Page:Twenty Thousand Verne Frith 1876.pdf/14

 built she would have sprung a leak, and have gone to the bottom with her 237 passengers and crew.

The accident happened at about 5, at daybreak. The officers of the watch hurried to the stern of the ship. They scanned the ocean with minuteness. They perceived nothing except a strong eddy, which broke about two cables' length distant, as if the surface of the sea had been violently disturbed. The bearings of the spot were accurately taken, and the Moravian continued her voyage apparently uninjured. Had she struck upon a sunken rock or on some wreckage? They could not tell, but upon examination in dock it was discovered that a portion of the keel had been carried away.

This occurrence, although sufficiently serious in itself, would perhaps have been forgotten, like many others, if, three weeks afterwards, it had not occurred again under exactly similar conditions. Only, thanks to the nationality of the ship, the victim of this system of running foul of vessels, and to the reputation of the company to which the ship belonged, the event created a great sensation.

No one can be ignorant of the name of Cunard, the celebrated English shipowner. This gentleman founded in 1840 a postal service between Liverpool and Halifax, N.S., with three wooden vessels and engines of 400 horse-power, and 1,162 tons measurement. Eight years afterwards the fleet of the company had increased by four ships of 650 horse-power and 1820 tons, and two years later two other steamers of greater size were built. In 1853 the Cunard Company, which had again secured the concession to carry the mails, added successively to its fleet the Arabia, Persia, China, Scotia, Java, Russia, all vessels of the first-class, and the largest (except the