The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1866-11-03 00:00:00

A despatch, dated Savannah, Oct. 1",, says :

. -
A private letter from Mayport Ifll,Fla, saye that
Gou &b,, the eecond mat. of th, Erehihu S'or, hid
arrived there, having left the steamer with a boatload of
ladies. AU but two were lost before getting near Nhore In
landing the latter were lost—one named Annie, from Rhode
Island, ano the other Rosa Howard. of New To, Both
beanie insane from want and starvation. Their bodies were
wuhed ashore That of the latter was nearly devoured by
eiharke The mate is barely alive

One of the passengers gives the following statement
descriptive of the closing seisms :

All l'ueselay night, the Ereo.ing Star lay at the mercy of
the waves. and appeared to be settllng very fast. The cap-
tain had informed the passengers that all had been done that
Waa possible t 0.... the UM, sad that further effort was
vele... The next morning, at five o'clock, the steamer was
a complete wreck, both paddle-boxes were gone, nothing of
them remaining in sight but the iron bare Ihe pilot house
and suerds had been .wept away her engine had been use.
lest for • long time, and she was rolling In the trough of
the sea At 5 if. o'clock, the captain notified the women
that ell who wished to take their chances in the boats could
do eo Purser Allen placed. number of women in the boats
but at the moment these were detached from the wreck they
were swamped. All the w men that could get them had
life preserve., but these were very few in number. Mean-
while the .hip was filling very fast. I stood by one of the
hatch coven in company with several women, intending to
Cling to It when the yew' should go down, which we ex-
pected every moment. In a few minutes she shipped it
heavy sea forward of her starboard wheelhouse, nom
pletely covering tie vessel She never rose again out of tide
sea, but went down in an Meant. I wan mulled down with
her about 2. or 30 feet On coming to the surface of the
water again I caught hold of a heavy piece of the frimed to
mlttort myself. but being several times struck by pieces of
the wreck I relinquished my hold. I next succeeded in
getting Upon a piece of the framework of the saloon, where
I shod two or three hour., taring been washed off two or
three times. At this time I could see most of the tiebris as
It lay before me One piece rI the hurricane deck, some
hundred feet long, was crowded with burner beings, whom
shrieks of terror and nespair rose above the-fury of the storm.
While clinging torn, piece of the wreck, I saw eine of the
life hosts to which several persons Were clinging, torn
bottom up. I main to her, and, with the assistance of the
ethers, succeeded in righting the boat 'some eighteen of us
got hold of the boats which was c-rnpletdy filled with water
Some of those clinging to the sides of the boat with me were
soon washed away. Their 5 lacrs were quickly filled by
othera. She turned over and over in the water like a log.
After great exertion we succeeded in getting her freed of
water Darin, the evening of the 3rd Wedneeday„ we began
to suffer comiderahly from the want of food and water.
One of our party bad found a turnip floating near the boat,
and, basing secured 11, divided it with his companions
Some who had been drinking .It water became quite
denim, from the effect of it. From the canvas of the tfe-
preservers We managed to rig up a eail, which, by the aid
of the rtr•ng easterly wind, helped us along towards the
shore. At ught o'clock on the next morutug 'the 4th. . we
fell In with um of the ship's lifeboat., containing the third
mate and nine men. They gave each of us a handful of
cracker., they having been fortunate enough to save a box
of them from amongst the drift of the wreck Shortly
after we parted company. The Other boat had a greed tall.
Both boats now stood for the land, wind about EN S.
At five o'clock on the morning of the sth we saw a sail,
which Proved to he the barque Ffrefustiq. of Uuvig. Nor-
way, from Belize, Honduras, hound to Southampton, which
hove to and took us on board. Our party consisted of ten
when we reached Savannah. Purser Allen and the Chief
Engineer being of the party, and myself the only pauenger.
fudv for life-preservers were on board the Frening Star,
whiCh were distributed among the ladles. The members of
the ballet Troupe and French Circus Company, not speaking
anguish, could not underatend what orders were given in
relation to the boat., and very few, if any, managei to
reach them The ehrieks of the frantic women could he
heard above the roar of the angry waves, rushing to and fro
Imploring for aid, tint it was each for himself In addition
to the Fret eh Circus Company and Ballet TroUPe there were
forty two frail women, wit, for 'minim reasons, were
seeking another field to prosecute their unholy calling
Some with impaired constitutions were migrating to a
warmer clime others were enfferMg from ennui, and
merely wanted a change of acetic It In stated that ore
young girl hu left a widowed mother, sister. and child
unprovired for. she being their only support The sister Is
being educated in a private school, and known not of her
sieter'e shame.

Another account states :--

-------
At five a m. the engine was thoroughly disabled. in mite
of the superhuman efforta of the chief engineer and his
sasistance. The increase of the water hi the ship's bold soon
drove the men from their duty by the cargo't al:tilting aft.
The harrlctne was all this time Morena with. fury which
Was fearful terrific, and appalling in tht extreme ; sn much
that it might he reasonably expected that the wild force
tithe storm would exhisust Itself, but re fortune was
in store for the ill-fat.d ship or its doomed living freight
It conth tied with the tarn. violence and at last the dreaded
Stud fearful hour arrived when, at shout fives M , the cap-
tain went into the cabin and notified the Nagel per. that
he had done all in his power, and that the ship would
erralkly go down rl•nne of the seamen were at thin mo-
ment assisting in getting the hoots free from the fastenings
to the Alp the captain wee exhorting the pimento es to net
coolly, the storm continuing to howl in the most fearful and
depressing manner And now came the most thrilling
moment or our trying time The WOILINI, shrieking fright-
fah y. rurrod en deck In the Tenet frantic manner tearing
it ir hair air, I. mar) wrEn. •Cllll7 more like Innatlem than
ta,lnza rn., wed with real./-n Ream., at this moment ha,
err sunhi ao. I,,ted r row. itrd nothleg hut the veline-t
Stage of n non.r hid th - poor helms conic to The men
wt r coral ) I.lll,loient, though fir such n some it may have
hoer, turln The women commence.: to divest thernselvea of
Shelf clothing, t 4 sadly awl wildly plunged tßio SWe foam-
ay fart owed' to limb to in read more no oepliin and