the vessel. This could not, however, be ascertained until the tide was down and the water ejected from the cabin. But in the meantime the mails were removed from the vessel, and preparations made for their despatch to their destination.

As the water left the vessel two ladies were seen floating about in the fore-cabin, and a gentleman sitting upon the bunk. The bodies were then removed to the dead house by the police. The ladies were identified, and the three bodies await a coroner's enquiry.

The names of those who lost their lives are Monsieur Laynelet, traveller in the house of Messrs Bockering, Fieres, and Co., No. 37, Boulevard des Capucines, Paris; one foreign gentleman, unknown, both lost overboard at the time of the collision. Found drowned in the cabin: Miss Baines, of Yalding, Kent, and her companion, Miss Koenig; and Monsieur Duclercq, of Gravelines.-Daily News.

[We understand that an investigation of this collision is about to be made by the Board of Trade. ]

CHARTS AND BOOKS PUBLISHED BY THE HYDROGRAPHIC OFFICE, ADMIRALTY, in December, 1865.-Sold by the Agent, J. D. Potter, 31, Poultry, and 11, King Street, Tower Hill, London.

2,390.-Hebrides Islands, Roag Lochs, Captain Otter, R.N., 1865, (3s.) 49.—Ireland, North Coast, Skerries Roadstead and Port Rush, with a view, Staff-Commander Hoskyn, R.N., 1854, (1s. 6d.)

2,751.-Polar Sea, North, Spitzbergen Islands, Swedish survey, 1864, (2s. 6d.)

726. Spain, North Coast, Luarca and Luanco Harbours, with Ria de Pravia, Spanish survey, (1s. 6d.)

297.-Newfoundland, Harbour Grace, Captain Orlebar, 1862, (1s.) 714.-America, North-west Coast, Sturt Channels, &c., Captain G. H. Richards, R. N., 1859, (1s. 6d.)

404.-Australia, East Coast, Riley Point to Wood Point, Commander Hutchison, R.N., 1863, (2s.)

1,250.-South Pacific Ocean, Fiji Islands, Moukougai and Wakayra Islands, Captain Denham, R.N., F.R.S., 1856, (2s. 6d.)

1,248.-South Pacific Islands, Totoya Island, Captain Denham, R.N., F.R.S., 1855, (2s.)

1,247.-South Pacific Ocean, Matuka Island and plan of harbour, Captain Denham, R.N., F.R.S., 1855, (2s. 6d.)

Tide Tables for 1866, Staff-Commander Burdwood, R.N., (1s. 6d.) EDWARD DUNSTERVILLE, Commander, R. N. Admiralty, Hdrographic Office, 19th December, 1865

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

We have received Captain Hayden's letter on the Solar Eclipse of April last at the Chincha Islands.

Also the table of Captain Loftus of the ship Moneka.

The Daedalus Rock off Cape St. Vincent. Our "reader" is informed that nothing appears to have been done by any one as to settling whether there is such a rock or not! And that the latest information of it is in our volume for 1839, p. 61,-in fact, the authority of its existence. But this, it appears, is doubted on authority even better than that on which it is reported. If our correspondent can throw any light on its existence, we hope he will do so. Thanks for the Magnetic Extract.

We are compelled by want of space to reserve the continuation of the article on the Trinity House, as well as that on the Voyage of the Narvaez, until our next.

The Proprietor of the Straits Times has our best thanks for his contribution.

ERRATA.

Our readers are requested to make the following corrections in the December number, which by an oversight were allowed to pass.

Page 637, foot note, for vol. 1865, p. 65, read vol. 1864, p. 557.

673, line 14, for the read the.

A FOREIGNER'S ACCOUNT OF Us:-The Trinity House.
(Continued from Vol. xxxiv., page 635.)

On the Seven Stones the crew of the vessel say that they have only seen two wrecks :-from the first they saved one man, and in the second all the passengers excepting the wife of a missionary. But the saving of life is no part of their duty, and such acts of heroism are rather admired than encouraged. Their duty is to look to their light and no more, and on this account no one is allowed to leave his post on any account whatever. One of the crew in 1854, having been informed of the death of his wife, left the vessel to go to London, where he intended to bury her. He was reprimanded, but in consideration of the nature of his misdemeanour he was not dismissed. The light of the Seven Stones is in the most exposed and dangerous position of all the lightvessels on the coast. Her captain however, considers that she rides at her station in the seas which run there, easier than other vessels of her class from her long chains than if they were short. In fact, this vessel is always ready for a storm; and when she is struck by a sea in her upper works, although the deck is often flooded, one would suppose that she had fired her guns. The life of the crew is much the same in all the lightvessels. On Sunday, at sunrise, the lantern is lowered down on deck, and is prepared for its work at night. At eight all the crew should be up and their hammocks stowed, and then to breakfast. After this the NO. 2.-VOL. XXXV.

I

crew wash and dress in their Trinity House uniform, of which they are proud, for they wear the Trinity House button. At half past ten they assemble in the cabin for church. At sunset the lantern is lighted and hoisted, and they pass the evening in reading their bible. Apart from these services, the days of the week are occupied much in the same manner, but Wednesdays and Fridays are great fielddays on board for cleaning and setting the vessel in order, and they are days of inspection. To survey and examine the light apparatus, to arrange the watches on deck, to note seven times in the twentyfour hours the direction of the wind and state of the weather, to see that the vessels chains are in good condition, form the general routine of duty. These occupations leave but little leisure time, which may be filled up with reading. There is always a library in these vessels, and the only one who can complain in such condition is he who can neither read nor write.

Such, however, is the fact with some men who are employed in this service; but such is the force of example, and such the effect of ennui in these cases that by the attention of the captain or mate this deficiency of education is made up. There is one, for instance, who has acquired his knowledge thus, that has become one of the best officers of the service. The crew, besides, follow every kind of work requiring patience and attention-some even follow the business of joiners and shoemakers. But occasionally there is a state of the sea that breaks through these conditions. As a moth is attracted by the candle the lantern of the lightvessel attracts clouds of birds at night, many of which fall on the deck dead, or so much exhausted that they cannot escape capture by the crew. It is said that a thousand of these birds were taken one night by the crew of the lightvessel, and they had a gigantic sea-pie from them.

The men receive a salary of fifty-five shillings a month, which is raised with length of servitude. The captain has £80 a year, and they are generally all married men with families. On shore they have their little houses with gardens, in which they raise vegetables, with their flowers. At sea they are filled with the idea of being useful in their station, and the feeling sustains the determination with which they endure the solitude which their duty requires. In fact their destiny is not unlike that of the vessel in which they serve during the greater part of the year, chained down to their station with the temptations of sea and the breeze. There are forty-seven lightvessels on the coasts of Great Britain and Ireland, thirty-four of which belong to the Trinity House, four to the Ballast Board of Dublin, and the rest to the Board of Northern Lighthouses. The cost of one of these lightvessels is from £3,600 to £6,200. The expence of each vessel, including the oil, salaries of crew, equipment, and provision, costs the Trinity House an annual expence of £103. The vessels perform strictly a great service; they are marvellously adapted to the nature of the coasts they are upon; a circumstance which sufficiently explains their English origin, but their powers of lighting cannot extend far from them. Hence where nature has per