The Sun.
London, England, 1858-01-11 00:00:00

ÜBiVING OF THE SARAH SANDS.

- _
We (Belfast News-Letter) are enabled to give
following extracts from the letter of an officer on
board the unfortunate Sarah Sands, when burned
on her passage to India :—Pott Louis, Mauritius,
Nov. 24.—1 wrote you a hurried line yesterday to
let you know of our safe arrival. I had then only
time for a few words concerning our narrow escape.
I will now try to give you a detailed account, as
theernail has bee kt back till 4 o'clock this after-
noon. The fire, as p I
told you, was first observed
on the 11th inst., about 3.45 p.m., the storekeepear
reporting to the third officer that he observeh
smoke coming out of the after-hatch undeineat..
eras posted.
where the Grenadier company
The third officer immediately reporteastld), who
the cir-
cumstance to the captain (Ce
went down below-, and, after seeing what it
was, he came on deck, and. ordered the powder
to be got out, steel) sail,
the engines, shorten all
helm hard a-port.' He then went down below, and
taut and two charts, one of the
returned with his se
Indian Ocean and ons., of the Bay of Bengal. He
then ordered the boats to be lowered, the ladies,
women, and children to be got into them, and the
bo same be kept clear of the side of the ship. At
th time he ordered roils to be made, which
was done by our men, under' the superintendence
of the chief officer, Mr. Welch, The conduct of the
officers, dec., is beyond alt praise. All this
timeour men were working cheerfte; ly at the all
and manning a line of buckets. We' kept all the
skylights and ports on the quarter-dee.k shut, and
had wet blankets placed over them, so as to prevent
'
the wind getting to the fire • by this time, _.
should
say 6 o'clock, we had got all the powder out of the
port magazine, and es much as we were able out of
the starboard one ; the men at last being unable to
work, owing to the stifling effects of the smoke.
We were nowdriven off the quarter-deck, and had
to retire to a deck bridge just aft of the saloon. It
was now remembered that the colours were in the aft
part of the saloon, which had been quite forgotten
in our anxiety to get out the powder. It was then
that one of the quartdr-masters of the ship (Richmond)
in the most gallant manner, volunteered to try and
save the colours. He went down and succeeded in
bringing up the Queen's, and, after giving it up, fell
down fainting. As soon as he recovered he again
insisted, with one of our privates (Wills), in trying
to get the regimental colours; again he succeeded,
and again fainted. The doctor was afraidglad , for so
te me
time, he would not recover, but lam to ll
you he is now all right again. About 8 p.m. we
were driven off the bridge ; it was now quite
dark ; for the first time the flames were visible
coming up thb entrance to the monkey poop. The
- captain now tried to set the mizen, in order to bring
the ship's head to the wind, so as to drive the smoke
and flames aft. Some of our men went up the rig;;
with him, and tried to set it, but it was of no avail,
as some of the stays were already on fire. The cap-
tain now said he had little hope of saving the ship,
but it behoved all to work to the last, and fall back
inch by inch, and try to keep in the ship till daylight.
The comman'ling officer now ordered buoys to be
'lashed to the rafts, and that, in case it should be ne-
cessary to take them, there was to be no confusion,
and the men were to embark as much as possible by
companies. The mizen mast now blazed fearfully
the deck bridge was also in flames, and lighted up
4 the sea for a considerable distance round the ship.
It was now that Mr. Frazer, the chief engineer, pro-
: - posed to cut away the deck, so as to allow the hose
to be got down, to make a fight to stop the flames
abaft the ship at this part ; it was this suggestion
that saved us. About 11 o'clock we got the deck cut
through, and almost at the same moment the mizen
mast fell overboard, and shortly afterwards the
most part of the quarterdeck fell in. About 11.30
a fearful explosion took place, caused by the powder
that had been unavoidably left in the magazine ;
for one moment all were thunderstruck, but tie men
immediately returned to their work. Some of the
men were now working the hand-pumps, some di-
_ iecting the hose of the donkey engine, and others
shovelling the coals from the bulkhead and throwing
water on them. It was down between decks that the
most daring courage was witnessed. The men were
sent down enveloped in wet blankets, and, even
with this precaution, some of them coming up on
deck feinted ; they were carried to the windward
side of the ship, and, as soon as they recovered,
jumped down again to their work. The flames were
now gaining on u., and it was of the utmost import-
ance to get the ship's head to the wind. The main-
topmast-yard now caught fire, and also the bottom
of the main-mast (the Sarah Sands has four masts).
The chief officer, together with some of our men,
went up the rigging with wet blanket;, and even-
tually succeeded iu getting out the yard, after it
Was half burnt through. If this yard had been
, burned all would have been lost, as the ship would
; haVe run before the wind. Till 3 a.m. on the 12th
the fire increased on us, when our endeavours were
blessed with success, and we gradually got the bet-
ter of it. At 6 o'clock we felt confident that the
worst was over, but it continued smouldering till
_ll a.m. There was 19 feet of water in the after-
hold, and it toek two nights and a day to pump
ee this out. The explosion broke a large hole in the
port side ; ti,is was filled up with sills, and then
banked up with rubbish and planks. Even now we
were anything but safe, being hundreds of miles
from laud, without any chronometers, and only
one mast which we were able to set sail on. We
were blessed with the most favourable weather,
having a fair wind till we arrived here yesterday',
about 9 a.m. Great credit is due to Capt. Castle,
as he brought us here, having to work the. whole
by dead reckoning ; and, to show you what a spleit-
did navigator he is, ho made the Island of Ro(l6guez only one hour before he expected, hiving,
steered many hours without even a compass. All
the ship's officers behaved in the best manner. One-
third of the ship was burned to a shell. It seems
a miracle that we were saved."

THE RECENT WRECK OF Tfi 7i EARL 01

CARRICK STEAMER.