The Express.
London, England, 1856-10-16 00:00:00

THE LOSS OF THE ROYAL HAM STEAMER

TAY.

Many conflicting statements (•sys the Scotsman)
have ben abroad about the lora or safe arrival of the Royal
Heil steamer Tay. The folio. ing letter from one of the
officers of the Tay, which hat just reached the relatives cf
the writer at Edinburgh, via New Orleans and New York,
will interest our readers:

" Tampico, Sept. 6, 1856.

" The poor old Tay is lost. Thank Ood: all hut these ere
saved! and we are now in Tampico, where we are re-
er—sitiog ourselves after the Iris's we have undergone
for we are all of us more or less debilitated by exposure.
I hope you will rewire this letter as so tr as the news
of the loss of the ship reaches England, to I retreat you
being uneasy. We struck about half post five en the
morning of the 30th of August, and were obliged to
abandon the ship about four hours after. I have loet
nearly everything, so also have the rest. We bad to pull
about thirteen miles to an island called Lobes, where we re-
mained four days. We luckily found two well. of water on
the island, or we should all have pinched. We were loot
on the coast between Vera Cruz and Tampico, jest off
Lobos. As soan as we knew that we could not save the
ship, the second officer and Admiralty sgent, with mails
and pamengers, started for Tampico, which we thought
they would reach in twelve hour., instead of which they
took throe days; and after all did not get there, as they
were obliged to beach the be at, be fore they got there, in
• heavy surf. They started in such a Larry that they
found, when they bat left the ship, that they had oily
about a gallon of water amongst thirty people. They
lauded to look for water, but they w.re all so weak
that they were unable to ws;k to loLk for it. When the
sun went down the heat was not so intense, and they ware
able to crawl about; fortunately they then found some, and
also some Indians, who provided them with horses to ride to
Tampico. The Me:ivies immediately sent down one of
their frigates to take us off (from the island of Li,b3s). You
msy imagine our delight when we saw her heave in sight.
We arrived here late last night (September 5). I am now
quite well—only a little weak. Tee ladies in the bout
behaved admirably. Poor thing., they were nearly
dead. Imagine forty-eight hours without water,
exposed to a sun which no one without canpulsien ex-
poses himself to. I took off some of the passengers,
and went is one of our lifeboats with what provisions
we could save, and put them into the other boats outside
the surf. We fortunately lowered our beats as soon se
we struck. If we bed not dose so, we should have been
unable to do it a quarter of en hour ef anisette, a. the sea
was breaking over us. The life boat behaved beautifully.
The captain left the ship last of all; he behaved in a most
noble way. . . . I ought to be very thankful it did not
happen in my watch; but I suppose) we shall all have to
come home to be examined, but ICo not knew as yet. We
shall not leave hero for above a mouth, es there is no means
of getting to St. Thames sooner. We are modiste our
letters by a small schooner which will go to New York tin
New Orleans. I hop* you will get this lett, r safely. We
went in the boat from Lobos three days running, to see if
we could rescue snythiog, hut the surf was so great that
we could not manage it, except on the third day, when we
got on board, and found a few eatables and some live
stock. Lots of the fowls were dead, end else the sheep."