The steamer Chevalier, on her passage to Glasgow from the Highlands, on Thursday, the 6th instant, took on board at Tobermory 30 men, part of the crew and passengers of the emigrant ship Annie Jane, of Liverpool, which was wrecked on Vatersay, one of the western isles, on Thursday, the 29th ultimo.

Thomas Halcroo [Halcrow], a intelligent Canadian seaman, and others of the shipwrecked crew, gave the following narrative:-

The ship Annie Jane, of Liverpool, 1300 tons burthen, belonging to Messrs. Holderness and Chilton, commanded by Captain Mason, sailed from Liverpool for Quebec on the 9th of September, with about 410 passengers, including children. chiefly emigrants, and a crew of about 40 men, - mostly Canadians. They lost sight of the Irish coast on Sunday the 11th, and the following morning the foretopmast and the jibboom were carried away. Thus crippled, in expectation of better weather, the course for Quebec was continued until the morning of Thursday, the 22nd, when about lat. 60° north and lon. 17° west, they lost the maintopmast, with the mainyard. The captain then strove to return with such sails as could be got up on the remaining masts. On Wednesday they came in sight of Barra Head, and the light was seen the same night. The wind increased, and blowing hard from northwest at night, being unable to weather the land, they attempted to pass between the islands, and fairly went on shore on a sandy beach, between two Islands, on the west side of Vatersay, an island on the south of Barra. The ship struck the ground soon after midnight, when a dreadful scene followed. Turning broadside to land, she parted almost immediately, the remainder of the masts going overboard in succession, and the boats being washed away. The poop (which was very large) and the forecastle parted from the wreck and drifted on the shore, and from these parts all who escaped gained the land when the tide receded - three on the forecastle and the rest on the poop.
  Of the passengers and emigrants on board 66 were saved, including 15 women, one of whom rescued her infant child four months old, one of twins, the other being washed out of her arms and lost. The captain and about 35 of the crew escaped, the first mate being lost.
  There were about 20 cabin passengers; among these some Swiss gentlemen. Of these eight were lost, including Captain Rose and his wife. Captain Rose was on his way to take charge of a ship for the owners of the Annie Jane.
  Before the sailors left the island, 250 dead bodies had been recovered and buried upon the island; among these were the bodies of Captain Rose and his lady.
  The shipwrecked sailors arrived at Tobermory on Monday in the sloop Maria, and was taken care of by the agent of that excellent institution, the Fishermen's Shipwreck Society, and had a free passage given them by the owners of the Chevalier.
  Many of the emigrants were natives of Ireland; one these, a young lad, has lost 15 of his relatives in the wreck.
  Captain Hall, who was visiting the western islands for the purpose of establishing sailors' homes, found the unfortunate shipwrecked crew at Tobermory (Island of Mull). They all were present at the meeting, when arrangements were immediately made to establish a sailors' home. A large sum was subscribed, and a committee appointed to carry it out.

The following letter was received by the owners from Capt. Mason: it was addressed to Mr. J.H. Holderness

Dear sir, - I am sorry to inform you of the total loss of the Annie Jane, with about three-fourths of the passengers and crew aboard, which happened on the night of the 28th September, during a heavy gale from the westward, and which prevented me from clearing the land on either tack, the ship having been dismasted 36 hours after leaving Liverpool. I three times got up spars on the stumps of the lower masts, but lost them shortly after, owing to violent gales which have continued ever since I left Liverpool. I was drifted as far as lat. 60N. One hundred and two are all that are saved on board; only three cabin passengers remain. Capt. Rose, Mrs Rose and the boy servant have been found and interred. About 230 in all have been washed ashore. I have engaged boats to take the survivors to the main land. By one of them I am sending this note. The ship was broken to atoms in five minutes - and all the cargo out of the ship. It was six hours before I came on shore on part of the poop deck, very much bruised. Some of the cargo has been washed up, but nothing of much value; but the islanders are saving all that they can, and have been very kind to all of us.
  I will write you more fully by the next post that comes across, which will be in two or three days.-
  Yours, etc., WILLIAM MASON.
  P.S. - I sent a list of passengers saved, three days ago, by a different route. Anfield [steward] and Markham[2nd mate] are both saved.

From Liverpool Mercury 27 June 1854
GOVERNMENT INQUIRY INTO THE LOSS OF THE ANNIE JANE EMIGRANT VESSEL.
  Captain Beechey, the gentleman who was instructed by the board of trade to ascertain, by investigation, the circumstances which led to the appalling wreck of the emigrant ship the Annie Jane, on her voyage from Liverpool to Quebec, in September last, when about 300 human beings perished, has recently furnished his report, which is now made public.

The investigation was directed in consequence of a memorial, mistakenly addressed to Lord Palmerston, by 24 passengers saved from the wreck, and which his lordship sent to the board of trade. The memorial set forth complaints to the effect:

That the Annie Jane was laden with an enormous quantity of railway iron; that she took on board between 400 and 500 steerage passengers; that, she went on her voyage to Quebec with this most dangerous cargo, but doubly dangerous combined with human freight, and with every danger increased tenfold by the voyage taking place in the most stormy period of the year; that the passengers were cheated of their proper quantity of provisions; that on account of the serious damage the vessel received from rolling and straining, occasioned by the quantity of iron with which she was improperly laden, and on account of apparent unseaworthiness, the passengers succeeded in persuading the captain to return to Liverpool, and sent a deputation to the government emigration agent at Liverpool, to acquaint him with the nature of their complaints, and to solicit inquiry and redress; that, being fully aware of the danger to their lives if they went on in the same vessel, they wanted their passage money back; that they applied to the owners on the subject, and were met by a refusal; that their application to the government emigration agent at Liverpool was of no practical benefit, and that they were obliged again to go to sea in the Annie Jane, after she had only been roughly overhauled and refitted, the alternative being: re-embarking in this vessel, or perishing in the streets of Liverpool from starvation; that the universally expressed opinion was they had been ill-treated, not only by the owners as regarded accommodation and provisions, but also by the emigration agent at Liverpool, who passed the ship in the most careless and superficial manner, and who paid no sufficient attention to the reiterated complaints of the passengers; that the Annie Jane, a second time, proceeded to sea, and within three or four days again lost her masts, lifeboat, compass, etc; that destruction being inevitable if the voyage was continued, a petition from the whole of the emigrant passengers was presented to the captain, praying him to turn back, the petitioners agreeing to forfeit all their passage money rather than again jeopardise their lives; that the captain pitched the petition contemptuously into the sea, threatened to shoot any one who made further application to him, and actually allowed the vessel to drift on for nine days towards Quebec without masts or sails, until, it becoming quite evident the vessel must founder, the course was altered, and then the vessel, after being five weeks out, was guided upon Barra Island at twelve o'clock at night, where she instantly knocked her bottom out, owing to the enormous dead weight of iron, and in a very short time broke into pieces, smashing and drowning all on board but 101 persons.

The inquiry was opened at Liverpool, on the 1st of November; but reporters for the newspapers were not present. Captain Beechey was attended by T. C. Murdock Esq., the chairman of the emigration commissioners. Twenty three witnesses were examined, including the owner of the Annie Jane; the captain of the vessel; Captain Schomberg, the government agent in Liverpool; Lieutenant Prior, first assistant emigration officer at this port; R. N. James, government surveyor; and William Haselden, government emigration surveyor. The declaration of William Hendrie, a steerage passenger, was received in evidence, and other testimony was given in support of the passengers' complaints.

Captain Beechey, in his résumé of the evidence, which is comprised in his official report, states, with respect to the complaints of the passengers, that

the complaints were heard in the proper quarter; and, as regards the provisions, adjusted by the owner with great liberality, paying each of the passengers compensation for the injury he complained of, although it did not appear to the emigration officer that he was called upon to make the payments to the extent which he did.

From a careful review of the evidence, which I have been at much pains to collect from the captain and crew, as well as from the emigrants themselves, there can be no doubt that the loss of the Annie Jane was occasioned by her having taken on board a cargo of iron without care having been observed in its stowage. Under these disastrous circumstances, she had a crew who, though in appearances were more than ordinarily good, were not sufficient for such a vessel, especially at such a season of the year; and were besides partly composed of Canadians, who, with few exceptions, were afraid to go aloft at sea, and who either would not or could not understand the orders that were given.

But without attaching to this opinion more importance than it deserves, I am disposed to insist on a more rigid supervision of the stowage of the ship. I am aware that the vessels which embark passengers at Liverpool are so numerous that it is impossible for the present staff of emigrant officers to exercise a satisfactory supervision in this particular, and would strongly advise the appointment of licensed stevedores, who should be required to render the government officer a rough statement of the manner in which the cargo is stowed, and if stowed improperly to represent it, and, if not remedied, to withhold the certificate. The powers, with which the emigration officers are armed at present, are sufficient for this purpose if they are freely exercised, and the officers firmly supported.

Though it did not fall within his province to remark upon the matters which merely concerned the comfort and accommodation of passengers, yet, in compliance with the wishes of the emigration commissioners, he would say that the complaint of the unduly crowded state of the vessel did not at all appear to be well founded, but the vessel did appear to be in a disgraceful condition after she cleared from land, from the temporary nature of the fittings. To go farther into the question would only be to open out the inconveniences and miseries of emigrant ships.

The expression "To Quebec or the bottom," made use of by the captain, and the threat of "shooting any one who attempted to take his ship from him", was done under excitement, with a secret determination to put the ship round when he could. He thinks, however, it was the duty of the captain to return when the ship was so crippled. After speaking of the difficult nature of the duty of emigrant officers, and the responsibility of detaining a ship, he suggests that the responsibility ought to be encountered of refusing a claim for inefficient performance of particulars, as this appears to be the only way in which a diminution of the numerous complaints, and more serious casualties, which have of late befallen vessels, employed in the service such as that which the Annie Jane was engaged, can be effected.