The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-02-07 00:00:00

by Capt. Meeker, in the sloop Merchant of F Alt hort.
The same vessel also rescued Captain Manchester, the
pilot, and a fireman named Smith, who were each on a bale
of cotton. The fireman says, that soon after the fire was dis-
covered, he sought refuge on the rudder, expecting the boiler
would burst, but whilst there, two boys, who could not swim,
entreated him to give them his place, hich he consented to,
on condition that they threw him a bale of cotton, which they
did, and to which he swam. The boat then drifted some
distance ahead ofhim, but when her upper works were burned,
he again floated near her, and saw several of the passengers
and crew on pieces of the wreck. They, however, all gradu-
ally became exhausted, and fell off.
Captain Manchester, the pilot, adds littleto the above par-
ticulars.; he and the firenlan last spoken of, were badly
frozen.

We ann'x a list of as many passengers as on diligent in,
quiry we cotialearn were on board. We do not, however,
vouch for its entire accuracy ; though in the main we believe
it will be found correct, as far as it goes. Captain' Hillard
estimates the number of passengers. at 130; but Capt. Man-
chester says he thinks there were no more than 75 on board,
and w.e find that this latter natober is cpusidered at the office
of the Company to which the boat befonged,- to be the nearest,
probability. What chance is there that any more have been
rescued'—rapt. Hillard says, that at about eight o'clock in
the morning a schooner, bearing to westward, passed him
while on the bale of cotton.. about a mile off. She did not
see him, but it is possible she may have fallen in with some
of the other passengers floating on, the pieces of the wreck.
The conflagration of the boat was seen from Norwalk an a
Bridgeport, on the Connecticut shore, but the-state of the
tide and the ice prevented them getting out their boats to be
assistance, and though the attempt was made, it was found
impossiblg to succeed. From the Long Island shore, we
have as yet no accounts, and it is possible, as the flames
must have been still more visible there,.that some effectual
assistance may have been rendered to the unfortunate beings
who were floating on the waves, yet the sea was so very high,
and the cold so intense, that it seems almost a forlorn hope.
(From the Courier and Enquirer of Jan. 18.)
From the New Haven Daily Herald (extra) of Tuesday
evening, we find an account of the mode in which the tire
took, which is somewhat more explicit and satisfactory than
any ether which has met our eye. " The fire," says that
jouin was discovered a little after seven o'clock, under
a tier of cotton bales, piled nmidship, against the wooden
box or frame which enclosed the pipe leading from the fire-
room below, thiS boat having her holier on her kelson, or un-
der deck. This pipe led through the freight above, and the
ignition of the cotton had become so extensive before the tire
engine and hose of the boat could_ he put in operation, that
both crew and passengers were so overwhelmed in smoke, and
the natural agitation of the moment, that all efforts to subdue
the fire were unavailing."
We understand from a source on which we can rely, that the
pilot, Captain Manchester, says, that shortly after the fire
broke out, he went to the wheel house, got the wheel hard
up, and then the rope parted, it being hide rope, connecting
with the chain and iron rods. He - then sprung 'down to
launch the lite boat, which was broken by the paddles, as
has been already described. .
A bale of cotton was his next .resource, to which he found
a man lashed. Finding, during the night, that the man was
dead; he cut his body loose, fearing that it might cause the
bale to turn over. Manchester was.picked up, lashed to the
bale, senseless and how he came so lashed, he does not re-
collect.

Smith. one of the hands also saved, says that he jumped
overboard at about eight o'clock, and swam to a bale of cot-
ton, after floating on which five hours and a half in the wa-
ter, he got back to the wreck, and warmed himself for an
hour by the fire, and then got on that part of the wreck from
which he was picked up.