The Sun.
London, England, 1864-09-17 00:00:00

board bow I At that moment I was writing the news-
paper I conducted on board, in the engineer's mess room ;
but hearing the noise, and the ominous cry, ' Helm hard
a starboard I rushed on deck, and looking over the bul-
warks saw, to my horror, an immense mountain of ice,
towering far above our maintop-gallant mast, which was
ND feet about the water-line, and so close to us that any
one could have jumped on to it. All hands were imme-
diately summoned on deck, and everything done to prevent
what now appeared inevitable—a collision between cxxr ship
and the iceberg. The yards were trimmed, the sails
adjusted, and everything done to revent this fearful
catastrophe—but in vain. The monster mountain of
ice
drew nearer and nearer to us, and we drifted nearer and
nearer to it. At length the inevitable moment came;
one heavy roll of the snip, and the yards of the foremast
grated right into the solid mass of ice, tearing out and
hurling down upon the deck immense blocks of ice, some
of them of enormous size. At the same moment the main
and miz n topmast snapped at the cap with tremendous
noise, and, being made of iron, hung over with all their
gear amidst the rigging, to the great danger of every one
on deck. While this was going on the men at the wheel
stood faithful to their duty, although one of them had his
overcoat rent in two by a lump of ice that fell in front of
him, yet it did not touch him. The scene on deck was now
indescribable. Loudly were the orders passed fore and aft
to the hands, and as heartily obeyed, to adjust the yards and
trim the ship so as to help her to forge ahead of the iceberg,
many of the passengers rendering good service in this emer-
gency. Under the forecastle dock were gathered groups
of men, pale, silent, awestruck. Two strong stalwart men
had hold of my hands, and with big beads of tears rolling

down their checks cried for mercy. Between decks women
and children were loud in their passionate cries, and in the
intermedieo was an elderly gentleman, a widower, with 5
children, in the agony of woe, expecting his and their im-
mediate destruction. Still the worst was not come; again

the ship's yards crunched into the iceberg; where I stood I
looked up and saiv that this mountain of ice actually over-
hung the ship, standing then 600 feet out of the water. There
were two large fissures running from the top a considerable
way down,and as the ship rolled oven feared the yards would
go into one of these fissures. Had they done so they would
have brought down tons of ice that would have sent us to
the bottom in a moment. We were spared that doom, but the
next instant the foretop• gallant mast, jibboom, foretopsail
yard, studding-sail boom, and all their gear went at the
next crunch, tearing and splitting the sails to ribbons. At
the same time over the forecastle deck came rolling vast
torrents of water, flooding the decks and creating a fresh
801117C0 of danger. The Royal Standard was now all but a
helpless log, crippled and dismantled, she presented the most
pitiable appearance, and with her masts, yards, chains, and
ropes all hanging over and dangling about in most dangerous
confusion, the marvel is that no one was seriously injured
if not killed.
" Still the worst was not come, and but for the amzeng
strength of her iron hull, all on board must have gone down
to the bottom, leaving no record of their fate behind them.
Bodily the chip drifted up against the berg, her whole side
coming violently into contact with it, and—l quote from
the ship's log, lest my account should be regarded as the
natural exaggeration of a landsman's fears smashed the
starboard lifeboat, carried away the bumpkin, stove in all
the starboard bulwarks, stove in the starboard quarter in
several places ; also the captain's cabin, and sent the chro-
nometers flying about, lifting the poop deck beams one
foot, thus damaging all the cabins ; and with another heavy
crash split our upper plate amidships, and did other sundry
damages. At this moment total destruction seemed in•
eviteble ; but as the ship still slowly forged a head under
main and foresails, hope still remained. At last the end of
the berg came in view, and we forged clear. Tne berg ap-
peared to be cnt,erely enveloped in a dense fog, and about 600
feet high. We passed along about half a mile of it, and
from the time of seeing it to clearing it it was about half
an hour.'
,‘ So far the ship's log. ' Half an hour ;' yet what a half
hour I Who can tell the agony, the suspense, the wild and
all but frantic emotions that wore crowded into that 30
minutes ? Buyind the noise of our ship's wreck knccking
about, and the orders given to the men, all was silence
after the first wild cry of terror and dismay.
Then shrieked the timid, and stood still the brave.'

" Pale and trembling men gezed, first at the iceberg ,then
at the ship, presenting a picture most desolate, and then at
each other ; many shook hands, and bade each other good
bye; and all stood, expecting a certain watery grave. For
myself, I was too stunned and startled to feel excited ; 1
seemed incapable of any feeling but that of dumb amaze-
ment. Not a tear came to my relief, not a word escaped my
tips. Wife and children I felt I should never see any more
—and so, holding a fellow passenger's hand, I calmly
awaited the awful moment, the summons to which had come
so unexpectedly, and under such fearful circumstances.
Meanwhile the captain was shouting to the boatswain—
'De you see the en; of the berg ?' again and again, for all
our safety lay in our speedily gaining open sea. At length
after many times, Not yet, Sir,' he said, ' Yes, Sir, close
by and in another minute we had passed our enemy and
were in the open sea once more,
" Three loud cheers passed fore and aft, and again we
shook each other by the hand, and thanked God for our
deliverance. The saloon passengers immediately held a
special religious service, and so did the intermeoiete and
steerage, and these services were continued daily till our
arrival in Liverpool. Never, oftea as I had heard it, did
the language of the Prayer -book appear so grandly and
solemnly impressive as night after night we met in the
saloon, passengers and such of the crew as were off duty ,
and then, all distinctions merged, reverently bending
before Him who in His eternal tenderness had saved us in
the hour of sorest peril, we with one heart said, " We
. . . . humbly present ourselves again before Thy Divine
Majesty to offer a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving, for
that Thou heartiest us when we called in our trouble, and
didst not cast out our prayer, which we made before Thee
in our deep distress; even when we gave up all for lost—
our ship, our goods, our lives, then Thou didst mercifully
look upon us, and wonderfully command a deliverance.
For a hundred nights regularly did we meet for wor-
ship, in addition to our services every Sunday, and the
gambling and drinking usages were completely suspended.
After our danger was past, then the overpowering rush of
feeling came to my relief, nor to me alone ; there were
many others—and this is one of the curious psychological
facts connected with such strong, sudden excitement—who
when the danger was all over, sat and wept and sobbed like
children. Happily no life was lost. The ship was a perfect
wreck, her beauty and symmetry destroyed, her capacity for
a speedy passage across the ocean taken away, and all the
high expectations of the captain and passengers of a crack
passage dashed to the ground ; but since., skin for skin, yea,
all that a man hitth, will he give for his life,' these losses
and disappointments sink into insignifieanee when compared
pith our merciful deliverance."
Our ccrreepondent gives, in coeclu,ion, some verses
written by a passenger, embodying in poetic form the facts
of the appalling collision, and pointing the moral of the
scene. These lines were copied out eagerly by the Gor-
man, Swiss, and French passengers, and ere this have
found their way through vat icus parts of the Continent.
As, however, they would scarcely interest general readers,
we omit this portion of our correspondent's communication,

HORSEWHIPPING A GOVERNMENT CLERK.—A
few days ngo a somewhat extraordinary case oc-
curred in the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich. It appears that
while the clerks in the Royal Gun Factories were at their
mina avocations one of the ofll,:es was entered by a well-
known officer of Itoyal Artillery, accompanied by a friend
who had a good stout horsewhip. The gallant captain de-
l:clan:led an immediate apology from one of the clerks for
alleged impertinent conduct towards his daughter, who, it
appears, was escorted home from a party by the accused
clerk on the previous night. The requited apology was
refused, whereupon the indignant sou of Mars applied the
horsewhip in a vigorous manner upon the back of the
offender in the presence of his brother clerks and other
persons she, were attracted to the spot, but did not inter-
, tere with this summary infliction of punishment.