SHIPWRECKED MAILS.
Outside the Post-office department it is probably not apprehended to
what extent care is actually bestowed upon letters and packets--when, in
course of transit through the post, their covers are damaged or
addresses mutilated--in order to secure their further safe transmission;
many envelopes and wrappers being of such flimsy material that, coming
into contact with hard bundles of letters in the mail-bags, they run
great risk of being thus injured. But the occasions on which exceptional
pains are taken, and on a large scale, to carry out this work, are when
mails from abroad have been saved in the case of shipwreck, and the
contents are soaked with water. Then it is that patient work has to be
done to get the letters, newspapers, &c., into a state for delivery, to
preserve the addresses, and to get the articles dried. In certain
instances the roof of the chief office in St Martin's-le-Grand has been
used as a drying-green for shipwrecked newspapers, there being no
sufficient space indoors to admit of their being spread out. The amount
of patching, separating, and deciphering in such circumstances cannot
well be conceived.
But perhaps the most curious difficulty arising out of a shipwrecked
mail was that which took place in connection with the loss of the Union
Steamship Company's packet 'European' off Ushant, in December 1877.
After this ship went down the mails were recovered, but not without
serious damage, through saturation with sea-water. One of the registered
letter-bags from Cape Town, on being opened in the chief office in
London, was found to contain several large packets of diamonds, the
addresses on which had been destroyed by the action of the water, and
some 7 lbs. weight of loose diamonds, which had evidently formed the
contents of a lot of covers lying as pulp at the bottom of the bag, and
from which no accurate addresses could be obtained. Every possible
endeavour was made to trace the persons to whom the unbroken packets
were consigned, and with such success, that after some little delay they
reached the hands of the rightful owners. To discover who were the
persons having claims upon the loose diamonds, which could not be
individually identified, was a more serious matter, involving much
trouble and correspondence. At length this was ascertained; and as the
only means of satisfying, or attempting to satisfy, the several claims,
the diamonds were valued by an experienced broker, and sold for the
general behoof, realising L19,000. This means of meeting the several
claimants proved so satisfactory, that not a single complaint was
forthcoming.