The Loss Of The Ironsides

The loss of the Ironsides is a disaster which even in this day of disaster is calculated to inflict a more than ordinary shock upon the community. When an ocean steamer in the dead of night strikes upon one of the outlying ledges of the most inhospitable coast on the American continent, the calamity is indeed a terrible one ; but there are many considerations which combine to keep it froru being altogether surprising. Bnt when a steamer upon one of our inland lakes goes down in broad day and in full sight of the shore, there is Bomothing startling as well as terrible in the occurrence. There is nothing in the accounts thus far received of this terrible disaster which points to any one as particularly responsible for it, or that justifies fully the conclusión that auy one is. There are, nevertheless, certain facti already disclosed which require explanation. There may be no truth whatever in the report that the Ironsides was leaky on her preceding trip; but it is singular if she was entirely seaworthy that the water should have put out the fires and rendered the engines useless after so short an exposure to the gale, though the gale was unquestionably a terrific one. The fact. too, that so laige a proportion of the cargo was of grain, will naturally excite inquiry as to the method of stowage. The Ironsides, it is understood, was provided with two grain corapartments, one at the bow and another at the stern, and if these were filled while the remaining space was almost unoccupied, it may become a very important questian whether the freight was ly distributed. The circumstance8 are, at all eventg, guch as cali for a rigid and thorough inTestigation, not only on the part of the coroner's jury, but on the part of the government as well. It is true that the resulta of the investigations whioh have been made of late in cases wh ere human life has been sacrificed have hardly been such as to encourage the belief that any great amount of good will be accomplished by investigation ; but even thongh nothing should be dfcne beyond finding a scape goat and permitting him to escape, it will be some consolation to the traveling public to ascertain whether they are encompassed by any hitherto unknown perils as they go down to the sea in ships and do business upon the great waters.- Free Press.