ks to the reputation of the company to which the vessel
belonged, the circumstance became extensively circulated.

The 13th of April, 1867, the sea being beautiful, the breeze
favourable, the Scotia, of the Cunard Company's line, found herself in
15 deg. 12' long. and 45 deg. 37' lat. She was going at the speed of
thirteen knots and a half.

At seventeen minutes past four in the afternoon, whilst the passengers
were assembled at lunch in the great saloon, a slight shock was felt on
the hull of the Scotia, on her quarter, a little aft of the port-paddle.

The Scotia had not struck, but she had been struck, and seemingly by
something rather sharp and penetrating than blunt. The shock had been
so slight that no one had been alarmed, had it not been for the shouts
of the carpenter's watch, who rushed on to the bridge, exclaiming, "We
are sinking! we are sinking!" At first the passengers were much
frightened, but Captain Anderson hastened to reassure them. The danger
could not be imminent. The Scotia, divided into seven compartments by
strong partitions, could brave with impunity any leak. Captain
Anderson went down immediately into the hold. He found that the sea
was pouring into the fifth compartment; and the rapidity of the influx
proved that the force of the water was considerable. Fortunately this
compartment did not hold the boilers, or the fires would have been
immediately extinguished. Captain Anderson ordered the engines to be
stopped at once, and one of the men went down to ascertain the extent
of the injury. Some minutes afterwards they discovered the existence
of a large hole, two yards in diameter, in the ship's bottom. Such a
leak could not be stopped; and the Scotia, her paddles half submerged,
was obliged to continue her course. She was then three hundred miles
from Cape Clear, and, after three days' delay, which caused great
uneasiness in Liverpool, she entered the basin of the company.

The engineers visited the Scotia, which was put in dry dock. They
could scarcely believe it possible; at two yards and a half below
water-mark was a regular rent, in the form of an isosceles triangle.
The broken place in the iron plates was so perfectly defined that it
could not have been more neatly done by a punch. It was clear, then,
that the instrument producing the perforation was not of a common stamp
and, after having been driven with prodigious strength, and piercing an
iron plate 1 3/8 inches thick,