The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-05-31 00:00:00

APPALLING WRECK OF AN EMIGRANT

SHIP FROM LIVERPOOL.

LOSS OF NEARLY TWO HUNDRED LIVES.
One of the most disastrous shipwrecks or., record
occurred on the 3rd instant, at Stirrup Key, among the
Bahama Islands. The news of the dreadful calamity was
taken to New York on the 16th instant, by the brig
Reuben Carver, from Sagua la Grande, which bad on
board the captain, first and second mates, and six of the
crew of the ill-fated vessel William and Mary.

The barque William and Mary, commanded by Captain
Stinson, left Liverpool for New Orleans on the 24th
March, with a cargo of railroad iron and 208 passengers,
Principally German, Irish, and Scotch emigrants. No-
thing Particular occurred, with the exception of fourteen
deaths among the emigrants and one birth, until the 3rd
of May, when they entered the dangerous channel of the
Ilahannas, with the most unfavourable weather, the wind
blowing strong from the south-east, with a heavy sea.
About seven o'clock in the morning, the barque passed
a' The Hole in the Wall," the most southern point of the
Island of Abaco, so called from one of the most prominent
elan of
the coast being perforated with a large hole,
which is visible a considerable distance at sea. Passing
this in safety, Captain Stinson steered for Stirrup Key,
which at twelve, meridian, was about ten miles dis-
tant, the weather becoming more clouded, and the
Wind increasing. Till the afternoon the vessel kept on
her course without accident of any kind, but at half-past
eight she struck on a sunken rock, on which she remained
for about fifteen minutes, and received extensive damage.
The passengers were all on deck, running and screeching
We are lost ! we ere lose!" and crowding the deck so
that it was almost impossible to get from one part of the
ship to another. The captain ordered the boats to be
cleared and launched. The two life-boats were launched
first, and four men got into the starboard boat, taking
with them two cans of water, a compass, and some bread.
They remained in the boat all night, and with the greatest
difficulty kept her from being stove. The larboard boat
was safely launched, but about half an hour after was
stove under the quarter, the decks being so crowded aft
that the boats could not be dropped astern. The boat at
the cranes was so filled by the passengers that they bent
the cranes down to the water. This boat was stove also.
The long-boat was still remaining on the afterhouse,
unfit to be launched without caulking. Part of the crew
were, ordered, however, to get that ready, and the re-
mainder to lay forward and get ready to cut away the
mast. The ship was now rolling very heavily, the sea
breaking over her every few minutes during the squalls.
Some of the headstays were cut, and everything got ready
to let the foremast go overboard ; but the captain gave
orders not to cut it, as the sails kept the ship from rolling.
Her anchors were let go as soon as possible, and after drift-
ing a few rods she struck again so heavily that it prostrated
many on the deck, and it was evident to all that the ship
Could not possibly stand many more such shocks. The scene
was now dreadful beyond description. Some were upon
their knees, praying to the Lord to have mercy on them;
tome were crying, others were running, catching hold of
e officers and crew, begging them to save them, telling
them that they were unfit to die, that they were unpre-
pared to meet their God. Some who had the evening
previous been boasting of their infidelity were the first
upon their knees, and loudest in their cries for God to
have mercy upon them. It now seemed evident to all
that the ship would go down immediately. Men, who
before this, had acted their part nobly, now ceased to
make any effort to save themselves or others. Some
went to a cask of liquor that was between decks, and there
!orgot their dangers and troubles. At nridnight the water
nad at
‘e so rapidly on the sinking vessel that it was
four
the feet in the hold, and. at 4 a.m., eights feet. Scarcely
ten day dawned when it was announced that there were
of
water in the hold, and the pumps were aban-
donedstricken passen
in despair,
gersTwheerbeotaintss,htihpepeladstfrrnemsortht terror-
allnofdtahveita;but
exFept the life-boat and long-boat were swamped. The
captain, his
and
st
officers, and .a portion of the crew got into
abandoned the ship, which was then
before
fpei_oyasti,naknd
i'ne. The captain was the last who got into the
b even then he had to he urged very strongly
he would consent to leave the vessel. When the pas-
sengerssreaming euerany hope,
him
; leave the ship they knew there was no
g
hope, and became perfectly frantic with despair,
and calling wildly for that assistance which it
_ as impossible to render them. As soon as the captain
left, six of the crew who still remained in the ship, got
ready the long-boat;into which some of the passengers
jumped indiscriminately.
The scene on board the sinking ship was most heart-
rending. Women and men jumped overboard from the
afteribopaart,t of the vesssel, near where the boat lay, and
many were drowned. One of the crew, who was in the
long-boat,
was compelled, with a hatchet, to keep off the
Passengers who were crowding into the boat, and who, if
allowed to enter it, would have sunk it. The life-boat,
Pecupled by the captain and crew, was so crowded, that
before cutting the rope, they debated the necessity of
drawing lots to see who should go overboard. At that
time a poor fellow was standing on the side of the vessel
just as the rope was about to be cut. He asked the mate
if he might jump in ; but receiving no encouragement
from him, he was about giving himself up for lost when
he thought that by rendering some service he might be
allowed to get into the boat. Knowing that they were in
want cf a sail he took one of the Qhaill:h'souskhysails and
handed it to those in the boat, who, the boat
was already overcrowded, could not refuse 1)11 a chance
for his life. The rope was cut by another sally:
Ridley, who immediately after jumped into the wr'atnerana'nel
was taken on board. The long-boat ultimately got away
Iwith about twenty passengers and one or two of the crew.
n about half.an-hour after the barque was left she went
down, and all on board are supposed to have pe-
rished. After beating about for some hours the life-boat
was picked up by the brig Reuben Carver, and conveyed
to New York. The captain stated that about noon on the
4th, the day after the wreck, he saw the long-boat picked
11 Phe an English vessel bound up the Gulf. On the 11th
instant the American schooner Smith Shuttle spoke an
-moglish barque, one hundred miles north of Maritanilla
Reef, bound for Liverpool, with cotton, from New
Orleans. She had picked up twenty-five passengers from
au American ship the day previous. The barque was
bound to Europe, but Capt. N. could not ascertain her
name. There is every reason to believe that the persons
rescued were some of the passengers of the William and
Mary. The Reuben Carver was twelve days at sea from
the time she picked up the crew of the lost vessel till her
arrival at this port. She fell in on the 10th May with the
barque Oneco, of Portland, and received a supply of pro-
vlslons, which was greatly needed, after receiving the
FaPtain and part of the crew of the William and Mary en
board. There is every reason to hope that the passengers
who had thrown themselves into the long-boat have es-
caned the melancholy fate of their companions who were
unable to leave the vessel.
0 The William and Mary was 512 tons burthen, was built
13owdoinhana last year, and was owned by J. Harward,
of that place. She was insured for $26,000, at the fol.
la°ndul offices :---New England, B'lo,ooo ; City, -88,000 ;
Was
jilaompees,
CeThBam,Onr.a. The passenger-agent in Liverpool
About eighty of the Passengers were Germans, who were
going out in corn""any, with the intention of settling on a
large tout in
of land which had been bought in Illinois. The
remainder ere composed of English, Irish, and Scotch,
the Irihrforming the largest portion. One of the sailors
iasroafftop-inion that some of the passengers may have formed
and saved themselves upon it, or by floating on some
fragments of the vessel. This he considers not at all
,e im-
probable, as there were two or three sailors left behind on
iatsjmeressel ; and these, he believes, would have devised
s such means of saving themselves and some of the
sengers. Should they have done so they would not be
long floating about before they would be picked up by
sundered, as the place where the William and Mary
is a general highway to vessels bound south.