The Sun.
London, England, 1847-05-06 00:00:00

THANKS OF THE FRENCH GOVERNMENT TO AN

ENGLISH SHIPMASTER.

_
Admiralty, May 4, 1847.
Sin,—Viscount Palmerston having informed my Lords
Commissioners of the Admiralty, Old a communication has
been addressed to his Lordship by the Count de Jarnac,
French Charge d'Affairs, stating that he is directed to re-
quest that the acknowledgments of the French Government
may be conveyed to Captain William Brown, commanding
the English schooner Harp, of Dublin, for the services which
he rendered to the crew of the French vessel La Petite Enn-
stine, totally wrecked in the Bay of Biscay, I am commanded
by my Lords to request that the Committee for Managing
the Affairs at Lloyd's will take measures for conveying to
Captain Brown the thanks of the French Government ac-
cordingly. I am, Sir, your most obedient servant,
(Signed) J. G. WARD.
William Dobson, Esq., Secretary Lloyd's.

THE LATE WRECK OF AN EMT-
GRANT SHIP.
From the later particulars that have reached us rela-
tive to this awful catastrophe, we fear that the loss
of life will prove to have been even more extensive
than that recorded in our columns yesterday. Ac-
cording to the statement of the three sailors, the sole
survivors of the wreck, and who arrived in Glasgow on
Saturday evening, the Exmouth, of 320 tons, Isaac
Booth, of Sunderland, master, sailed from London-
derry for Quebec between three and four o'clock on the
morning of Sunday, the 25th ult., with a light south-
west breeze. She had a crew of eleven men (inclusive
of the captain), and about 240 emigrants, consisting
principally of small farmers and tradesmen with their
families, who had turned their little all into money for
the purpose of escaping the famine, and earning for
themselves a home in the western world. Many were
females and children going out to join their fathers
and protectors, who had already settled in Canada.
There were also three cabin passengers, young unmarried
ladies of the middle classes, two of them being sisters,
on their way to join their relatives at St. John's New
Brunswick. The vessel was registered for 1651 passen-
gers, but as two children count as one adult, and as a
very large proportion were under age—there being only
about 60 men amongst the passengers—the survivors of
the wreck, who are our informists, think that the total
number of these ill-fated emigrants must have amounted
to the total stated, viz., 240.
The ship lost sight of land about four o'clock on
Sunday afternoon. The breeze, which had been light
in the morning, increased to a gale during the day, and
about eleven p.m. it came in terrific squalls, accom-
panied by heavy torr, nts of rain. They then furled
the fore and main sails. The wind, which had
been ,to the westward at grsC veered northerly, and
the storm increased in' violence, which blew the
two top-sails from the bolt-ropes. The crew then
commenced to bend other topsails, which they furled ;
but about three in the morning they were blown from
the gaskets. The ship was now driving to the south.
ward and eastward. The reason of the master not
standing to the *westward, where he would have ample
sea room, was for the purpose of attaining some har-
bour of refuge, where he might repair damages, and re-
place the sails.
On Monday forenoon the long-boat was unshipped
by the force of the seas, which broke over the vessel,
and in the course of the same forenoon the bulwarks
were stove in, and the life-boat washed away. The gale
continued with the same violence during the whole
of Monday night and Tuesday ; and an indication of
the force of the hurricane may be learned from
the fact, that on the latter day the mainsail, after
being furled, was torn from the gaskets by the storm
blast. While the crew were , setting the foresail it
was blown from the bolt ropes, and the trysail-mast
was unshipped, and the main gaff carried away, which
rendered them unable to carry the spanker. During this
dreary time, the vessel pitched dreadfully—now on the
crest of a mountain wave, and in two seconds afterwards
reeling in the trough of the sea ; the passengers were
all below under hatches, many of them insensible to ex-
ternal danger from the pains of sea sickness, but some
of them had a feel ful presentment of disaster. Cooking,
of course, was out of the question ; but the grown-up
people had no heart to be hungry, and moreover, the
cocked provisions brought from Londonderry were not
yet entirely exhausted.
About eleven o'clock on Tuesday night land and a
light were seen on the starboard quarter, which Captain
Booth at first took to be the light on the Island of Tory,
off the north-west coast of Ireland, and in the belief
that he thus had ample sea-room in the course he was
steering he bore along. As he drifted near the
land, however, and observed that the light was a
flashing, instead of a stationary one, he became con-
scious of his error and dangerous position, and made
every effort to repair it, by bringing the ship farther to
the northward and westward ; and with the view of
" clawing" her off the land, the maintopsail and the
foretopmast stay sail were set, and the jib half hoisted.
The effort, however, was an ineffectual one ; the ship
soon got amongst the broken water, and at half-past
twelve on Wednesday morning was dashed amongst
the rocks. If the above be a correct version of
the impression on the captain's mind as to his
position—and it is distinctly spoken to by two
of the survivors=the result shoivn that he must
have been fully a hundred' miles out of bis reckon-
ing ; but perhaps it could not well .be otherwise.. The
sun was obscured during tbe time. by black clouds ;
the 'noon was only seen through a heavy haze at. inter-
vale, and, from then" causes-4 way.;lmposaiW that,o9y
observation could be taken. The, light seen was in
reality that of Oransa or Oversay, on the point of the
Rhinus or Runs of Islay, to the north-west of the
entrance of Lochindaul ; and the land seen, and on
which the brig eventually struck, was the western part
of the iron-bound coast of the island. She went ashore,
and after striking once was dashed broadside on alongside
the rocks, which rose to the height of the mast head. She
struck violently against the rocks three times, and at the
fourth stroke the mainmast went by the board, and
fell into a chasm of the rock. Captain Booth had
previously taken his station in the maintop, that he
might personally keep a look out; and as soon as the
brig struck, John Cleat, the mate, and all the seamen,
eight in number, joined the captain in the maintop,
leaving the captain's son, a youth of about fifteen years
of age, asleep in his cot below. After remaining in the
maintop about three minutes, five of the crew went down
for the purpose of ascending the foretop thinking that
they would have a better chance of gaining the shore
from that part of the ship. At the same time, one of
the crew, named John Scott, went out upon the main-
yard with a life buoy on his person; thus leaving in the
maintop the captain and three, seamen, whose names
are John Stevens, William Coulthard, and Geore Light-
ford, all belonging to South Shields. When the main-
top, along with the wreck of the mast, was thrown
into a rift of the rock, Coulthard, then Lightford,
and finally Stevens, scrambled up the rigging, and
obtained a footing on the crags. The captain was
about to follow the men, when a wave dashed over
their heads as they clung to the rock, but they were
enabled to maintain their position; and when they looked
round, after the sea had retired, they found that the
captain and all were gone. The mainmast had
been broken into splinters by the fourth collision
with the rocks, and this recoiling wave had not only
dragged the ship, but the fragments of the mast, which
adhered to her by the rigging, further into the sea,
and thus cut off from the dense mass of human
beings on board every chance of escape. Had the
wreck remained in the chasm where it was originally
the others ; but,
thrown, and from which the three survivors escaped, it
unhappily, this last possibility of taken away.
Thesame wave which effected this fearful havoc must also
might have been used a.s.a bridgerelbieyf
have prevented the five seamen from reaching the fore-
top, from which they might have had a chance of escap-
ing. A quarter of an hour elapsed from the time of the