WRECK OF A CHANNEL STEAMER.

DISGRACEFUL BEHAVIOR OF THE MALE PASSENGERS.

[From Our Special Correspondent.]

London, Asri\ 20. The accident to the Channel steamer Victoria, which ran on the rocks off Dieppe in a fog early last Wednesday morning, seems to have been a most deplorable'business. The night service to Paris via Newhaven and Dieppe is the cheapest available, and most of the passengers by the Victoria (only ninety altogether, fortunately) were middle class French excursionists returning from an Easter jau,nt to "perfidious Albion." Naturally, therefore, they were not the best sort of "Mossoos," and when the catastrophe occurred lost both their heads and their courage promptly. Nor do the English "'Arries present seem to have behaved much better. Fortunately the captain and officers were good men and true, and kept cool, or every soul on board would certainly have gone to its account. A lady passengnr supplies the following graphic description of the wreck:—" Every thing gave promise of a charming passage. The sea looked so lovely that I remained on deck for nearly an hour after we went out of Newhaven; but the weather being bitterly cold and the wind freshening, I went to the second-class cabin, the first-class one being rather crowded and cases of sea-sickness numerous. When below I found myself close to a nun who wa i s'engaged in her devotions. When she had finished I ventured to get into conversation with her. I learned that she was English, and going to teach in. a convent at Normandy. She seemed a little nervous, and I, to strengthen her courage, said that wrecks were unknown on the Dieppe line. An old lady here joined in the conversation, and said she remem-. bered a wreck twenty-two years ago. It was caused by a steamer running on a rock just outside Dieppe Harbor during a foggy morning. The name of the vessel was, she said, the Alexander Read. She was a cousin of the captain. After that I lay down and was considerably shaken by the increasing swell of the sea, but managed to sleep for a few hours, and was awoke by a man coming round to ask for tickets. I then got up and went to the other cabin for some parcels I had left there. As I was descending the stairs I felt the ship go smash, and was by the violence of the shook thrown head forwards to the bottom, I

suppose I sliould have lain there like a log, for I was seriously hurt, had it not been for the sense of danger, which was so keen that up I bounded and got on deck. The ship was, I could feel, lurching forward, and the deck was a steeply-inclined plane towards the figurehead. Men, women, and children came rushing up. We were in a thick fog, and unable to see beyond the ship. I could not see well the fore part. My friend the nun joined me. I must say that the seamen and the captain were wonderfully cool, brave, and unselfish. But how describe the fearful cowardice of some of the passengers, or their hideous conduct as the boats were being taken from the davits I Everything was done so fast that my impressions are muddled. A strong pair of arms, belonging to whom I dp not know, swung me into a boat. I had at first tried to get into the one that sunk; but a wretched, troublesome woman, the one whose shawl caught in the tackle, so delayed things that my unknown saviour thrust me into the one which took me to land. I think after a certain point the rock must have kept the ship from utterly foundering. Some gentlemen fired revolvers, hoping that they might be taken as tokens of distress. I am not aware that a gun to signal distress was fired. There were some men who acted like perfect savages in cutting the tackle of a boat to try to get it for themselves. It was an awful feeling being in the boat on a very rough sea and with a wind that began to howl. As we were putting off from the sinking Victoria the oarsmen pulled as if for their very lives to be quickly out of the vortex of the vessel. We were quite in the dark when we got off from the lanterns of the ship, for, though day was going to dawn, the fearful fog encompassed us. A seaman insisted that we were close to Dieppe, and that the best thing to do was to merely stand on our oars, for that we should soon see where we were, and be guided by the coast. Nevertheless, we were driven fast along, we knew not whither, for some time, and then when the fog cleared we found we were running parallel to the coast, and getting on towards Fecamp. I wonder we ever got in there. The waves were heavy and skittish. They often threatened us with immediate destruction. We were huddled so close together that nobody could turn round, and the boat seemed to me so heavily weighted and suuk in the water, that I was in terror lest it should founder. Some of the ladies were too knocked up to mind what happened. We tried to signal when we saw a lighthouse on a headland, but the handkerchiefs were too saturated to fly. I shall never forget how my heart bounded when we were taken into Fecamp, to which port the news of the wreck had been telegraphed.' The agony of those sepaarted from relatives and in suspense about them was too poignant for them to enjoy the feeling that they were themselves saved. When we all got to land the innkeeper and port authorities were very kind. I, like all my companions, was drenched, and I began when life was safe to feel how badly I had been hurt. We had a whole family of Jees, a Miss Holt, a Miss Alice Roberts, a Mrs Temple, a Mrs Strathorn, and a Mrs Warlet, and Sister Euphemia. The others were foreigners. The four sailors and steersman were English." 8

The second mate of the Victoria, Mr Joseph Pope, was mainly instrumental in saving over tixty passengers. He has been thirteen years in the Channel service, and has been wrecked three times. He gives the following narrative:—" We left Newhaven at 11.30 on Tuesday night for Dieppe, having on board nearly 100 passengers, most of whom were first and second class. All went well until about four o'clock, as well as I can remember, when I was called on deck. The ship had not struck then. 1 quickly threw on a few clothes, and darting up to the deck I reached the bridge two minutes after I was called. The moment I saw the captain the latter said to me ' It is funny we have not seen anything.' I said 'How many revolutions has she made ?' referring to the ship, 'Go down to the engine-room and ask the chief engineer,' he said. I did so, and was told the ship had made 8,800 revolutions, which, in the ordinary course, would bring us close into Dieppe Harbor. On my giving the captain this answer he questioned me as to the veracity of my statement, saying ' Are you sure you did not make a mistake ? Go down again and inquire, and tell the chief engineer to stand by.' My first information as regards the revolutions of the paddles was confirmed, and when I reached the deck again (the chief engineer being at his post) I saw land right ahead, but heard no fog-signals, although there was a deep haze or fog at the time. I heard the order ' Stop; full speed astern,' and saw them marked upon the telegraph-plate. After an interval of a few moments I saw land right ahead, showing black. The captain then gave the order ' Hard a port,' and I saw that it was distinctly conveyed to the man at the wheel, for I was on the bridge the whole time. The order to ' hard a-port' was given with full speed ahead. The latter was telegraphed in the usual manner by signal. I was looking through the glasses at the blackness in front, which seemed to me to be high land, little expecting that we were so close in shore, when suddenly the ship bumped on a rock. We did not know where we were. The funnel gave a shake, and the first shock was so slight that I thought it was a big sea that struck us. Then the ship, still going towards the cliffs, gave a crash, and it seemed to me as if the bottom was being torn out of her. This roused all the passengers to a state of frenzy. From that moment all was work to save life. I said to the captain ' We are ashore,' and in full resonant tones the captain, who never for a moment left the bridge or command of his ship, shouted out' Get the boats over !' It was my duty to superintend this work, so I ran down to the deck and reached the port quarter-deck boat, which was the first one. We prepared for launching from the davits. All the people—some ninety in number—when they saw the boats being got ready, lost all control over themselves. Great men, who should have known better, climbed the rigging, and even got so far as that part of the mast which in a sailing vessel is still ' called the crosstrees. These men yelled and shouted like maniacs. I am ashamed at the cowardice they showed. We were doing our best; but what with the howling of the • men, the shrieking of the women, and the multitudinous cries all round, it was hard to control my presence of mind. However I did it I do not know, but I went away to carry out the captain's instructions, and commanded the lowering of the port quarter-deck bpats. A large number of people, the moment it was seen that we were prepared to, lower away, rushed to the side of the steamer and crowded into the boat. I am ashamed to say that most of these were men, whose cries more alarmed the ladies, who were clambering around, than anything. I gave the order to lower away from the davits, and when the boat was lowered, with its over-cargo within a reasonable distance of the water, I left the spot, and did not see what subsequently happened to the freight. I saw afterwards that the boat hung by both davit ropes, and was completely filled with water; and I believe that the over-number she carried must have swamped her, and all the people, with the exception of the two whom I saved with the Beoond boat, must have been drowned, unless some were expert swimmers, as the sea was running very nasty and choppy at the time. When 1 gave the order to lower the first boat, I rushed, to the starboard quarter boat. I did not heed the cries for help on the port side, because in the awful moment everyone was Bhrieking. I should think from what I saw that about thirty-five people jumped into the first boat, and their weight and the panic they were in swamped her, for she was a good boat. I did not see any shawl clog the rollers, and if such took place it must have been after I gave the .order to lower away and ran to No. 2 boat. I ordered and assisted at the lowering of the second boat, which was the starboard quarter boat. Having filled her with passengers—mostly, in my opinion, composed of women and children—l ordered the lowering. She reached water safely, and I next had my attention upon the starboard lifeboat, which was quite close to the No. 2 boat. This I also failed, nearly all being ladies. I kept back the men as well as I could. After that was lowered I went to the port lifeboat, on the other side of the ship. I saw Nos. 2- and 3 boats drifting away towards the west, and I did, not know whether there were any of our crew|>board to direct and j

, man them, so I entered our last boat, the i port lifeboat; and took command of her. i The captain gave me the order to save as many lives as I could. As I brought the , boat round to the starboaid side I only saw i two people alive—two men who were cling* . ing to the submerged No. 1 boat. These t were nearly paralysed with fear and cold, s and from what I know were the only ones saved from the swamping of the first boat. • Having dragged these into onr boat I ordered them to lie down in the bottom. ; They obeyed, more dead than alive, and I i thought no more of them. They were i Frenchmen. Having filled up on the starboard side of the snip, which was rapidly filling, I steered for the nearest landing place. I went to the westward to clear the rocks. We must have travelled a mile when we heard the grating noise of the ground upon our keel. I instantly ordered all to land, although they would be up to their middle in water, for to go farther might wreck the boat, and so I would be unable to save the other lives on board the ship. The men I made walk through the surf, which was breaking upon the chalk reefs, but the women were carried, I assisting in this work myself. I lost no time once I had emptied, but harried back to the Victoria, and again filled np, not letting one more than was safe occupy a place in the boat lest we should capsize, and then lose all chance of farther saying life. On the second journey to land one of the passengers, seeing Nos. 2 and 3 boats in the offing apparently drifting out to sea, said ' Let us go to those boats and tell them they are not going in the right direction for land.' I answered: 'We will land you all first. They are safe in the boats, and I must go back to the steamship to save others.' I did as I intended, and again made a third journey to shore with passengers, and found upon the latter journey a nearer way through a channel among the rocks to the land. I saw on the third occasion two French Custom-house officers, and upon my next passage to the shore the captain handed me the ship's papers in a bag to give them, which I did. After we had landed all the passengers I went back to the ship, where the captain, chief mate, chief engineer, and a few of the crew yet remained, and embarked these, and stood by until it was Been to be impossible that any good could come by our remaining, so we rowed into Dieppe. There we met those that we had landed at Cape d'Aille, and these were full of gratitude, and expressed their great thankfulness for our services in landing them in. safety. The other two boats, we heard, landed their passengers about thirty miles west of where the Victoria struck. I can only liken the panic on board to that of a theatoe which is reported on fireV The people cried aloud, screamed, rushed here, there, and everywhere, not knowing what they were doing. The men climbed the rigging and screamed like, women. : I know nothing of the children reported to be in the fore-cabin drowned, but I have heard .that it is so. I know that onr ship's carpenter, John Lower, who was my best mate, is missing, and in all likelihood he was in charge of the first boat, which was swamped; and also Francis Godfrey, a boy of fourteen, is missing." The Dieppe correspondent of 'The Times,' writing a day later, says:'—"An incident has come to my notice which I think in justice to the French deserves a Elace in your columns. While the crowded oats of. the, Victoria were floating down channel they were observed from Verangeville. The tide was out. It would have been death for the passengers to land with a breaking sea. Volunteers were called for the lifeboat. Thirteen at once .'stepped forward and manned her, and she was run down the tramway into the almost dry channel. There she stuck with the crew. It was necessary at all hazards to get her over the shoals and out to sea. Behind the boat rose the huge dock gates enclosing a large volume of water. The authorities seemed determined she should go, and the crew volunteered the risk. At a given signal the sluice gates were opened. Out rushed and roared thousands of tons of water; it caught the lifeboat like a wisp of straw, spun her round, and nearly capsized her. Then answering to her powerful rudder, away she flew with the rush and whirl of the waters over rocks and shallows swift on her mission of mercy and right out to sea. I feel that it is mere justice to the French passengers on board the ill-fated steamer to contradict the reports that have been so industriously circulated that they were more panic-stricken than any other of the passengers, or that they raced to the boats first The boat that capsized was the first boat, and in that were over a dozen English. As there could hardly have been more than twenty altof ether in the boat, it is clear that the Jnglish were not kept out. The real cause of the first panic appears to have arisen from some Italians in the bows. They were probably first startled by the crash, and then immediately afterwards by a'rush of water and steam from under their feet. This would naturally cause a panie among the coolest, and, as the steamer at once sank by the head, they would fairly assume that she was going down altogether. They rushed aft in a mad charge for the boats. One lady was actually knocked down and trampled on. But, as soon as the vessel was seen to be fast, with her stern on the rock the panic was allayed. A second panic arose when those remaining on board saw the boats drift ont to sea and disappear in the fog. The excuse given for the boats being allowed to drift is that those in charge saw no opening for landing in consequence of the breakers, and being fully laden they could take no.mdre on board with safety. An affecting incident was noticed by those watching the first boat. A tall, fair-haired girl was lovingly embraced by her young husband, and placed by him in the first boat. He was apparently going to swim by the boat; but it capsized, and precipitated the girl with the others into the water, The husband was then standing on the bulwarks, and suddenly he disappeared. It is conjectured thaV seeing hia wife in the water he jumped to save her, and both were drowned. From the description, it is surmised that the pair were Mr and Mrs Towers Brown. He was an old Eton boy, and son of the Rev. J. Brown, of Wokingham. Their baggage has kee» re* covered, but not claimed, and, While every search is being made by sorrowing relations who have come over to Dieppe, no news of either of the bodies has been obtained."