ALAS! How many wholesale shipwrecks have the last few months witnessed! How many human beings, who might otherwise, like ourselves, have been now enjoying the many and varied blessings which life affords, have been cut off by these sad, sad catastrophes ; which not only have deprived them of life, but have plunged the dagger of affliction into many a bosom that now unavailingly mourns its loss! Husband and wife, brother and sister, parent and child, torn asunder to meet no more, until the sea give up its dead! Amongst the most striking cases are the following:— The Tayleur, with its 349 victims; the Annie Jane, 326; the Dalhousie, 60 ; the Marshall, 150, on our own coasts alone.

And taking a wider range, the Powhattan, 250, on the coast of New Jersey; the Staffordshire, 180, oft' Nova Scotia; the Negree, 300, ofi' Bombay; the Fazl Kareem, 180, in the Indian Ocean: and now, yet another is added to this melancholy catalogue, which, from the peculiar circumstances of the case, appeals as strongly to the national sympathy as any of them, though its victims have not been so numerous.

The Europa, hired transport, sailed on the 29th of May last from Plymouth, having on board a detachment of the 6th Dragoon regiment, amounting to 64 officers, noncommissioned officers, and privates, and with a total on board, including the crew of the vessel, of 106 persons, the former being on their way to the scene of war in the East; when suddenly, on the 31st of May, a fire burst forth on board, which destroyed the ship, and deprived the country of the services of 18 galknt soldiers, including the colonel of the regiment, who, together with 2 seamen and 1 woman, all perished in the flames or were drowned.

The details of this calamity are no doubt already familiar to most of our readers, we will therefore narrate them as concisely as possible, in the words of the master of the Europa, in his report to her owners.

" Her Majesty's Ship Tribune at sea, "June?, 1854.

" GENTLEMEN, " IT is my painful duty to communicate the total loss by fire of the Eurapa, on the night of the 31st of May, and, what is more distressing, the melancholy deaths of no fewer than 21 who were on board, namely, the lieutenant-colonel of the regiment, the regimental veterinary-surgeon, 16 of the troops, 1 woman, and 2 seamen.

" I will only state in this report, that on the day in question, viz., the 31st of May, the military officers were all suffering from sea-sickness, with the exception of Lieut- Colonel Moore, who, with myself, had visited the 'tween decks and lower hold several times that day, and at 9 P.M. we went and inspected every portion that could be examined in the lower hold. There was no appearance of fire, and we returned to the cabin with the conviction on our minds that the ship was perfectly safe, but scarcely an hour had elapsed before we were startled by the alarm of fire. I immediately ran below, and discovered the fire burning fiercely in the fore peak, where we had stowed a quantity of hawsers, rope, tar, pitch, oakum, varnish, and sails. The officers, seamen, and soldiers were on the spot almost simultaneously with myself, and every one exerted every effort in his power to extinguish the fire. The pumps, which had been fitted by orders of the Government, to supply the troops with water from the tanks and butts, and the hold, had hose attached to them, and, with those belonging to the ship's pumps, were taken below, and the jets directed in and upon the burning mass.

The troops also worked vigorously in passing buckets of water to those below to check the progress of the flames, but to no purpose.

The tar, pitch, and other combustibles on igniting sent forth an overwhelming blaze into the fore hold, and firing the bulk of tow which was on board for padding the horsestalls.

The heat and smoke now became so great that all hands were forced to quit the lower hold; many were almost suffocated.

On reaching between decks we found flames ascending the fore hatchway in huge volumes, cutting off all communication with the fore part of the ship.

" As hopes of saving the Europa from destruction were then past, and this at the furthermost was at half-past ten o'clock, just half an hour from the moment that the alarm of fire was. raised—this will show the rapidity the fire gained. The volumes of smoke that rolled up the main and after hatchway overhung the main deck like a cloud; it was most suffocating, and the flames from both hatches chased us on to the poop. I have omitted to inform you that on ray first coming on deck I ran the ship away before the wind, in order to near a bark and a brig that were to the leeward of us. The boats were lowered and filled with men. All were got clear, except the longboat, which from the beginning I saw it was impossible to get out. The last boat was taken off' the skidds on to .the poop, from where we were compelled to launch it to save it from being burnt. It was then about half-past eleven o'clock. The main deck was then in an ignited state, and the masts and rigging aloft were in flames. I still kept the ship before the wind to near the vessels to leeward, and to keep the fire forward.

" Nearly all on board had left the vessel by this time. Among them were all the officers of the ship, the adjutant, surgeon, and cornet of the troop, leaving Lieut.- Colonel MOORE, with the veterinary surgeon, and about 26« soldiers on board, besides myself, carpenter, one ordinary seaman, and the cook, on the burning wreck.

" Mr. BLACK, the Admiralty agent, and the second mate, were in the last boat which quitted the ship. She was pulled away at half-past eleven o'clock. The mainmast went at two o'clock, then the foremast, and the ship rounded immediately afterwards; it was blowing very hard at the time, with a very heavy short sea on, raining heavily.

I will not farther dwell upon this painful moment than to add, that as the ship rounded with head to wind, the fire spread over to where we were, and burnt us out, compelling us to seek shelter in any way we could. A number of men took to the wreck of the mainmast; some were lost ia attempting to make it. I, with the carpenter, got over to leeward, and found very great difficulty in getting under the weather channel and making along the bands to. see if there was more unburnt wood to hold on by, but we were driven into the forechains, the half of which were still unburnt. Suffice it to say, that at three o'clock the boat of the brig Clemanihe, Captain PIKE, came up and took us out of the forechains. The boat also picked up 10 men from off the spars of the wreck. One man died in the boat. The noble old lieutenant-colonel, I regret to say, perished in the wreck. Several troopers implored him to leave the ship in the boat, but he would not leave his men, and shared their terrible fate.

" The men in the boats were picked up by the bark Maranan, of Dundee, and a Prussian schooner. Her Majesty's steamer Tribune took us off the brig on Sunday, the 4th instant, and, on the circumstances being reported that the remainder of the survivors were on board another vessel, she overhauled the bark and schooner and took all hands on board.

" Your obedient servant, " WILLIAM GARDINER, " Late Captain of the Europa.

" To Messrs. Somes, Brothers." We have stated that from the peculiar circumstances attending it, the destruction of this ship is calculated in an especial manner to awaken the sympathies of the nation. And is it not so? In the abstract, indeed, one human life is as valuable as another, at least to its possessor; and the poor emigrant, or other wayfarer of the sea, may leave as long a train of sorrowing relatives and friends to mourn his loss as any other individual. So also the responsibility rests on the government of his country to afford him that protection, which it only can provide by compelling the vessel in which he sails to be supplied with everything that human agency can devise to ensure his safety amidst the perils of the deep. But when we consider the exigences of the present time; when the liberties of our country and of Europe are at stake; when we are upholding a cause on which the destinies and future welfare of mankind are seriously involved; those brave men who have sailed from our ports, not on their own pleasure or for their own profit, but at risk of life and limb in defence of the honour and interests of their country, are, we consider, or ought to be, the especial objects of that country's solicitude, and are doubly entitled to that protection which, as stated above, we would gladly see extended to all.

If, indeed, we could think that all which can be done to afford such protection has already been so, useless should we deem it to allude to the subject, but we do so because we believe all has not been done that might be, and because we think that the present moment is a favourable one for mooting the question; when the nation is perhaps temporarily aroused from its proverbial torpor in such matters by so sad an incident as the sudden destruction of these brave men, and the touching spectacle of their noble-hearted commander, seeking death, not midst the excitement of battle " at the cannon's mouth," but coolly, deliberately, and resolutely offering himself a self-sacrifice at the shrines of discipline and humanity—an example of devotedness and nobleness of soul which could not be surpassed.

There are two points in the loss of the Europa which chiefly demand attention.

The cause of the fire. And the insufficient number of available boats to convey all on board away from the burning mass. As regards the first, there appears to be no direct proof of its cause; but, as in the case of the Amazon, it will have been noticed that it was first discovered where a quantity of " rope, tar, pitch, oakum, varnish, and sails" were stowed, and it may therefore indicate the expediency of making some experiments on the subject, and of adopting in future some precautions in the stowage of such inflammable materials, and especially not to place them in immediate contiguity with each other. As, however, accidents arising from spontaneous combustion are of comparatively rare occurrence, and we are only imperfectly informed on the subject, we will pass to the other point, the " insufficient supply of boats;" an evil of a much more extensive character, since it applies to all, or nearly all, passenger ships.

The fact that emigrant and other passenger vessels do not carry a sufficient number of available boats to carry all on board them is so generally known that we need hardly repeat it. We have likewise already so often expressed the opinion, that it is the duty of the Government of any maritime nation to ascertain, and to compel the adoption of, all practicable measures for ensuring or contributing to the safety of its subjects whose occasions oblige them to traverse the sea, that we need not now reiterate the same, but will at once point to what have been hitherto the difficulties of the subject and to their proposed remedy. Now, the one great practical difficulty has been to provide stowage-room on board passengerships for a sufficient supply of boats to receive into them all those on board, amounting often to several hundreds of persons.

There have, no doubt, been other minor difficulties; thus, taking the world as it is, and mankind as they are, it cannot but be expected that expense would have its influence with the shipowner. And again, there has doubtless been an indisposition on the part of the Government to interfere more than was absolutely necessary with matters of private enterprise. But we are inclined to believe that, if the great practical difficulty of stowage-room had been got over, all minor ones would have vanished, and that we should not now have our feelings shocked by the spectacle of a number of our countrymen drowned and burned to death for want of boats to take them on board.

Not only, however, is it necessary that a ship should be supplied with boats capable of embarking all on board her, but, when the suddenness of many of these catastrophes is considered, and the difficulty or impossibility of then hoisting out boats from within board, it is important that she should carry as many of them outside her bulwarks as possible; yet here again the chief difficulty that presents itself is size. For, as within board, the capacious, powerful, trustworthy boat, occupies necessarily much space on the deck; so, when hoisted up to davits outside, she exposes so large a surface to the wind as to impede the vessel's speed, and is herself liable to be carried away by a heavy sea, or to be crushed by collision with another craft. How then can this obstacle of size be got over ? We know of but one mode, viz., by the adoption of collapsible boats, which can be stowed away in a comparatively small compass when not in actual use. The difficulty hitherto felt has been to discover a boat which should possess all the qualities of an ordinary one of the best description, and should at the same time collapse into a small compass. We believe, however, that the difficulty has been overcome, and that the collapsible life-boat invented by the Rev. E. L. BERTHON, and described in No. 10, page 70 of this Journal, is admirably adapted to fulfil all the requirements of such boats. As a full description of it is there given, we refer our readers to the same, and will merely now observe, that it has met with the unqualified approval of many naval officers who have seen it; and that a most favourable official report on it has been made by the master shipwrights of Her Majesty's Dockyard at Portsmouth, which report has been ordered to be printed and placed on the table of the House of Commons.

We have seen a boat of large dimensions thus constructed by Mr. BERTHON, and it more than realizes the anticipations we had formed from the examination of a model only. We are quite aware that a feeling is generally entertained of the inadequacy and unfitness of all collapsible or inflated boats for general service, and we quite agree with the justness of the conclusion, as a general rule, nor do we know of any other than the one we are now advocating which forms an exception to it; but Mr. BERTHON'S boat may be made of the same form as any ordinary one, it has greater strength, and whilst qualified for general use, it is at all times an insubmergible boat.

In conclusion, we will venture to express a hope that some of our great Steam Companies, and even individual Shipowners, who cannot but be alive to the urgency of the demand for greater boat accommodation on board their ships, will have the public spirit to have some of these boats constructed and placed on board their ships, with a view to meet these terrible emergencies, which so long as it exists must be considered a reflection on the country which can find no remedy to prevent or mitigate them..