The Gisborne Standard AND COOK COUNTY GAZETTE. PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY, THURSDAY, SATURDAY MORNING. Tuesday, March, 6, 1890. A WATERY GRAVE.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume III, Issue 425, 6 March 1890, Page 2

The Gisborne Standard AND COOK COUNTY GAZETTE. PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY, THURSDAY, SATURDAY MORNING.

Tuesday, March, 6, 1890. A WATERY GRAVE.

Be just and fear not; Let all the ends thou aim’st at be thy country’s, Thy God’s, and truth’s.

The wreck of the steamer Quetta adds another to the large list of causalties which has already accumulated during the present year. It is an extraordinary thing for a vessel to be destroyed under such circumstances, fine weather and a calm sea, and that some one is very much to blame for the loss of life and property there can be no doubt. Who that someone is has yet to be discovered, but it will be small consolation to the mourning relatives. Very often it is only by such great calamities that authorities who are otherwise immovable can be made to take the necessary steps to avert loss of life and destruction to property. In this case no blame whatever appears to rest on the officers of the vessel. If it be true that the rock upon which the vessel struck was a spot indicated on the chart as clear of any such obstacle, the stigma must be cast from the shoulders of those who had control of the vessel, but the grave charge lies against those persons in authority who were guilty of allowing the existence of such a state of things. Little mistakes in the charts may possibly be expected, though unfortunately such little mistakes may be fraught with gre it peril to the lives of those who undertake sea voyages ; but it seems to betray criminal negligence on the part of those in authority if the chart is wrong in the description of a track so much frequented by vessels. It is, however, hardly possible at the present time to discover where the blame rests, and we must be content with deploring the great loss of life which the wreck has caused. Great sympathy will be felt distressed relations and other friends of those who so suddently met with a watery grave. There is indeed reason to be thankful that the loss of life was not greater, and the lesson conveyed by such a sacrifice may be of great use in the future.