Tw terrible tragedy that has just occurred on a reef off the east end of Socotra, of which details were made public yesterday afternoon, will, we should hope, press with irresistible force on the Indian Government the demand that sailors have made for years, that a lighthouse should be maintained on the east end of that island. Steamers bound across the Indian Ocean daring the north-east monsoon, and at the beginning of the south-west monsoon, almost invariably ase what is known as the Kight-Degree Channel, which carries them to the south of Minicoy, one of the Laccadive group of islands, on which there is a light maintained by the Indian Government, After passing this, no land is sighted until making Socotra, a run of some twelve hundred miles. "At certain seasons of the year observations may not be obtained for several days, and dead reckoning has to be trusted to, and this, with the strong and varying currents prevailing at the time of the change of the monsoons, is often misleading. It is a crying shame that such.an island, which is a British protectorate, should be absolutely without lights or landmarks any description, and it is a lasting dis,, race to the Indian Government, which has frequently been urged to place lights on the island. It must be remembered that the east end of Socotra is uninhabited, though it- is visited by a few fishermen during the north-east monsoon, Mhe reef on which the Aden has been wrecked runs out due east from the east end of Socotra, and the Aden, if she were taking the usual course through the Eight-Degree Channel, then due west to the sixtieth parallel, and then north-west to the east end of Socotra, would, if she were alittle to the westward of her intended course, strike the reef almost at right angles. Ihe striking at three o'clock in the morning, with a heavy sea on, and the atmosphere, as it is in the south-west monsoon, almost as thick as in a typhoon, must have been horrible enough, and every hour the situation must have become worse. It speaks volumes for the strength of the steamer that she held together for seventeen days, and it is wonderful that anyone bore the strain and suspense of that long agony. They must have expected the steamer to break up every minute, or no-one, with the big sea that runs there, would have thought of taking to fa boat, and meanwhile they had the} farther agony of seeing fellow-passengers and officers swept overboard by the big seas and drowned without hope of rescue. The details, when we got them, if the survivors are able to relate them, will be almost too heartrending to read.
Of the thirty-four passengers on board the Aden when she left Colombo only seven are saved, three men, two ladies, abd two children, with two Captain Hill, a most efficient and skilfal sailor, all the deck officers, and all the engineers but two, are drowned,. and all the crew with the exception of one steward and thirty-four natives. No similar accident has befallen the P. & O. Company since the wreck of the Bokhara, which was less terrible, since there was less suspense; less of the hoping against hope which must have animated those who remained on the wreck for seventeen weary days and nights; until, indeed, as we learn from Reuters telegram, the Aden was actually beginning to break up. We can only begin to fancy the joy with which the Mayo was descried coming to their rescue, and the eager solicitude with which the officers and men of the Mayo transferred the survivors from the wreck to their own deck, and the care and kindness they lavished on them on the voyage from the reef to Aden. Yhe Bayo, we may mention incidentally, is a little steam yacht of 558 tons net, belonging to the Indian Government, and kept for the government service at Aden.
There cannot but be a general feeling. of astonishment that a P. & O. steamer should be seventeen days on a reef off Socotra, that is, within not much more than a day's sail from Aden, without assistance being sent to her. OF course, the Aden was not a regular mail steamer, but she carried a large number of passengers, and it would seem that if assistance had been sent to her earlier, a uninber of the lives now lost might have been saved. The Rohilla, which was sent to look for her from Bombay, was not despatched until the Aden had been some twenty-four days out from Colombo; and considering how many P. & 0. steamers pass Socotra, to and fro, weekly, it seems difficult to conjecture why they were not instructed to look for the' missing vessel earlier. However, it is of little use'to speculate on this now, and no doubt good reasons for the apparent delay will be forthcoming; we can only hope that the survivors will suffer no permanent injury from the awful hardships they must have undergone-while waiting to be rescued, and that it will be many years before we hear again of so terrible a disaster.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.