The Express.
London, England, 1864-11-09 00:00:00

THE CALCIJTTA MAIL

THE HURRICANE.

We have this morning received Calcutta papers
of the 10th ult., five days, that is, after the hurri-
cane. They are full, as may be supposed, of de-
tails of the catastrophe.
The Englishman, of the 10th, has the following :

Accounts are now pouring in from all quarters of the
damage that has been caused on shore and the utter ruin
which has overtaken the greater part of the shipping in
the river. During the whole of Tuesday night, the weather
was marked by a succession of squalls and heavy rain from
the N. N. F.., and it maintained the same character till about
half-past 10 on Wednesday morning, gradually increasing
in violence. The wind then veered round to the east, and
began to blow more steadily with increased fury. The
weaker trees were uprooted, or broken short, but, for
the first hour or so, no greater damage was done.
Between 11 and 12 o'clock • noise like that of distant
thunder, which probabl► may have been heard from as far
as two miles, gave warning, as it gradually increased, that
something worse was coming. In about two minutes from
this time the true cyclone wee upon the town. Wherever
there were tress they were either uprooted and fell, carry-
ing with them, in many cues, walls, railings, and buildings,
or their branches were snapped off like reeds and hurled
away with the wind. Carriages and palkees were upset
sad strewed the roads, mingled with the dibria
of roofs, verandahs and gates, end fallen trees.
Corrugated boo roofings were torn, doubled up,
and blown away, lice sheets of paper. By 2 o'clock
the eastern and southern suburb; of the city, and those
parts of it to the westward, which, from their proximity
to the maiden and the river, were the most exposed, were,
more or lees, • *tack. Excepting the cocoanut and other
palms, warmly a tree was anywhere to be found standing.
The beautiful avenues in Fort William were entirely
destroyed—the Eden gardens turned into a wilderness—in
Tank-square the trees sod &brute were blown away, and in
many parte the iron railings torn up and overthrown. In
Garden Reach the roads were blocked up and rendered im-
passable from the trees that fell across them. Thesplendid
avenue of tooth (polyaithea longifolia) trees in the compound
of the echoed opposite St. James' Church, some of which
must have been four or five feet in circumference, was en-
tirely destroyed, the tress being snapped off above the level
of the wall which protected them, but which is now no
longer standing. The damage done to buildings was con.
siderable. Among these we notice that the roof of the Free
School was blown away ; the upper part of the Roman
catholic church at the upper end of the Bow Bazaar-road
entirely destroyed, and the steeple of the Free Church of
Scotland ; the minarets of the Mosque in Dlitirramtolah
were all blown away ; St. James's Theatre war unroofed
and nearly destroyed ; the roof of the cathedral is
much damaged; the sheds of the East Indian Railway
Company are unroofed, and Mears. Thacker and Spink's
premises seriously damaged. Our own troubles we
described yesterday. In fact, scarcely • pucka house in
Calcutta has escaped without injury, while the native huts
—especially in the suburbs—were almost all blown down.
The telegraph lines are interrupted in all direction'. All
these losses are sufficiently annoying and lamentable; but
it is on the river that the storm has been attended by the
most disastrous consequences. To give an accurate or con-
nected meant of the loss among the shipping is as yet
impossible ; all is confusion, and A is scarcely known
what ships have been entirely lost, what are irreme-
diably damaged, and what &relate. The last are few indeed ;
perhaps not more than half a dozen are in • state to go to
sea without extensive repairs. With few exceptions the
shipping were driven from their moorings and cast ashore,
or jammed together on the opposite aide of the river, while
several were sunk in mid-channel and others stranded
by the storm-wave high up on the Calcutta shore.
Several ships are ashore in Garden Reach, and
one sunk a little below the Garden House, with,
it is to be feared, loss of life. The steamer Bengal is high
and dry opposite the Peninsular and Oriental Company's
moorings ; the Nubia is dismasted, and the Nemesis adrift,
The old liindoostan, which was used as • hulk and floating
church, sunk this morning. It appears that, having broken
adrift, she fouled the Nemesis, doing her damage, and
finally rolling over and over, went down opposite the King
of Oncle's house. The ships that have foundered are, as far
as we can learn, the Lady Franklin, Govindpore, Anemia,
Anne Royden, Loo Choo, Vespasian, Ville de St. Danis,
Morrie England; the tug steamers Hercules, Fire Queen,
Banshee, Satellite, and Linnet, and the Hindustan. The
Moulmein, which was generally supposed to have been lost, is
adrift. Great loss of life, it is to be feared, has attended these
founderinga Many European sailors were to be seen,
during the gale, floating down the river on pieces of
wreck, and we have heard the number lost estimated as
high as 300, but this we are unwilling to believe. A
man named Cleary, whose heroism should be handsomely
rewarded, swam off with a life line to the sunken
ship Govindpore, and rescued eight of her crew
from drowning. The list above given is, it is to
be feared, very imperfect, while numbers of vowels
that are at 'present on shore will probably have
to be abandoned. Many ships rode out the gale in
safety, until run foul of by others adrift, and carried away
with them. In this way the Grappler, buoy-vessel, was
fouled by the Princess Royal, and parted her chain. She
was again brought up, when five other vessels drifted on to
her, and swept her away, carrying away her
rudder, and all her masts, except the mainmast. A
few vowels were fortunate enough to ride out the gale at
their own anchors : among others, the floating light, Sangor,
which escaped without any damage but the loss of one of
her boats. The police bulks have all foundered with the
exception of the one at PrinapPs Ghent, which is high and
dry. Close to her may be seen the goverement steamer,
Adjal, with a broken back. The scene presented by the
shipping is indescribable. There must be at least a hundred
ships ashore, all huddled together in tangled masses in inex-
tricable confusion. Yards and mute are hanging about in
every conceivable form of wreck, and the scene is one of the
utmost desolation and ruin. The loss of boats of every de-
scription is also enormous ; probably nine out of ten were
capsized and sunk by the storm-wave which followed the
change of the wind from east to south ; and many of the
remainder have been cast up on shore. The utmost diffi-
culty is from this cause experienced in communic sting with
the shipping. The inland river steamers have not escaped.
The steamer Progress, with two Bata, left two days ago.
and must have been between Channel Creek and Mutlah,
en route from Assam, at the time of the cyclone, but we do
not yet know how far that extended. The steamer Mira.
pore, belonging to the Ganges Company, is ashore at Ar.
meoi►n Ghent; four flats of the India General Steam Ns-
•igation Company are disabled ; and two steamers and two
flats, belonging to the Bengal River Company, are supposed
to have been lost. The steamer Cachet, which arrived
here two days ago, is missing, while her two fiats
are ashore and broken. At Serampore the gale
appears, from the Fra-nd of India, to have blown
as furiously as in Calcutta. The road which skirts
the riser there has been carried away. The fine trees which
studded the compound of the I riend of India office are
all destroyed. Mahogany trees (says the fit lie with
their roots torn out of the ground ; the house is reduced to
• ruin, and was flooded by the river during the storm. Dr.
Carey's g►rden, with the rare trees it contained. Presents
now only • few stumps, and the destruction of native huts
enormous. At 9p m. the gale was moderating, so that it
mint have reached Serampore much later than Calcutta. It
appears to have travelled in a north westerly direction.

CO3IMERCIAL INTELLIGENCE.
Ocr. 10, 2 r. W.
It will be satisfactory to aliment of ships bound to Cal.
mats to learn that measures have been tskeu to ensure •
supply of pilots at the Sandheads, in cane the pilot vessels
should have been driven off the station.

Every hour brings us disastrous intelligence. We have
just heard that the Eastersrd Soouderbuo greets have beau
entirely destroyed. It is very much to be feared that the
people at the grants on the S tugor Island have all been swept
array by the storm wave.

The markets are all closed for the bolidsys the holiday
makers bad all proceeded out of town on Toes,l ry. little
thinking of the disaster awaiting us. The effeet on the
whole trade of the port will be most momentous. Ire have
no docks. and no conveniences for repairing the immense
damage dyne, it will be mane months, therefore, before
all the ships can clear out. The lose to the insurance
companies. the ateam•tur, and river companies,
in all directions, must tell seriously on our future
monetary ■rrengemeota, Ships able to leave will commend
almost soy freights, and the prospect for those who arrive,
will be far beyond their hopes. The P. and 0. Coiniiiny's
ships have suffered severely, and the mails are all detained.
We have, therefore, resolved to sold our usual Overland