ANOTHER of those maritime disasters has occurred which only too frequently serve to remind us that travelling on the sea is still attended with greater danger than travelling by land.

This time it is a collision between two of those noble ships which are almost hourly leaving or arriving at our ports, one of them, unfortunately, being a pas- senger vessel with 63 passengers on board.

The circumstances are, briefly, as follows.

The two vessels were each outward was an iron full-rigged ship of 1,154 tons register, bound to New Zealand; and the other, the Forest, of Nova Scotia, a wooden full-rigged ship of 1,422 register tons, carrying upwards of 2,000 tons of cargo, but at the time only in ballast.

The former ship had a crew, including the officers, 36 in number. She had five boats, one of them a Life-boat, in all capable of holding 130 persons. She had the port or lee bow, which then became obscured, and was not seen again until immediately before the collision. The Forest was under easy canvas at the time, on the starboard tack, and Captain LOCK- HARDT, who commanded her, was on the look-out; and, looking through his glass, he saw, he states, a green light, as if from a ship on the port tack. The weather being thick, he at once examined his own lights, and found them burning brightly.

Fearing, however, that a good look-out to luff, which was promptly done ; and a minute or two later the vessels met, on opposite tacks, and the collision took place, the Forest running into the Avalanche abreast of her mainmast, and, rebounding, appears to have struck her in all no less than four times.

Three of the Avalanche's crew, including the third mate, succeeded in climbing on - speedily done. As only one of the boats was ultimately saved, with those in her, it is not known how many succeeded in leaving the ship in the other two; but that some persons were still left on board the ship was known, as they were seen to burn two blue lights and a rocket; but the sea was so heavy that it was impos- sible for the boat to return to the ship and take them off, without certain destruc- tion to itself, even if it could have regained her, which, having only three oars on board, was unlikely.

After rowing the rest of the night, in momentary expectation of being swamped by the sea, this boat was seen from the shore by the Portland men, who at once, at great risk to themselves, launched two of their small boats, and succeeded in rescuing the 12 persons on board it, consisting of the captain and 8 men of the Forest, and the mate and 2 men of the Avalanche, who, as above related, had succeeded in getting on board her. One of the other boats was found in the morning keel upwards on the Chesil Beach, together with some of the bodies of those who had been in her; the fate of the other has not transpired, but she no doubt foundered during the night.

We do not recount the circumstances of this catastrophe, which have already transpired through the daily newspapers merely as interesting, nor in order to throw any blame on the captain or officers of either ship, but as matter for serious and profitable consideration.

Both ships were nearly new, were com- manded by experienced men, and although the larger ship had much the smaller crew, and those of a mixed character, tb evidence tended to show that she was efficiently manned; the smaller vessel bound to the more distant port, being more heavily rigged, and, as a passenger ship, having a considerably larger number of domestic servants counted as a portion of the crew.

It was further proved, in evidence, that a good look-out was kept on board both vessels, as their respective lights were seen from each about twenty minutes before he collision occurred.

How then did it happen that two fine ships, sufficiently manned and well com- manded, and both on the look-out, were unable to keep clear of each other? Official and international rules, the clearest ;hat experience has been able to devise, are now universally recognised, and are known to all captains of ships, yet still collisions take place! Can anything more )e done to prevent them ? We fear not; rat that whilst the loss of ships and lives from other causes may be diminished by improved legislation, there will still be an increase in the number of collisions at sea, so long as trade and commerce con- tinue to advance.

Our reasons for coming to this conclu- sion are, in the first place, that the greater ;he number of vessels traversing the seas, the greater must be the risk of their coming in contact with each other, espe- ially in narrow straits such as the English Channel, where there is a continuous stream of vessels passing to and fro, and crossing and re-crossing each other's tracks; secondly, that in dark, nights, although the lights of vessels may be mutually seen, their relative changes of position, the directions in which they are going, and their rates of progress, can never be known to each other with cer- tainty ; thirdly, that probably collisions are caused more frequently by those in command of one or both vessels losing their presence of mind at the last moment, than from any other cause, whilst no prescribed rules can fortify a man's nerves, endow him with good judgment, or give him presence of mind in moments of peril and need.

We see no reason to attach any blame to the captains or officers of either ship in this instance, as far as the collision is concerned—unless it be that the captain of the Forest had not sufficient sail on his ship to keep her well under command— but we do feel called on to draw attention to a circumstance which seems to indicate that no warnings are sufficient to induce the generality of captains of merchant vessels to take due care of their boats and keep them always in a state of readi- ness for immediate use.

Thus we find that the only boat which, with those on board it, was saved in this instance had to leave the ship with only three oars, with no rowlocks or rowing crutches, and without a plug to the draining-hole in the floor. If the other two boats left the ship equally unprovided, it is no matter for astonishment that neither of them was saved.

It is manifest that some stringent rules, with penalties attached to their infringe- ment, seem to be indispensable to coun- teract the proverbial carelessness of the masters of merchant vessels in this respect.