The Sun.
London, England, 1864-09-10 00:00:00

Gallant Rescue.

We have to report the total loss of the bat Jr. De.
vereux,, an event which occurred on Monday last off
this part of the Irish
.coast. The ill-fated ship,
Which belonged to London, and which was on a
voyage from Quebec to Strangford Lough, had ear-
perienced very rough weather in crossing the At.
hmtic.l She left Quebec on the 16th of July, and
on Wednesday last was about 60 miles from Tory
Island, on the coast of Donegal. On that day the.
gale raged furiously, and a succession of heavy seas
washed over the ship, carrying away most of ',er
deck load and filling her with water. Fortunately
the Devereux was timber-laden and could not s:'.nk,
else, no doubt, the vessel would have foundered.
Her commander, Captain Perry, did all ho could
under the circumstances. The men were kept at
the pumps, and everything. was done to ease, tho
vessel, but the storm which prevailed rendered
ic)rfetwh
ewdeernekaitot,etdintra;titif oswgeeit)tcltejvatr,rott.
their efforts.; fruitless, and on Feiday, whet\ the
idnegr,
ht lei r, eczna
one of the men overboard. Of course he was
stoutly swallowed up. Next day it became impos,,
sihle to keep the deck any longer, and the crew, er
a portion of them, took to the rigging and went in te
the maintop. The captain's wile was in the mai u,
top two days. On Saturday the vessel made Te ry
island. The captain resolved to run as well as he
could for the North Channel and make the neares'e
port, and he was off Malin Head on Sunday morr,
ing. Here the exhausted crew received some help
from some men in a fishing boat, and Captain Perry
sent a message ashore for a tug steamer and for some
food, as the vessel's supplies were gone. They had
no water and scarcely any bread. In the mean•
time a pilot from the station at Ennishowen Head
had been put on board at some risk, owing to the
severe gale that was blowing, and this man took
charge of the vessel, bringing her at anchor in
Glengad Bay, between Malin Head and thr3
entrance to Lough Foyle. Two anchors were pi it
down, and during the whole of Sunday night Vat)
captain and his wife, with the crew, as well as, a
number of fishermen who had got in a boat w 7.th
provisions, and whom the violence of the gale pre.
vented from returning, remained on board, altlnragh
the waves wee' washing over the ship every mo-
ment.
Intelligence of the vessel's condition basing
reached Moville, two of OTT. Coppin's stenmers
started out on Sunday evening in search of het'_
One of them, the Admiral, could see nothing of the
water-logged ship and returned to port. The othor
steamer, the Lion, was more fortunate, and male
the vessel out at anchor in Glengad Bay. The
Lion steamed towards her, and reached the De ve-
reux about 11 on Sunday night, but in the fearful
state of the weather no attempt could be made to
take her in tow till daylight. The steamer, however,
remained as near her as she could during the night,
and when the break of day brought light enoug,e
prepared to risk the towing of the vessel into the
Foyle. It was a task of no small difficulty to get t b.e
Devereux in tow at all. Daring the night, it appears,
the wind shifted round, so as to blow in upon the
land, and had the ship attempted to raise her anch ors
in the usual way she would probably have been
wrecked on the lee shore. The Devereux had to
let slip her chain cables and lose her anchors, while
the Lion managed to put a rope aboard and take her
in tow. The wind and sea were tremendous, and the
ship, totally unmanageable from being full of water,
would not steer, but rolled about as helpless as a log.
The tow rope soon broke. It was expeditiously re•
placed by another, and Capt. Neal M'Laughlin, of,
the Lion, gallantly persevered in bringing the veFl
sel on, bat in a short time the immense cable
snapped again. Nothing could stand against the
dead weight of the ship, tossed about by the furious
sea without any helm to control her, and some-
times actually lying at right angles to the steamer's
course. All this time the waves were washing over
the vessels now and then, and the position of both
was one of unmistakable danger. But the danger
was yet to be increased. A third cable Laving
been stretched to the struggling vessel, the steamer
succeeded in bringing her on towards the mouth of
the lough, but to enter was impossible. The wind,
blew the two vessels right across the edge of th.e
dangerous sun Thank known as the Tons, and in Cu,
direction of the Antrim coast ; 'and the mouth of
the Bann, where a terrible surf beats almost un.
teasingly upon the strand, to which the Devereux
was now hastening. The beach was not more -ten
; a couple of miles away. Those on board the De.
vercux saw that all hope for the vessel was gone.

Che belch on which she was about to strike was
close at hand, and, utterly worn out, the crew
called to the people in the steamer to come and.
save them. The rope was cut in the Devereux, so
as to cast the Lion loose, but with a sea such as
then was running, and with the Tons on one Land,
and the Downhill shore on the other, it was no
easy matter to take off those in the drifting ship.
The steamer came round under the lee—that is, at
the side furthest from the wind—of the vessel, and
was by this means a little sheltered, while the
fishermen in the Devereux got into their own boats
which had been towing in their wake, and in et
trip or two succeeded in getting cif the captain's
wife, the crew, and all the others who were in the
ship, including the captain timself. To do this
was a work of immense difficulty and of the most
imminent danger; but it was happily and
heroically accomplished by Captain MiLaughlin
and the fishermen. The steamer made for Mom
vile, which she reached safely on Mon-
day afternoon. They watched the Devereux
as long as they could see her. Left to herself
the drifting ship, which at first had seemed likely
to go ashore at Banmouth, took a turn more to the
eastward, passed Portrush, and struck on the
Skerries. She got on a jutting point, and for two
hours those who stood on the shore could see her
beating and thumping against the reef, as the seas
lifted her up and dashed her down on the bed of
rock. The Devereux, it is remarked, must have
been a fine ship to have stood so much battering
for so long a time. While she was on the Skerries
the Portrush lifeboat went out to her, but found.
there was no one on board. Eventually the sea beat
the wreck off the Skerries, and'drove it in near the
White Rocks.—Derry Journal.