The Press.
London, England, 1854-11-04 00:00:00

SATURDA'

WRECK OF THE "ARCTIC."
THE last-arrived journals from the United States not
only confirm the report that Captain Luce, with
several companions in misfortune, had been saved
from the wreck of the Arctic, but they publish a
detailed account of the catastrophe as related by the
commander himself in a letter addressed to the New
York agent of the Collins line of packets. The
following extracts present the most important
passages in this narrative :

CAPTAIN LUCE TO E. K. COLLINS, ESQ.
Dear Sir,—lt has become my most painful duty to
inform you of the loss of the steam-ship Arctic under my
command, with many valuable lives, I fear among ..vh,oi
must be included your own wife, daughter, and 11011, with
whom I took a last leave the moment the ship was going
down, without myself expecting to see the light of
another day to give you an account of the heartrending
scene. The Arctic sailed from Liverpool on Wednesday,
September 20, at eleven a.m., with 233 passengers, and
about 150 in the crew. Nothing of especial note occurred
dunng the passage until Wednesday the 27th, when at noon
we were on the banks, iu lat. 45 45, and lung. 52 W, steer-
ing west per compass.
The weather had been foggy during the day, and generally
a distance of half to three-quarters of a mile could lie seen,
but at intervals of a few minutes a very dense fog followed
by sufficiently clear weather to see one or two miles. At
noon I left the deck for the purpose of working out the
position of the ship. In fifteen minutes I heard a cry of
" hard-a-starboard " from the officer of the deck. I rushed
on deck, and had just got out when I felt a crash forward.
At the same moment saw a steamer under the starboard
bow, ?nd the next moment she struck against our guards
and passed astern of us. The bows of the strange vessel
seemed to be literally cut or crushed off for about ten feet,
and seeing that she must instantly sink in a few minutes,
and taking a hasty glance at our own ship, and believing
we were comparatively uninjured, my first impulse was
to endeavour to save the lives of those onboard the sinking
vessel.
The boats were cleared, and the first officer and six men
left with one boat, when it was found our ship was leaking
fearfully. The engines were set to work, bilge injections
put on, steam pumps and the four deck pumps worked by
the passengers and crew, and the ship headed for land,
which I judged to be about fifty miles distant. being com-
pelled to leave my boat with the first officer and crew to
take care of themselves, several ineffectual attempts were
made to check the leak by getting sails over the bow, and,
finding the leak gaining on us very fast, notwithstanding
all our powerful means of keeping her free, 1 resolved to
get the boats ready, and as many ladies and children placed
in them as possible, but no sooner had the attempt been
made than the firemen and others rushed into them in
spite of all opposition.
Seeing this state of things I ordered the. boats to be
veered astern by ropes, to be kept in readiness until order
could be somewhat restored, when to my dismay I saw
them cut the rope in the bust, and soon disappear astern
in the fog. Another boat was broken down by persons
rushing into her while hanging at the davits, and many
were precipitated into the sea and drowned. This occurred
while I had been engaged in getting the starboard guard-
boats ready, and placed the second officer in charge of her,
when the same fearful scene as with the first boat was
being enacted, men leaping from the top of the rail down
twenty feet, crushing and maiming those who were in the
boat. I then gave orders to the second officer to let go and
row after the ship, keeping under or near the stern to be
ready to take on board women and children as soon as the
fires were out and the engines stopped. My attention was
' then directed to the other quarter-boat, which I found
broken down but hanging by one tackle ; a rush was made
for her also, and some dozen or fifteen got in and cut the
tackle, and were soon out of sight.
In the meantime I found that not a seamen or carpenter
was left on board, and we were without any tools to assist
in building a raft, as our only hope, and the only officer
left was Mr. Dorm', the third officer, who aided me with the
for
assistance of the passengers, who deserve great praise
their coolness and energy in doing all in their power up to
the very last moment before the ship sunk from under us.
The chief engineer, with a part of lds assistants, taken
ours mallest deck-boat, and before the ship went down
pulled away with about fifteen persons.
I was then fully convinced that the ship must go down
in a very short time, and not a moment was to be lost in
getting the spars lashed together to form a raft. To do
this it became necessary to get the life-boat into the water.
I gave Mr. Doran charge of the boat, taking care to keep
the oars on hoard, to prevent them from leaving the ship,
hoping still to get the most of the women and children into
this boat at last. They had made considerable progress
th in
securing the spars together when an alarm was given at
the ship was sinking, and the boat shoved off without oars
or anything to help themselves with, and when the ship
sank the boat had got clear, probably the eighth of a mile
to leeward. In an instant, about a quarter to five p.m., the
ship went down, carrying every soul on board with her.
I soon found myself on the surface, atter a brief strug-
gling, with my own helpless child in my arms,
depth , I a
andgain
found myself impelled downwards to a great
before I reached the surface a second time had nearly pe-
rished and lost the hold of my child. As I struggled to the
surface of the water a most awful and heartrending scene
presented itself to my view—over 9.00 men, women, an
children struggling together amidst pieces of wreck of ever/
kind, calling on each other for help, and imploring
may
mighty God to help them. Such an appalling
scenehem„,t
God preserve me from witnessing again. 1 was n 1,
...e.
of trying to save my child, when a portion of the idaddl d
box came rushing up edgewise, just grazing my head,
whole weight nbpehonsidthehiniheadlyoinf
flgnlianngoithtserw ginividdealesarlinginc, child.