A dreadful wreck took place on Monday morning off the
coast of Suffolk, which was accompanied by a fearful loss of life. The Deutschland,' a large German emigrant steamer, from Bremen to the United States, left the Weser on Sunday morning, and -steamed through a heavy, gale of wind and snow at a much greater rate apparently than- the log showed. At four on Mon- day morning speed was reduced, but at five, or soon after, the vessel struck on the Kentish Knock, a sandbank off Har- wich. Even now all the lives might have been saved, had the signals been seen at Harwich, and had there been a life-boat there ; but it seems that the signals were not seen till dark on Monday evening,—at 5 a.m. surely it should have been still dark enough for rockets td be seen,—and when they were seen there was no lifeboat to man, and the Harwich sailors would not go out in such a sea without a lifeboat ; thus the rescue did not reach the ship from Harwich till Tuesday morning, when many had been washed off the wreck, being too weak from cold and ex- posure to cling to it any longer. One German sailor, who had been sent off in the 'Deutschland's' lifeboat to get help, reached Sheerness more dead than alive, with two companions quite dead, on Tues- day morning. The vessel appears to have had about 213 souls on board,—namely, a crew of 90 sailors, and 123 passengers, chiefly emigrants. Of these about 134 have been saved,—namely, 45 sailors and 89 passengers, according to the lateat accounts,—while 76, or thereabouts, have been drowned. Surely Harwich ought to have lifeboats without more ado. The widow of one of our most distinguished admirals, Admiral Denman, presented a life- boat the other day to a Welsh harbour in memory of her husband. A better example could not be set. It would be a far nobler monument, to seamen at all events, than any monument in marble.
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