The Sun.
London, England, 1864-11-12 00:00:00

The Hurricane at Calcutta,

The following extracts from private letters and
reports received from Calcutta give additional de-
tails of the hurricane that caused such destruction
of life and property in the city and harbour on the
sth of October;—

Calcutta, Oct. 6.
On the evening of Tuesday, the 14th inst., the sun set
amidst clouds of a deep red, with purple veins, as if bursts
lug with passion. A gale, with rain, commenced, and lasted
all night. Next morning (Wednesday, the sth inst.) at day-
break, the wind was blowing fresh from the north-east, the
rains still continuing. Gradually it changed round to the
east, and was so fresh and the rain:so heavy that after break-
fast I put off going to office, in the hope that the weather
might improve ; the day being the first of the Doorgah
Phojah, and almost every office except the Foreign-office,
being closed for the holydays. Between half-past 10 or 11
in the morning, the gale changed to a tempest, trees split
up an cracked, and fell across the the road, so that the resi-
dents at garden reach were literally hemmed in. About 12
it would have been impossible to reach the house without
personal danger. Trees were torn up by the roots ; doors
blown in breaking through their iron fastenings ; walls
blown down and the roads rendered impassable by fallen
trees and heaps of debris of broken tvocd and brickwork ;
while the alarm as regards the shipping in the river was
very great. This continued without intermission until 3
o'clock in the afternoon, and, indeed, continued until be-
tween 4 and 5, but at 3 o'clock, the bore of the Ganges burst
in, and then followed such a scene as I never witnessed
before. Within a few minutes, I was going to say a quarter
or an hour, but it might have been half an hour, the
water about my house was at least 3 ft. deep, if not
deeper, and a flood extended as far as it was possible to see
through the storm. Not knowing at first what was the
nature of a bore, I was much alarmed, but meantime
natives from all quarters were coming for shelter,
which, of course, I gave them, and learned that
the bore would begin to go down at 5 o'clock. The flood,
indeed, subsided, but the place was not free from water till
next morning—i.e., to-day, Thursday, the 6th.
This morning at 6 o'clock I went out, and saw trees torn
up by the roots le lug in all directions. Neemuck Ghat was
impassable, but with some climbing I managed to reach the
Peninsular and Oriental Steamer-office. The Bengal was
driven ashore on the Howrah side ; the Nemesis and Nubia
were both oismasted and otherwise injured, and I heard
that hundreds of poor sailors must have been drowned, and
that all the shipping in the river had been blown away from
moorings. At that time the poor fellows were even leaving
the great hospital ship the llindostan as unsafe, and it has
since gone down.
I ;The King of Oude's buildings were dismantled and
flooded, and I understood from a friend that earlier in the
morning ho had seen many of the zenana ladies in a condi-
tion eminently calculated to offend their sense of the pro-
prieties, As to the masses of native huts they were simply
blown down and then flooded; indeed, during the gale
many sad groups of poor natives with their wives and chil-
dren were to be seen struggling through the flood. Beef
and mutton are said not to be in the bazaar, and the num-
ber of sheep, cattle, and fowls that were carried away by
the storm and flood cannot be estimated. The Baboo who
lets out carriages in Garden Reach has lost many porde 3,
and his stables are simply a marsh. Almost every tree in
the Maiden is blown down. But the terrible and almost
heartrending sight was the river. From what I have seen
I should say that there was not a ship left in its moorings,
but I hear that two have managed to keep whole—namely,
the Worcestershire and the City of Paris. At least 24
have sunk to the bottom with their crews. The Moulmein
steamer went down head foremost. Of the ships driven
ashore I can safely say there are at least 60, and I should
say 100. Many ships have been driven high and dry in
the strand by the bore. There are not six dingier in the
river, and only two or three in the canals. At seven places
n the river I saw what appeared to be from seven to 12
vessels at least jammed up in one spot; this alone would
account for 49 vessels at the least, or seven wrecks at seven
different spots. At least 300 European sailors are said to
have been drowned, and as for the natives, the accounts are
so extraordinary that I fear to give them currency. lam
afraid that something like 5,000, at least, have perished in
the bore and hurricane, and this is only one-tenth et hat
told me was the estimate of an old Calcutta merchant,
namely that 500,000 have perished.
I have seen such a vast number of wrecks and deserted
ships this morning as I hope never to see again, and, as I
am quire sure could never have been seen before since the
commencement of recorded history. The sight was made
doubly horrible by the crowd of sight-seers in consequence
of the Doorgah Poojah holidays ; and yet most of the people
present must have suffered more or less from the storm
You will see by the newspapers that Calcutta will be with-
out gas for a few days, and this is only one of the many
devastions. Forbes, the clothier and haircutter, close to the
Foreign-office, had rabny of his hats and other goods blown
into the street and churchyard and destroyed. Thacker
and Spinks' new house is thrown down. In fact it would
require many sheets to indicato the extent of the general
disaster.
The trade of Calcutta must be seriously affected. Ex-
ports and imports must be at a dead stop for months in
consequence of the destruction of shipping. The losses to
ships' insurers must be something fearful. lam willing
to believe that there has been one hurricane or tpphoon in
Jamaica which was more terrible from being accompanied
by an earthquake, if I remember rightly; but tho destruc-
tion of shipping is unparalleled.
The catastrophe is ono for which nothing can be done
now. The ships are lest, the people are drowned, houses
are damaged, and property destroyed, and the mere ques-
ion of repairs is the work of time.

Steamer Rievor, Oct. 12, south of Sandheads.

The steamer Alphee left Calcutta on Oct. 3 with mails
and passengers for Marseilles, and while coming to an anchor
off Diamond harbour in the evening she unfortunately lost
an anchor and 70 fathoms of chain, also her port haweepipe,
as well as doing mush damage to the portbow. The Com-
mander (Lieut. Jeheune of the Marine Imperiale), deter-
mined upon returning to Calcutta to have the damage re-
paired before going to sea; we got back on the evening of
the 4th ; the next day Calcutta was visited by ono of the
most terrible hurricanes that ever blew. The Alphee, un-
der the guidance of her able commander, escaped unhurt
throughout, and will leave Calcutta on the 3d proximo,

The steamer Weyer, owned by Messrs Jardine Mathison,
and commanded by Captain Bolton, was chartered to take
on the Alphee's mails and passengers. We lett our moorings
at Garden Reach at 8 a.m, on the 11th instant, and passed
the lower light at S a.m.

We will commence with the steamer Bengal (Peninsula
and Oriental), which vessel lies on the northern bank of
thr river high and dry. I fancy there will be great difficulty
experienced in getting her off. The steamers Nemisis and
Fubia are in their moorings apparently in a very battered
state. A little below Garden-house Point lies the French
ship Admiral Casey, also high up the bank and much dam
maged ; below this are a number of steamers and flats which
once formed the fleet of the Oriental Island Steam Company.
They are most of them helpless wrecks.
The Gogra is tho only one remaining at her moorings,
and as far as I could see she is much damaged. Next comes
a noble iron ship, the Royal Alexandria, very high up the
bank, but not injured. A little above Sankrale Bazaar are
the ships Lady Rawlinson and a French vessel (name un-
known)—they are a long way up in the fields.
The villages of Sankralo and Oloobariah are almost
swept away, With the exception of a few native craft
there aro no more wrecks until wo come to the once noble
ship Baron Renfrew ; she is lying a total wreck in a creek
a little above Diamond Harbour. The pilot, captain, and
crew were saved. At Diamond Harbour almost everything
is in ruins. The Bentinck (late hospital ship) has gone
about a quarter of a mile inland ; the Custom-house is
down, and the whole place looks quite deserted. The hulk
which was in use for the preventive Offluero to put off from
went down at her anchors. Below Diamond Harbour is
Kantabariah Point ; there lies the tug-steamer Alligator,
apparently uninjured, but a long way inland.
Halfway between Kantaberiah and Middle Points is the
wreck of the ship Ally, a vessel of about 1,000 tons burden.
She left Cacutta on the 4th inst. under pilotage charge of
Mr E. Worthington, commanded by an European master,
having the usual complement of officers and about 50
Lascars, also 300 native emigrants for the Mauritius ; she
was at anchor at Middle Point, and, having driven in the
early part of the gale, she grounded on a land bank and
capsized. The only persons saved are eight or ten of the
emigrants. Soon after the storm I proceeded down the
river for the purpose of making a search for my poor friend
Worthington, bat I only succeeded in finding one of the
coolies in the vicinity of the wreck of the Raron Renfrew.
He states that all the Europeans, including the captain's
wife and three children aro drowned. He also states that
Mr Worthington walked the deck giving his orders in a cool
and collected manner up to the time of the ship capsizing;
that when she commenced to heel over the crew were in the
act of cutting away the foremast; he remembers nothing
more but that he got hold of a piece of wreck, and, after
drifting about several hours, ho found himself on terra
firma. _ _

The Martaban, one of Broklebank's fleet, drove over all
the sands from Sauget. to Cowkally, leaving 120 fathoms on
one chain and 90 on the other. The steamer Alexandra had
as miraculous an escape.
Most of the people, including the postmaster and his
family, were drowned at Kedgeree. In fact, from Hoegly
Point down to Saeger the river banks are strewed with dead
bodies and the carcases of cattle. I found the navagation
from Mud Point to sea most intricate, as there is hardly
a buoy in its place. Both Gaspar lights are gone, and there
are only the debris of three of the buoys loft in the Gaspar
Channel. We passed two troopships in the Eastern Chan-
nel—the Conflict and the Sydenham. They came in after
the gale, and report having had nothing but light weather
to the southward.
The lower floating light was in position, which circum-
stance leads me to believe the pilot brigs are safe, although
not yet returned to the station. The steamer Celerity has
been de,patched in search of them.
There was a ship at anchor off Saugor before the gale,
called the Colombo. She had a pilot on board, and was
outward bound. lam afraid she has foundered, as nothing