The Express.
London, England, 1858-10-12 00:00:00

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LONDON. 177281)AT, OCT. 12.

[WOWING INTELLIGENCL

♦ SPECIAL EDITION of the " EXPRESS,"
esetaining the results of the day's Reese, is pub-
lished every evening during the Sporting Season, at
six o'clock.

WE now know the particulars of that appalling
catastrophe, the destruction by fire in the mid-
Atlantic of the passenger ship Austria. A more
frightful tale of human agony and despair has rarely
been told. The Austria, a magnificent screw steamer
of 2,300 tons, was built in the Clyde last year
for the service between Hamburg and New
York. On the 2nd of September last she
Nailed on her outward voyage from Hamburg,
and on the 4th from Southampton. For eight
days she encountered strong westerly winds;
on the 12th the weather moderated, and On the 13th
she had attained a speed of eleven knots, with every
prospect of arriving at New York in the coarse of
five days from that time. It was a little after two
o'clock in the afternoon of the 13th that the alarm of
fire was first wired. Mr. BREWS, the only English
survivor of the catastrophe, was then on the quarter-
deck. He saw a dense cloud of smoke eweepiog
before the wind from the fore part of the Teasel, and
some terrified women rushing aft, shrieking " The
ship is on fire—what will become of us ?" Orders
were instantly given, and apparently obeyed, te pat the
ship on half speed, but notwithstanding this, so
great was the stress of the wind and so reseal the
rapidity of the flumes, that by the time Mr. Beams
had reached the middle of the vessel he saw the
flames breaking from the lights amidships. From
this moment everything appears to have been in-
volved in the most frightful confusion. According
to the evidence at present before us the Captain
seems entirely to have lost self-possession. Rush-
ing upon the deck bareheaded, he exclaimed on
seeing the flames, " We are all lost!" and then imme-
diately made for one of the boate. That he was one
of the first that were lost is certain, but whether
he met his death io resisting the rush of the panic-
stricken crowd to the boats or in attempting to effect
his own escape seems involved io a doubt, of which
it is only fair he should have the benefit. It is, how-
ever, a suspicious and discreditable circumstance,

that oat et the ten survivors of the crew, three
should have been the superior officers of the ship—
the first, second, and third mates—nor can the most
extensive charity frame a doubt that those to whom
the safety of the 600 souls on board the Austria
was entrusted signally and shamefully failed in their
duty. It was unquestionably a situation to daunt
the bravest, but it is equally unquestionable that,
bad those in command evinced a doe degree of firm-
ness and presence of mind, the results most have been
very different to the fearful reality. As it wee,
everything was left to the most frightful
haphazard. Mad with panic, the uncontrolled and
unguided crowd precipitated themselves upon the
boats. Boat after boat was swamped by overcrowd-
ing, or by being sucked under by the screw pro-
peller, which was still suffered to work on with useless
and deadly energy. Out of the whole 600, lees than
30 persons were ultimately saved by the agency of the
boats, and of these boats one only, the metallic life-
boat, was unawamped. Mr. Maws, who seems to
have maintained hie presence of mind throughout,
finding that the vessel was still with her head to the
wind, and that the flames were consequently
sweeping the quarter-deck, ran up to the man
at the wheel, and bade him put her broadside on to
the wind. The man hesitated, waiting probably for
orders, that never came, from some of the officers ;
he soon like the rest fled from his post ; and the ship,
without control or guidance, went raging 00, a
sheeted mass of flame, until the machinery gave way
under the fierceness of the conflagration, and she
gradually drifted round before the wind.

Tim fury of the fire amidships rapidly est off all

conimunicAtion between the quarterdeck and the
forecastle. As long as the ship's head wee kept
to the wind the foredeck was comparatively
clear of flame and smoke. The greatest number of
those ultimately waved, about 40, were taken from
the bowsprit and chain., which soon became the
only tenable part of the burning ship. The sweep
of the flames over the quarter-deck was terrific. Mr.
BREW. got over the bulwarks, and held on for some
time by the davits (or irons from which the boats
are slungt, leaning out as far as he could over the
water to avoid the dames that were leaping to-
wards him. In this frightful position he wit-
nessed the great horror of the quarter-deck.
As the dames pressed closer and closer, the
despairing multitude were literally driven by fiery
sewarges into the sea. Husbands and wives, parents
and children, clasped in each other's arms, took the
deadly leap of more than 20 feet from the lofty deck
into the seething water. Two sisters sank kissing
each other. An Hungarian gentleman, with a wife
and seven children, one as intuit in arms, waited
till the wife end the six had each taken the deadly
plunge, then followed himself with the little one in
his bosom. The brave Englishman Brews, slinging
thus to the davits and dodging the leaping flames,
caught sight through the scrike drifts of a swamped
boat. spinning by seeps still attached to the ship. He
slid down the rope, cut it,and pushed off, but in vain ;
that boat also wee engulphed aud swamped by the
strew. The Englishman saved himself by diving
tinder the ship, and tame up within reach of an-
other boat, or rather wreck of • boat, floating
bottom upwards. lie righted her, took in a Ger-

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