The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1852-09-07 00:00:00

THE MEDITERRANEAN.

The Peninsular and Oriental Company's steam-ship
Bombay, Captain Edward Cooper, from Constantinople,
arrived at Southampton, on Sunday, atone o'clock, a.m.
Her dates of sailing were :—Constantinople, August,
14'; Smyrna, 22 ; Malta, 26 ; Gibraltar, 30.
The British fleet was still cruising, but expected at
Malta at the end of August, en route,to Vowila Bay.

AMERICA

ARRIVAL OF THE, PACIFIC.

The United States Mail steam-ship. Pacific,. Captain
Nye, which left New York on the 21st ult., arrived in the
Mersey at ten o'clock on Wednesday morning. The
Pacific brings 93 passengers, and'S'6oo,ooo in specie.

DREADFUL. STEAM-BOAT ACCIDENT, AND- LOSS OF TWC

HUNDRED .LIVES

On the 20th ultimo the steamer Atlantic came into col-
lision, on Lake Erie, with the propeller Ogdensburg, at
two o'clock in the morning, and sunk in about half an
hour. There were about 450-persons on-board the Atlan-
tic, and of these about 200 were lost.. They were princi-
pally immigrant Norwegians, who came through by Lake.
Ontario steamers from Quebec, and about 75 or 80 of
them were left on the dock, the agent refusing to suffer
them to go on board. A. very dense fog prevailed at the
time of the collision. The passengers were all in bed, and
the first mate was on duty. immediately after the c.-Ali-
sion, which was very severe, the utmost confusion pre-
vailed among the steerage and deck passengers, and
several, it is thought, in the terror and darkness that pre-
vailed, jumped overboard at once,
The immigrants,, who could, not understand a word
spoken to them, by-their cries. and terror added, to the
horror of the scene. The cabin passengers, and- all who
could be made to understand, were exhorted by, the can-
tain and officers to. remain calm, and provide themselves
with chairs, settees,.beds, &c., all of which were patent
life-preservers, and would buoy them up in the water.
After the collision the steamer kept on her course, the
officers hoping to be able to reach port, although the boat
was leaking badly. The water, however, gained rapidly
on them, despite the efforts of the crew, and by the time
they had proceeded about two miles from the spot where
the collision took place, it was found that the vessel was
rapidly sinking—the fires in the engine-room being extin-
guished by the water. A scene of terrible confusion fol-
lowed. _

The propeller had kept in the wake of the Atlantic, and
those on board her did all in their power to preserve the
lives of the hundreds of human beings who were now seen
struggling in the water. The fog was a sad hindrance to
their efforts, but some 250 were rescued from the lake,
and taken by the propeller to Erie.
Captain Petty, of the Atlantic, while lowering a life-
boat, fell a distance of eleven feet into the boat, striking
his head and cutting it badly. He was precipitated into
the water and supposed to be lost, but was picked up by
a boat from the propeller, after clinging for 15 minutes to
floating pieces of timber. He is much injured, and new
lies in a precarious state.

As soon as the shrieks of the drowning passengers were
bushed, the voice of a little boy was heard, and it was then
first discovered that a child, about eight years old, was
clinging to a rope a short distance off. The little fellow,
talking to himself, was saying—" Oh ! I can't hold on
much longer. if papa was here he would hold me up."
A man from Illinois, a fine powerful fellow, immediately
moved a long rope, and seized the boy as he was about to
sink. He held him for some time, and called out for re-
lief, as he was nearly exhausted by the
weight. An at-
tempt was made to reach him, but In vain. At that
moment the boat of the propeller, loaded to the water's
edge with rescued passengers passed, and they were en-
treated to save the boy. Mr. Blodgett, first mate of the
Atlantic, who was on board, jumped out, and swam to the
rope, tool the boy off and returned to the boat with him.
He was thus saved.