A frightful calamity has happened to one of the great
German ironclads in the Straits of Dover. We do not yet know whether it were to the Kiinig Wilhelm' or the 'Grosser Kurfiirst.' The latter (the Grosser Kurfiirst ') is a great turret-ship, of near 7,000 tons, and of the same build as the ' Preussen ' and the
Friedrich der Grosse.' It was said that she could steam 14 knots an hour, and that her armament was six heavy guns. At half-past nine o'clock yesterday morning, the Kiinig Wilhelm' came into collision with the Grosser Kur- fiirst,' and one of the two sank almost immediately ; but one account says it was the former ship which sank, and another says it was the latter. One hundred and twenty of the crew had been rescued, but if that were all, it must have been but one- fourth of the crew needful for so large a ship. The Crown Prince of Germany immediately started for Dover by a special train. It is a terrible feature of the risk to these great iron vessels, that if a hole is made in any of them, they sink so rapidly, and with so large a population in them.
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