The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1868-05-30 00:00:00

WRECK OF A STEAMER AND GREAT

LOSS OF LIFE.

On Friday, the 22nd inst., the screw steamer
Garuniv, Captain Drew. bound from Bordeaux to
Liverpool, was totally wrecked on the Buck rocks,
close to the Land's End. The Garonne sailed from
Bordeaux on the morning previous, between four and
five o'clock, with a fill car, 0; she had a crew of twenty-
two men and seventeen pamengers. It was about
half-past eleven on Friday night that, in very thick
weather, the vessel struck the rocks. There was at
Mke a scene of terrible confusion. In a minute or two
every one was on deck, except the sick men, the women
and children mostly in their night dresses, and some
with only a shawl or a petticoat hastily snatched np,
ai the shock, the alarm by captain awl crew, or the
rush of the mea, warned them of imminent peril— 1 ow
imminent the engineer and firemen soon proved, for in
two minutes the engine-room WM filled, awl the fires
extinguished. After some difficulty three boats were •
goy afloat ; but before all the people on board the
vessel could enter them, the poop where they stood was
submerged, and all were lost.
Alexander Buxton. the engineer, William Arrow-
smith, the second engineer, Michael Garitty awl
Owen Roberts, firemen, and John Clayton, cook, each
seeing the hopelessness of standing by the wreck, got
out the dingey aft. This little boat (about sixteen feet
long) was full of green peas. and its plus was out.
The sea soon washed sit the peas, and filled the boat ;
but four men (all except Mr. Buxton) were in her, and
she floated. They called to Mr. Buxton to jump from
the steamer ; awl, after one more thought of the
I respective chances of the steamer or this frail means

of escape, he sprang into the sea, swam to the dingey,
and was taken in. With a piece of wood torn from
the stern-sheets he cut a plug, and stopped the hole.
In the bottom of the boat they helm' a plate and a
bucket. This served to bale the water out. The
carpenter threw a couple of oars to them, which they
were lucky enough to secure, and by two men making
rowlocks of their arms, and two 'lulling, while one was
ttn the look out, they managed to keep the boat just
clear of the wreck, so as to wait about to assist
any one in the water. Presently a life-buoy was
washed near them. This they picked up, and by
severing the lanyards obtained ropes to lash the oars to
the thowl-holes. They were, comparatively speaking,
safe ; but it required care to manage the boat ; and, as
she drifted away from the wreck, and they heard
breakers near, some time was anxiously spent until
daylight cause, when they sighted Mousehole, and
reached that place in safety. Mr. Buxton had his
watch with him. Otherwise, he and his men saved
nothing but the clothes they had on.
'llomas 'Bullock was at the wheel (on the bridge) at
the time. The captain was with him on the bridge,
aud went forward to look out. He gives precisely the
same account of the wreck as Messrs. Wilson and
Buxton. He saw the boatswain getting out the port
like-boat--a fine craft, thirty feet long, and in which
everything was ready fir use. When this boat was
out, the boatavain, William Jones, A. 8., the car-
penter, Peter Fox, A. 8., Jack the donkey-man (they
know the man who works the donkey-engine by no
other name), and others were in her. They had six
oars, but two were soon broken up. They pulled
round under the steamer's quarter, and saw the pfel-
sengern all standing near the rail. Whether they
jumped or were washed off they could not say, but in
a minute or two Mr. Muir was in the sea, with Isis
little buy in Isis arms. They heard the father call out
to save the child, lint the poor little fellow was washed
out of his father's arms. Providentially, both were I
swept near the boat, and, singly, they were ,
saved, the child being caught by one of his legs
ass a wave hurried him past. Those in the boat
called to the ladies to jump front the quarter; for it
was easy to see —not only that the steamer must be
a wreck, but that to hold on long would be impossible.
Two waves from opposite quarters met more than once
near the stern, and swept up—high as the mast-head,
it seemed to those in the boat, as if ravenous for the
affrighted people on deck, who screamed in their terror,
and were unable to quit their precarious hold for the
boiling sea beneath them. At last, as well OA the sailors
could discernin the darkness and confusion, two females
either tried the hazardous leap or were washed from
the strainer. The accounts Is not agree. Otte sailor
thinks the supposed females were two garments, blown
into the water ; but another is quite punitive that a
female sprang front the ill-fated Garonne and fell
into the water near the tip of his oar. He thrust the
oar towards her, and called to her to hold on, but she
seemed insensible, and sank very rapidly. Another
seaman says he leant over the boat ana grabbed a
figure as it washed past, He held a garment until
the form it enclosed slipped from it and the owner
also perishol.
This boat remained until a heavier sea than before
inundated the pant. Her occupants heard the last de-
spairing shriek of the women, and then all was
quiet. There is little doubt that all who survived to
that time perished then. For an hour and a half after
they drifted from the Garonne they saw her lights at
tint mast-head. This boat, with ten or eleven
occupants, made towards Penzance, and was seen,
when about half-a-mile from the pier, by Thomas
Carbis, a pilot and the coxswain of the lifeboat, and
Ids men. This was at four o'clock. Carbis beckoned
them on and in, by means of Ins sou'-wester, and at
once batk the poor little boy to his home and bed. Mr.
Hosking, surgeon, promptly attended Mr. Muir and
his 'OM: The state of mind of Mr. Muir may be con-
ceived— his wife and three little ones lost in a few
minutes, and the escape of his son and himself
little short of miraculous.
Into the third boat—the last to leave the steamer, a
six-oated lifeboat—got William Harvey, James Drew,
A. 8., John Corcoran and Martin Ryan (two firemen),
3114.1 Henry Walker, is boy. They called to the captain,
as he stood on the quarter-deck. Ile refused to leave,
and they heard hum say, "'hue Lord have mercy upon
us." They could not get their boat near the quarter,
and were drifted away. At daylight they were sighted
by a Mousehole fishing-craft and towed into Mouse-
hole. . _

On Saturday the bodies of the captain and of two
children were p.c.... tip.