The Sun.
London, England, 1854-10-31 00:00:00

[PRICE SD.

AMERICA.

LIVERPOOL, MONDAY.
By the arrival in the Mersey this morning of the
new screw steamship Canadian, M‘Master com-
mander, we are in the receipt of advices from
Quebec to the 16th inst.
The reported safety of the commander of the ill-
fated steamship Arctic and several of the passengers
and crew is confirmed by this arrival, the ships
Huron and. Cambria having taken 21 persons into
Quebec on the .13th inst.
The names of the passengers saved by the Cam-
hiia are Messrs. Frederico Hay, G. F. Allan, and
James Smith ; those of the crew, Patrick Noran,
Alexander Grant, Michael Russell, John Riley and
John Paterson, and one of the crew of the Vesta,
named Jagoret Francois. The remainder of those
saved, who all belonged to the unfortunate vessel,
and who were picked up by the Huron, are Luke
M'Carthy, Richard Machin, James Abry, Chris-
topher Moran, Thomas Conroy, John Drury,
Cractus Miller, James Ward, David Berry, Robert
Bryan, Joseph Conolly, James Connor, Thomas
Wilson, and a man whose name is unknown.
While on board of the Cambria, on the 10th inst.,
Captain Luce wrote and addressed the following
narrative of the disaster to Mr. E. K. Collins, of
New York, from which it will be seen that the
members of this unfortunate gentleman's family,
who were reported to have escaped in one of the
boats, perished with the sinking of the vessel
" Dear Sir,—lt has become my most painful duty to
inform you of loss of the steam-ship Arctic, under my
command, with many valuable lives—l fear among
whom must be included your own wife, daughter, and
son, of whom I took a last leave the moment the ship
was going down, without myself expecting to see the
light of another day to give you an account of the heart-
rending scene. The Arctic sailed from Liverpool on
Wednesday, September 20, at 11 a.m., with 233 pas-
sengers and about 150 in the crew. Nothing of special
note occurred during the passage until Wednesday, the
27th, when, at noon, we were on the Banks in lat.
46 45, and long. 25 W. steering west per compass. The
weather had been foggy during the day, and generally a
distance of half to three-quarters of a mile could be seen,
but at intervals of a few minutes a very dense fog, fol-
lowed by being sufficiently clear to see one or two
miles. At noon I left the deck for the purpose of
working out the position of the ship. In about fifteen
minutes I heard a cry of Hard astarbord', from the
officer of the deck. I rushed on deck, and had just got
out when I felt a crash forward. At the same moment
I saw a steamer under the starboard bow, and the next
moment she struck against our guards and passed astern
of us. The bows of the strange vessel seemed to be literally
cut or crushed off for about 10 feet, and seeing that she
must instantly sink in a few minutes, and taking a hasty
glance at our own ship, and believing we were com-
paratively uninjured, my first impulse was to endeavour
to save the lives of those on board the sinking vessel.
The boats were cleared, and the first officer and six
men left with one boat, when it was found our own ship
was leaking fearfully. The engines were set to work,
bilge injections put on, steam pumps and the fore deck
pumps worked by passengers and crew, and the ship
headed for land, which I judged to be about 50 miles
distant. Being compelled to leave my boat with the
first officer and crew to take care of themselves, several
ineffectual attempts were made to check the leak getting
sails over the bow, and, finding the leaking gaining on
us very fast, notwithstanding all our powerful means
of keeping her free, I resolved to get the boats ready,
and as many ladies and children placed in them as
possible, but no sooner had the attempt been made
than the firemen and others rushed into them in
spite of all opposition. Seeing this state of things,
I ordered the boats to be veered astern by ropes to be
kept in readiness until order should be somewhat re-
stored, when to my dismay I saw them cut the rope in
the boat, and soon drop astern in the fog. Another
boat was broken down by persons rushing into her while
hanging at the davits, and many were precipitated into
the sea and drowned. This occurred while I had been
engaged in getting the starboard guard-boat ready, and
placed the second officer in charge of her, when the same
fearful scene as with the first boat was being enacted—
men leaping from the top of the rail down 20 feet, crivh-
ing and maiming those who were in the boat. I then
gave orders to the second officer to let go and row after
the ship, keeping under or near the stern to be ready to
take on board women and children as soon as the fires
were out and the engines stopped. My attention was
then directed to the other quarter boat, which I found
broken down, but hanging by one tackle ; a rush was
made for her also, and some 12 or 15 got in and cut the
tackle, and were soon out of sight. In the meantime I
found that not a seaman was left on board, or carpenter,
and without any tools to assist in building a raft, as our
only hope, and the only officer left was Mr. Doran, the
third officer, who aided me, with the assistance of many
of the passengers, who drew great praise for their cool-
ness and energy in doing all in their power up to the
very last moment before the ship sunk from under
us. The chief engineer, with a part of his assistants,
had taken our smallest deck boat, and before the
ship went down pulled away, with about 15 persons.
We had succeded in getting the fore and main yards,
main topsail, and two topgallant yards overboard, and
such other small spars and materials as we could collect,
when I was fully convinced that the ship must go down
in a very short time, and not a moment was to be lest in
getting the spars lashed together to form a raft. To do
this it became necessary to get the lifeboat, our only re-
maining boat, into the water. This being accomplished
I gave Mr. Doran charge of the boat, taking care to
keep the oars on board to prevent them leaving the ship
hoping still to get the most of the women and children
in this boat at last. They had made considerable pro-
gress in securing the spars together when an alarm was
given that the ship was sinking, and the boat shoved off
without oars or anything to help themselves with, and
when the ship sunk the boat had got clear, probably an
eighth of a mile to leeward. In an instant, about a
quarter to 5 p.m., the ship went down, carrying every
soul on board with her. I soon found myself on the sur-
face after a brief struggling with my own helpless child
in my arms, when I again found myself impelled down-
wards to a great depth, and before I reached the surface
a second time had nearly perished and lost hold of my
child. As I struggled to the surface of the water a
most awful and heartrending scene presented itself
to my view ; over 200 men, women, and children
struggling together amid pieces of wreck of every
kind, calling on each other for help, and imploring Al-
mighty God to help them. Such an appalling scene
may God preserve me from witnessing again ! I was in
the act of trying to save ray child when a portion of the
paddlebox came rushing up edgewise, just grazing my
head and falling its whole weight upon the head of my
darling child. In another moment I beheld him lying
lifeless in the water. I succeeded in getting on to the
top of the paddlebox, in company with 11 ethers. One,
however, soon left for another piece of the wreck, finding
that it could not support so many. Others remained
till they were one by one released by death. We stood
in water at a temperature of 45 degrees up to our knees,
and frequently the sea broke entirely over us. We soon
seemed to separate from our friends on other parts of the
wreck, andfpassed the dreary night, each one of us ex-
pecting every hour would be our last. At last the
wished-for morning came, dreary and cold, with a dense
fog, not a living soul to be seen but our own party, seven
now being left. In the course of the morning we saw
some water casks and other things belonging to our ship,
but we could get nothing that could afford us any relief.
Our raft was steadily settling, as it absorbed more and
more water. About noon Mr. S. M. Woodruff, of New
York, was relieved by death. All the others now began
to suffer very severely for the want of water, except Mr.
George F. A. Allan and myself. In that respect we
were very much favoured, although we had not a drop
on the raft. The day continued foggy, except just at
noon, as near as we could judge. We had a clear ho-
rizon for about half an hour, and nothing could be seen
but water and sky. Night came on thick and dreary,
with our minds made up that neither of us would live to
see the light of another day, and very soon three
more of our suffering party were relieved by death,
leaving Mr. Allan, a young German, and myself.
Feeling myself getting exhausted, I now sat
down for the first time,i about eight o'clock in
the evening, on a trunk which providentially had been
found on the wreck. In this way I slept a little through
the night, and became somewhat refresed. About an
hour before daylight, now Friday, the 29th, we saw a
vessel's light near to us, and we all three of us exerted
ourselves to the utmost of our strength in hailing, until
we became quite exhausted. In about a quarter of an
hour the light disappeared to the east of us. Soon
after daylight a barque hove in sight to the north-west
of us, the fog now having lighted a little, steering appa-
rentlye for us, but in a short time she seemedto hav
changed her course, and again we were doomed to
disap-
pointment. Yet I feel in hopes that some of our fellow
sufferers may have been seen and rescud by
Shortly after we had given up all hopesofbeingresthoueemd
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in collision. Ho immediatelyinformed the captain that
others were on pieces of the wreck, and by going
aloft
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the boat was sent, and safely taken on board about 3
p.m. The next was Mr. James Smith, of Mississippi,
second-class passenger. The others saved were five of
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Capt. Russell it would be scarcely possible to say enough
in his praise for the kind treatment w e every one of us
have received from him during the
time we have been
on board his ship. His own comforts he has given up
in "'Ty respect for out relief. The Rey, Mr, Whlkor