ON the morning of the 6th December, 1875, occurred one of those sad disasters which ever and anon remind us of the dangerous character of our shores, the wreck of an emigrant ship. But a few months since the German passenger steamer Schiller was wrecked off one of the Scilly islands, with the loss of 331 lives; and now another emigrant steam- ship, of the same nationality, has shared the same fate off the coast of Essex, and 57 of her passengers and crew have un- happily perished.

Perhaps no maritime disaster of modern times, not even that of the foundering of the Northfleet, in January 1873, has ex- cited more general interest, arising partly from the circumstance of its having oc- curred so near the mouth of the Thames, and partly from the strange and reckless charges advanced by a portion of the German newspaper press against the town of Harwich and the boatmen of that port, maliciously accusing them of deliberately allowing the unfortunate emigrants to perish before their eyes and refusing them succour—nay, of even rejoicing at their sufferings, solely because they were Germans.

It seems almost incredible that a Dews- paper of some importance, in the capital [ of a friendly nation, should, without in- ( quiry, or any attempt to verify its state- ments, make so unjustifiable an attack on the inhabitants of a respectable English town and on its hardy and courageous boat- men, and should again and again repeat the charge, when in truth everything had been done that was practicable to aid the poor shipwrecked people as soon as pos- sible after the calamity was known.

It may be thought by some that so sweeping and absurd a charge might be left to contradict itself, more especially as the evidence which has since been given at the official inquiry by the BOARD OF TRADE, and has been published in the London newspapers, completely refutes it We feel bound, however, to come also to the rescue of our fellow-countrymen at j Harwich, as many of our readers may not have had an opportunity to peruse the official report.

The circumstances assumed by the ' Borsen-Zeitung,' or Bourse Gazette, of Berlin, are: that the Deutschland was wrecked close to the port of Harwich, where any signals of distress shown by her could be readily distinguished; that she showed her German flag; and that the people of Harwich suffered so many of her passengers and crew to perish because they were Germans—for which assumed unnatural cruelty this credulous news- paper appeals to its Government to de- mand apology and reparation from the British nation on behalf of the great German people.

Turning, however, from the dreamland of assumption to the more prosiac but more credible region of fact, we will briefly describe the actual circumstances of the case.

In the first place, then, the spot where the Deutschland was wrecked—on the j Kentish Knock—was 24 English miles from Harwich, and therefore at too great a distance for the vessel herself, and far less for any signals of distress or na- tional flag, to be seen from that place, I even in clear weather. Accordingly, the only modes by which intelligence of the I disaster could be conveyed to Harwich would have been by the different light- j vessels repeating the signals from one to another, and finally to that town, or by some vessel or boat proceeding there.

Now it so happened that all the hovel- ling smacks belonging to that and adjacent places had themselves been driven, into port by the violence of the gale and the heavy sea, and that the only available j means of communication was therefore by j signals from the lightships. I It appears, from the evidence of the i officers in charge of those vessels, at | the Board of Trade inquiry, although ; the Deutschland had been on shore since j between 5 and 6 o'clock in the morn- ing, on Monday, the 6th December, and j had immediately commenced to throw up j rockets, and continued to do so until j daylight, none of them were seen even from the nearest lightship—the Kentish j Knock—no doubt owing to the thickness j of the weather, and almost continuous j snowstorms, the master of that vessel first perceiving the unfortunate steamer at 9.30 A.M. He then fired guns and sounded j the fog-horn, and continued to do so at j half-hour intervals during the day, and at j 4.30 P.M. commenced to throw up rockets,! which were answered by the steamer. } At 5.20 the mate of the Sunk Light-} ship first saw two rockets, which he sup- ! posed to be from a vessel on the Long ; Sand, whereupon he fired guns and sent up rockets throughout the night, but did not see the wrecked ship until 7.30 on the morning of Tuesday, the 7th. His first rockets had, however, been seen by the look-out on board the Cork Lightship, from which vessel rockets were then immediately discharged, and at 7.30 these were replied to from Harwich, they having given the first intimation to the good people of that town that anything was amiss at sea, and even then not that a German emigrant steamer was ashore on the Kentish Knock, hut merely that some vessel was in danger somewhere on one of the numerous sandbanks which lie in all directions off their port.

"We have thus accounted for the cir- cumstance of these unfortunate ship- wrecked persons being allowed to remain fov fourteen hours in their perilous posi- tion without succour from the shore, from the simple cause that no one knew of their clanger; and we have arrived at another stage of our inquiry, viz.: Were the means then adopted all that could be reasonably expected from humane people who would gladly afford succour, if in their power, to any one in distress, to whatever country they might belong? What, then, were the means available at Harwich, for affording succour to the shipwrecked people? Where was the Harwich Life-boat? it might be asked.

There was no Life-boat there, it having always been considered that the outlying sandbanks, on which vessels were liable to be wrecked, were all so distant that before a Life-boat from Harwich could teach them the shipwrecked persons would have been taken off by one of the numerous hovelling smacks which are almost always cruising about, or lying under shelter of the sands, on the look oat for vessels in distress.

There was, however, a small but ser- viceable steam-tug, not, be it remembered, the property of the Government or of the town, but of a private individual, pro- vided by him as a mercantile speculation, and manned and worked exclusively at his own expense, just as any other merchant vessel is provided for its ownei's legitimate profit. It is right that the character of this boat should be borne in mind, in justice to her owner and master, since any service performed by her could not be demanded as a right by the com- munity at large, but solely as an act of humanity at the owner's personal risk of the loss of his vessel.

The circumstance of this tug, the Liver- pool, not going off instantly on perceiving the rockets thrown up by the Cork Light- ship, has been much animadverted on by ignorant persons; fortunately, however, she was commanded by an able and ex- perienced seaman, Captain CARRINGTON, who knew what he was about; who knew the difficulties of navigating in the in- tricate passages between the numerous shoals off the port in a dark night and gale of wind, and that he could only do so at great risk of losing his owner's vessel and the lives of those intrusted to him; that he might spend the whole night in vainly searching for the vessel in dis- tress, and even if he should find her, that with the small tug's boats it would be quite impossible for him to render any assistance to a vessel surrounded by broken water, in a dark night and heavy sea; and, moreover, that if any mishap should disable his own vessel, the only chance of saving the wrecked persons might be destroyed.

Most judiciously then, in our opinion, he decided not to proceed to sea in search of the wrecked vessel until shortly before daylight, but got his steam up in readi- ness for a start. Shortly before 6 o'clock in the morning he left, the gale having then somewhat moderated. He first went to the Cork Lightship, and ascertained from her master that the Sunk Lightship had been firing all night. He then pro- ceeded to the latter, and was informed that there was a steamer on the Long Sand.

He next steamed to the Long Sand, and found there was no vessel on it. He then steered for the Kentish Knock, and when halfway to it saw the Deutschland on that sandbank. He then went to the Knock Lightship, and hailed her, but those on board her could not tell him what the wrecked vessel was, or if there was any one on board her. He then proceeded to I the spot, and finding there were a large number of persons on board her, anchored f his vessel under her lee at about 60 fathoms distance, and sent his boats to her; but after taking off three boat-loads, weighed his anchor, placed his vessel alongside the ship, and took off the remainder of the survivors of her passengers and crew, 173 in all.

So much for the Harwich tug. She did all that could possibly have been done, and her owners and her master are entitled to the thanks of the German people, rather than to their reprobation.

But, 2ndly, the smacksmen of Harwich have been accused of acting like wreckers, coming not to save lives, but eagerly boarding the wrecked ship, as soon as her crew and passengers had left her, and pillaging her—in fact, stealing everything on which they could lay their hands.

What, however, are the real circumstances of the case, and who are the "smacks- men" ? They are an invaluable body of men, whose profession, by which they obtain their bread and support their fami- lies, is that of " hovelling," that is, help- ing vessels in distress, assisting them to get afloat when they have grounded on sandbanks or on the coast shore, recover- ing anchors and cables that have been lost, or been slipped by vessels that have sailed, and rescuing from the sea property of any kind, which, in the case of total wrecks, | would otherwise be irretrievably lost.

So their credit, be it said, they have I also, in numberless cases, been the means of | saving lives, of ten at great risk to their own, as the records of the NATIONAL LIFE-BOAT INSTITUTION amply testify.

As in the case of the owner, master, and : crew of the Harwich tug, it must, however, be borne in mind that these smacksmen i are not employed and paid to save lives, ; but that they are merely a body of hardy, daring, energetic men, who have em- braced a dangerous calling, and who, to | prosecute that calling successfully, have to provide, at their own expense, valuable boats, which, with their equipment, often cost 3001. or 4:001., and we believe some- 2 c 2 times more. These boats, or smacks, as j they are there called, perform the same work as the luggers of Deal, Ramsgate, Yarmouth, and other places; they are fine boats, and well handled by their crews, but they are not fitted as Life-boats, and cannot be taken through heavy, broken water, as ; a Life-boat can be, to the assistance of' wrecked crews without great risk of loss of their own property, by which they earn their bread, and of their own lives.

In common charity, then, they are' surely entitled to-use their own judgment as to the extent to which they may risk the loss of their own lives and of their boats; and they would be something more or less than human if they did not do so, j and did not remember their wives and chil- dren or parents at home, however anxious they might be to save the lives of others.

In this instance they had been driven into port by the severity of the gale; but, had they been able to keep the sea, they could not without certain destruction j have attempted to go alongside the i wrecked ship until the gale had mode- I rated and the sea gone down. The steam- i tug was able to get to the Deutschiand ' before they could do so, and her owner,! master, and crew had the glorious satis- faction of being the means of saving so many lives from perishing; but there was no reason why the smacksmen, when after- wards able to board the ship, her destruc- tion being then inevitable, should not I take from her everything that could be j saved, before too late to do so, provided that they handed it over to the proper authorities on landing, and were them- i selves satisfied with the percentage of its j value allowed them by the salvage laws. I This the evidence brought out by the subsequent Board of Trade inquiry proved that they did, and they stand thus ho-nourably acquitted of all the charges brought against them by the ignorance or malice of their accusers.

This is not the first time we have had to write in defence of this class ,of men, a class which, we believe, exists in no other ! part of the world but on the east coast of the United States of America; and we again tell their detractors that if, by unmerited censure and ill treatment, they are driven from the sea to other and safer callings on the land, an immense amount of property and many lives will as a con- sequence be sacrificed.

3rdly. What could the people of Har- wich have done beyond what they did do? They had no means at their dis- posal for affording aid to persons in dan- ger at sea, 24 miles from their town; and until the tug returned with her cargo of German emigrants and sailors, those amongst them who had heard that alarm- signals had been seen would no doubt have thought it most probable that it was but some poor overladen or ill-found English coaster or collier brig which had succumbed to the storm.

There was one thing, however, that the Harwich people did do—they performed the office of the 'good Samaritan' by treat- ing kindly and hospitably the survivors from the wrecked ship; by administering to their need in clothing and food, for which they received the hearty thanks of the poor people themselves; and by de- cently and reverentially interring in the town cemetery the bodies of the drowned which had been recovered and brought ashore, the solemn burial service of the Church of England being read over them, and many an eye was bathed in tears.

The above is a brief, truthful, unvar- nished account of the chief circumstances attending the loss of the Deutschland.

German writers may, in their warm rooms, far from the wild sea-wave, write what they will; our English boatmen will still, as cheerfully as hitherto, prosecute their hazardous calling—will still launch their Life-boats through the boiling surf, by day and by night—will still be the means, in God's hands, of saving in Life- boats alone an average of some 600 lives pei annum, and directly and indirectly, with their own boats, some hundreda more, a considerable proportion of whom are foreigners of every nationality fre- quenting our shores.

On this occasion the Life-boat of the NATIONAL LIFE-BOAT INSTITUTION at Broadstairs proceeded, as soon as possible, to the scene of the wreck, 20 miles dis- tant, but too late to be of service; and ' already since the wreck of the Deutsch- land the Harwich tug Liverpool has rescued from certain death the crew of another foreign ship, this time a Norwegian, wrecked on the Shipwash sandbank ; and the Ramsgate Life-boat, summoned by I telegram from Harwich, was towed by I the steam-tug Aid no less than 45 miles ' to the scene of the disaster, only to j find on arrival there that the shipwrecked crew had already been saved by the Har- wich tug, and then another 45 miles on her return, the 15 poor fellows on board having been then fourteen hours sitting in their boat, with the seas and spray breaking over them through their whole terrible voyage, in a freezing atmosphere and then landed in a benumbed, half- frozen state, from the effects of which some of them may never entirely recover.

Bethink you, reader, whether English or German, how can such men be suffi- ciently rewarded by aught save the appro- bation, nay, the admiration, of all good men, and the approval of their own in- ward souls, of which no man can deprive them.