Ogden Evening Standard | 1911-07-13 | Page 4 | Wrecks on the Coast

WRECKS ON THE COAST. A-disaster such as that which overtook the steamship Santa Rosa must be rigidly examined, and when the responsibility has been fixed some one must be punished, says the Sacramento Union, The course along the coast between San Diego and San Francisco is not sufficiently suffi-ciently perilous for such accidents to happen if the customary precautions pre-cautions of seamanship are taken. Either the officers of the vessel were criminally careless or were acting under orders from the navigation navi-gation company when they demurred in landing the passengers after the reef had been struck. In either case some one is to blame for the lives that have been lost. f There arc a number of vessels engaged in coastwise traffic that should be condemned as uuseaworthy. Some of them arc on the southern run and others make the more dangerous trips to northern points. Certainly it is about time for the United States inspectors to take them' in hand. Every winter brings its series of wrecks on the north coast, the worn-out, rotten tubs operated as passenger steamers steam-ers breaking up under the slightest sea when they hang themselves on rocks. A staunch vessel, modernly built and equipped, could have been saved in almost any wreck along the coast in recent years. The ocean trip between San Francisco and the ports of southern California is, under normal conditions, a delightful experience, but it should be discouraged unless taken in the strong vessels that have not been so long in use, that will not open and crumble when they run upon the slightest obstruction. The Santa Rosa was one of the old coasters and long ago should have been denied the privilege of carrying car-rying passengers.