The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1822-06-28 00:00:00

LOSS OF THE ALBION.

TO ALL PRISONS INTERISTSD IN ?HS PATO OP
UNFORTUN ATI& •LIIOH, OP NOW
After • mit-imolai', escape front a watery grave,
and after a long period devoted to those duties
whu•h devolved upon me after the loss of my re-
spected Commander, I feel influenced by a double
motive iii giving to the public it minute detail of
the inelsecliuly cirrnmetances attending our unfor-
tunate shipwreck first, because I conceive it a
duty I owe to The friends of the utsh . my suffer-
ers ; sod mat, bresner the getter'sl tenor of all ihooe
abatements w!oich I have seen in the public prints
may hove led to coot lusioits totally different from
what ought to have been drowit from the !Mall
attreirluig that melancholy beelle for I have ob.
melted she most unbounded praise lavished in 111*
isewspoper. on services which (though in some re-
spect. volusble) were smell, when computed with
the services of those to whom I owe my existeuce,
whilst the latter were ling wholly unnoticed, and
still are but very partially recognised; and I
should consider myself deficient in common gra-
titude. wee I any longer to omit herring testimony
to the itttrepid stud humane conduct of one gentle.
man. «lin his brew satisfied with the conscious-

tressbf hewing done good, and who did not seek for
publicity to tyro real facts, much less to gross ex-
eggeret NM%
We sailed from New York on the Ist of April,
in the beatable' ship Albiox, of 447 tone. with a
crew, iucluding officers, 0125 in Number, 29 cabin,
and six steerage passengers, making in the whole
54 persona, of whom nine only live to relate the
melancholy tisk. For the first twenty days we con.
booed our voyage with moderate and favourable
weather; and *boat half-paws one o'clock in the
afternoon of Sunday' the 41ist we made the land :
the Fastnet Rock by compass E.N.E.. distance
about three leagues. At two made Cape Clear,
bearing E. and by N. distance about two leagues,
thick and foggy. blowing fifth, and heavy squalls
from the southwar.i, ship heading up E.S.E. car-
rying all prudent sail to crowd the ship off the
land; the gale increasing, shortened sail occa.
atonally. At four o'clock, under double-reefed
topsails, .foresail and mainsail, carried away the
fore yard. and split the fore topsail, got the pieces
of the yards down, and prepared to get another
yard op. Gale increasing, about five toots in I' e
onsitissil and mixers topsail, and set the fore and
main trysail. Night coming on, cleared the decks
for working ship ; et half-part right wind still in-
creasing. with a high sea, shipped a heavy sea
which threw the ship on her beam ends, and took
away the mainmast by the deck, the head of the
wizen mast, and foretop mast. and swept the
decks clear of every thing including boat., caboose
house, bulwarks, and compasses, and stove in all
the hatches, state rooms, and bulkhead* in the-
cabin, which was nearly filled with water. At the
toomeut six of the crew, and one passenger. Mr.
A. B. Convers, of Troy, in New Yolk, were swept
overboard.
The ship being unmanageable, the see making
a clear breach over her. we were obliged to loth
ourselves to the pumps. and being in total dark..
nem, without correct compasses. could Dot tell
how the ship's brad lay. The axes being swept
away, had no means of clearing the wreck.—
A bout one o'clock made the lights of the Old
Head of Kinsale. but could not ascertain how it
bore, and at two o'clock found the ship ernbayed,
when the Captain, anticipating our melancholy
foie, called all the passengers up who had not be-
fore been on deck ; many of them had received
considelable injury when the sea first struck her,
and were scarcely able to come ou deck ; others
had been incessantly assisting at the pumps, and
it is an interesting fact, that Mils Powell, an
amiable young lady who was on beard, was desirous
to be allowed to take her turn at the pumps. One
Gentleman, who had been extremely ill during the
passage, Mr. William Everhart, of Chester. Penn-
sylvania, was so feeble as to have been scarcely able
to creep up. and strange to say, was the only cabin
passenger on board who was saved. At this moment
our situation was indescribable, and I can scarcely
dwell ',poll, much less detail its horrors. About
three o'clock the ship struck on a reef of rocks,
about a hundred yards from the main laud. acd
her bottom immediately went ; her upper works
beat in over the rocks ; in about half an hour
after coming over the first reef of rocks she parted
midships. and her quarterdeck drifted in on the
too of the upside ledge immediately under the
cliffs. Up to the period of her parting nearly
twenty 'moons appeared to cling to the wreck.
among whom were two females, Mrs. l'ye and Moss
Powell. Captain Williams had with several others
been swept elegy woo after else struck, a circum-
stance which may be attributed to the very extraordi •
nary exertions which he used to the last moment for
tlte preservation of the lives. A short time before
she parted six of the crew and I got away ; after
pining a rock in a very exhausted state, I was
washed off, but with the assistance of Provideoce,
was enabled, before the return of the sea, to regain
the rock, and before I could attempt to climb the
cliff, which was nearly perpendicular, I was oblig-
ed to lay down to regain a little strength after the
severe bruises and contusions which 1 received in
my body and fest. One of the passengers, Colonel
Augustine J. Provost, reached the ruck with me
alive, bat was, together with one of the stewards,
washed off, and perished. Some of the passengers
were suffocated on deck and in the fore rigging.
and some must have been destroyed by an suchor
which was loose on the forecastle before the ship
parted. It is scarcely possible to describe the de-
vastation which followed ; the entire of the cargo,
consisting of cotton, rice, turpentine, and bees-wax,
together with a quautity of silver and gold, to
very large amouut, was in all directions beaten to
pieces hy the severity of the sea. without a
possi-
bility of otorinir It. Here 1 shall give a correct list
of the crew and pasepeogers:—