The Sun.
London, England, 1858-10-15 00:00:00

THE LOS'S OF THE AUSTRIA.

The undersigned first, second, and third officers,
and six of the crew belonging to the Austria,
having arrived in England on board the Ireland,
Captain Jackson, from Fayal, have read the differ-
ent statements of passengers about the loss of our
vessel, and beg to add our statement showing what
has been done on our part ; we leave it to every
one to judge whether we have done our duty or not.
The full protest having to be made up before the
competent authorities at Hamburg, we here only
a give account of what we personally experienced.
P. 4 The second and third officers had the watch, and
gl were on deck when the first cry of fire broke out at
8, 2 o'clock on Monday afternoon, the 13th Sept. The
captain, who was in the cabin at the time, came in-
stantly up the bridge, and gay* orders to attend to
the pumps. The engine at the same time was put
at half-speed, and the signal was given to work the
steam pump. There was a regularly-organised fire--
0 roll for our vessel, each man having his place
- marked out at the pumps, and being exercised to
their use. At the command of the captain the
men of the fire-roll ran below to the pumps and
began working them, but immediately found that
they drew no water, the pipes being precisely at
the spot where the fire broke out, and the lead
having therefore melted. The steam pump could
also not work for the same reason., The men were,
moreover, forced to leave the pumps, as the fire and
smoke surroundedthem. In the course of 15 minutes ,
from the commencement of the fire the three decks'
Were in a blaze. It was impossible to stop the en-
gine, as one could not get to it on account of the
fire. There was hardly any wind at the time, merely
the draught caused by the motion of the vessel.,
The captain seeing the impossibility of overpower-
ing the fire, then ordered the men to lower the
boats. There were on board eight boats—viz., three.
Francis' metallic lifeboats, capable of containing 60
persons each; two wooden and one metallic life-•
boats, capable of containing 50 persons; two smaller
wooden jolly-boats, capable of containing from 30
to 40 persons each. The boats were in perfect order,
ready, and so fastened that they might be lowered
in the shortest possible time. There existed a regu-
lar boat roll on the vessel, so that each man knew
to which boat to attend to in case of need, under
the command of an officer or sub-officer. The men
were hindered in getting to the boats by the frantic
passengers, who already had rushed to them. We
tried to repel them by all means in our power, but
in vain. The four boats on the starboard soon
caught fire, this side being most exposed to the
flames. On the larboard four boats were. lowered,
but three of them were smashed before they reached
the water by the people overcrowding them, and
one boat alone got safely afloat.
After the captain had given the command to
lower the boats he was seen by us to jump down
from the bridge, probably intending to keep the
passengers in order. In running aft to the quarter'
deck he had to travel through the fire, which noW
already separated the fore part from the aft part of
the ship. The captain, breaking through the flames,
was much injured; he was seen later by the first
officer standing on the quarterdeck, larboard side,
apparently stunned by the injury he had received
from the fire, and some passengers say they sad
him jump overboard.
The single boat which reached the water with-
out being smashed was one of the large metallic
lifeboats ; it was at first, when lowered down,
filled with people ; but the weight was so great
that many of them fell out when the boat reached
the water. Thirty succceeded in keeping on, but
the boat capsized several times, being full of water,
and seven men were drowned thereby. There then
remained in the boat the undersigned first officer
and six of the crew, besides one steward and 15
passengers. It was 3 o'clock when our boat got
free of the steamer, and we were left immediately
behind, the vessel still going ahead, and we being
unable to manage the boat, so that we soon were
separated from the vessel. We tried hard to
bale the water out of the boat, but did not succeed
till we constructed a raft of the oars and masts be-
longing to the boat, and got the passengers upon
it ; then we got the boat clear of water, and took'
the passengers in again. About one hour after hav-
ing left the steamer we got sight of the French
barque Maurice, and pulling to her we reached her
at 8 o'clock, where we found already the third offi-
cer and some of the passengers.
The second officer was taken up by the Maurice
swimming at half-past 8 o'clock. He had been
pushed overboard the Austria at half-past 2 o'clock
by the rush of the passengers who jumped into his
boat and smashed it. He kept afloat, swimming
for six hours without anything to hold on.
The third officer left the steamer at 5 o'clock. He
remained on the deck of the Austria till he saw that
no boat was left, and was driven by•the fire over-
board, but kept on to it by a rope alongside of the
vessel till 5 o'clock,.when he jumped off, the iron
plates having got red hot. He then took to
swimming, and caught hold of some pieces of float-
ing wood, by which he held himself afloat till half-
past 6 o'clock, when he was taken up by the French
boat, much injured by the flames.
There were three sail in sight when we left the
Austria, of which only one, the French barque Mau-
rice, came to our rescue. The Maurice took on
board 66 persons, of whom 12 were transhipped to
the Lotus, bound for Halifax, the remainder were
landed on 19th. Sept., at Fayal, whence the passen-
gers were shipped on board her Majesty's steamer
Valorous, bound for New York ; and we were taken
off by the London steamer Ireland, which _landed
us yesterday evening at Gravesend, on our wag
back to Hamburg.
L. F. HAHN, First Officer of the Austria.
B. H.,HEITAIANN, second ditto.
T. C. BURNETT, third -ditto.
C. PLATE, quartermaster, ditto. •
C. MICIIAELIS' second boatswain, ditto.
T. FRIEBOLD, fireman, ditto.
T. H. RICHTER, seaman, ditto.
N. TURGENSEN, sailor, ditto.
0. POHL, engineer-assistant, ditto.
London, Hanseatic Consulate, Oct. 14.
111. I

Mr. J. Defries, of Houndsditch, has taken
contract for lighting the camp at Aldershot during the
winter months. Upwards of 7,000 lamps are used.