CHAPTER I.

INTRODUCTORY.

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The opening of the year 1866 will long be memorable for that dismal series of disasters at sea, which it ushered in with a frequency and fatality that were truly appalling. The New Year was scarcely fourteen days old when, from every part of the coast, from north to south, from east to west, the telegraph flashed the melancholy tidings of ruin and havoc among the shipping. We heard of ships being dismantled by the storm, and obliged to put back to port; of others being beaten to pieces, while their crews, escaping by the lifeboats, performed such acts of heroism that the seaman’s name was covered with fresh renown. Since the year 1859 never had such tempests raged, and such deeds of gallantry been performed.

But disaster seemed indeed to crown disaster, when it was rumoured that the _London_--one of Messrs. Wigram’s finest vessels, laden with a valuable cargo, and having, it was first said, more than 300 souls on board--had foundered in the Bay of Biscay, and that not a soul had escaped. At first, many positively refused to credit the intelligence that the noble vessel, which had only a few days left our shores, had succumbed to the fury of the gale, and gone down a wreck. It seemed impossible. Relatives and friends were loth to receive the terrible truth that they had taken a last farewell of many, the grasp of whose hand they still felt warm within their own, and whose last words of love and friendship were still ringing in their ears. All were slow to admit that there was no hope, and there was a general clinging to the expectation that there had been some mistake. The _London_ might, perhaps, have been injured by the tempest, and compelled to put back to port; but that she could have foundered, or even if this calamity had occurred, that her crew and passengers had been unable to effect their escape--this indeed seemed almost beyond belief!

Too soon, however, the newspapers brought the sad and affecting story before the eyes of all, and never did story of shipwreck, however thrilling, excite a grief more sincere and wide-spread. It needed no artistic craft to make the story tell, and to take it straight home to the hearts of unnumbered thousands. “This awful wreck,” said Mr. O’Dowd in commencing the inquiry directed by the Board of Trade, “has been the theme of many a pen, and the topic of many a conversation since its occurrence has been made known. Though the sympathies of our hearts ought to recognise no grades of social position, nor any distinction of education and intellect, we yet must feel the pang embittered by the loss of some of the passengers, with whose names, accomplishments, and virtues the public are now painfully familiar.”

As, day by day, the harrowing details became more accurate and complete, the regret became more and more poignant, and almost assumed a national character. Men soon thought little of the ship, magnificent though she was, or of the cargo, valuable as that was; both ship and cargo became insignificant in the presence of the vast sacrifice of human life by which the wreck of the _London_ had been accompanied. And then came tales of heroism and self-denial, of a lofty courage and sweet resignation on the part of her passengers, officers, and crew, that made it harder still to realize that the men and women who had been capable of such noble behaviour had been buried beneath the foaming waves, and that the world now was all the poorer and more desolate, for their absence from it. Both the pulpit and the press gave touching and eloquent expression to the grief which prevailed on every side; and while the mourning relatives of our own land received every mark of sympathy and consideration, those belonging to the colonies, and on whom the news will burst like a terrible thunderbolt, were not forgotten, either in the earnest prayers that were offered on behalf of the bereaved ones, or in the words of genuine kindness and commiseration which the knowledge of their heavy loss elicited.

It has been thought that there is much belonging to the Wreck of the _London_ which entitles it to a more convenient place of record than the newspaper, and that many, both in England and Australia, will be glad to possess a simple, connected narrative of the ship’s doings, and especially of her passengers’ behaviour from the day they left our shores until the day of their foundering in the Bay of Biscay.

There can be no question that the heroism and piety displayed on the occasion, demand a most distinguished place in the annals of the brave and good. Unhappily, shipwrecks of the most disastrous character are of only too frequent occurrence; but it is seldom that a Message from the Sea has borne the character of that mysterious and sublime one which the sinking _London_ wrote ere she went down. Many, too, will perhaps be glad to possess portraits of those whose names will now be historical for their behaviour amid the distressing circumstances in which they were placed.

It is also in the sincere hope of administering some balm of consolation, however slight, to the hearts of thousands mourning in our own country and elsewhere, that we would now, avoiding, as far as possible, technical terms and details, invite the reader’s attention to the narrative of the Wreck of the _London_, first of all, however, looking at the ship herself, her Captain, and her list of passengers.

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