The Liverpool Standard, and General Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1854-10-31 00:00:00

THE LOSS OF THE ARCTIC.

OFFICIAL NARRATIVE

BY the Canadian Steam Navigation Company's splendid
new screw steam-ship Canadian, Capt. M`Master, which
arrived in the Mersey at nine o'clock yesterday morning,
we have intelligence from Quebec to the 16th inst.
She brings 57 passengers, as follow :—Mrs. and two
Masters Douglas, Miss Kitchen, Miss Jones, Captain
Phillips, Mr. Renwick, nurse, and child, Miss and
Master Renwick, Mr. and Mrs. Wainwright, nurse, and
four children, two Masters Wood, Mr. Murchie, Mr.
Oliver, Captain Moore, Mrs. Taylor and child, Mrs. Low.
Mr. May, Mrs. Stewart and child, Mr. Shaw, Mr. and
Mrs. Corkin, Mr. Searle and three children, Mr. Denby,
Mr. Wellington, Mr. Wilson, Mr. W. Clark, Mr. G. Clark,
Mr. T. Baird, Mr. M'Ardie, Mr. Cleary, Mr. Brand, Mrs.
Baldock and five children, Miss M`Pherson, Mrs. Baird,
Mrs. M`Bride, Mrs. Vaugh, and Mrs. Donnahue.
By this arrival we have confirmatory intelligence of the
safety of Captain Luce and several of the passengers and
crew of the Arctic, who were brought to Quebec on the
13th instant, by the ships Huron and Cambria. The
names of those saved are :

By the Huron :—Luke 3l`Carthy, Richard Machin, James
Abry, Christopher Moran, Thomas Conroy, John Drury,
Erastus Miller, James Ward, David Berry, Robert Bryan,
Joseph Connolly, James Connor, Thomas Wilson, and ano-
ther, name unknown.
By the Cambria :—Captain Luce, and Messrs. Frederick
Hay, G. F. Allan, and James Smith, passengers • Patrick
Noran, Alexander Grant, Michael Russell, John Riley,
and John Patterson, of the crew ; and Jagoret Fran2ois,
of the crew of the Vesta.

The following is Captain Lace's narrative of the dis-
aster, written on the 10th October, on board the ship
Cambria, and addressed to Mr. E. K. Collins :

DEA.R Sin—lt has become my most painful duty to
inform you of the loss of the steam-ship:Arctic under my
command. With many valuable lives, I fear amongst
whom must be inclueed your own wife, daughter, and son,
with whom I took alast leave themoment the ship was going
down, without myself expecting to see the light of another
day to give you an account of the heart rending scene. The
Arctic sailed from Liverpool, Wednesday, Sept. 20, at 11,
a.m., with 233 passengers and about 150 in the crew.
Nothing of special notice occurred during the passage,
until Wednesday, 27th, when at noon we were on the
Banks, in lat. 46.45, and lon. 25.00 W., steering west
per compass. The weather had been foggy during the
day, and generally a distance of half to three quarters of a
mile could be seen, but at intervals of a few minutes a very
dense fog followed by being sufficiently clear to see one or
two miles. At noon I left the deck forthe purpose of working
out of the position of the ship. In about fifteen minutes
I heard a cry of hard starboard from the officer of the
deck. I rushed on deck and had just got out when I felt
a crash forward. At the same moment I saw a steamer
under the starboard bow, and the next moment she struck
against our guards and passed astern of us. The bows of
this strange vessel seemed to be literally cut or crushed
off for about ten feet, and seeing that she must instantly
sink in a few minutes, and taking a hasty glance of our
own ship, and believing we were comparatively uninjured,
my first impulse was to endeavour to save the lives of
those on board the sinking vessel. The boats were cleared,
and the first officer and six men left with one boat, when
it was found our own ship was leaking fearfully. The
engines were set to work, bilge injections put on, steam
pumps and the four deck pumps worked by passengers
and crew, and the ship headed for laud, which I judged to
be about fifty miles distant. Being compelled to leave my
boat with the first officer and crew to take care of them-
selves, several ineffectual attempts were made to check
the leak by getting sails over the bow, and, finding the
leak gaining on us very fast, notwithstanding all our
powerful means of keeping her free, I resolved to get
the boats ready, and as many ladies and children
placed in them as possible, but, no sooner had
the attempt been made, than the fireman and
others rushed into them in spite of all opposition. Seeing
this state of things, I ordered the boats to be veered astern
by ropes, to be kept in readiness until order could be
somewhat restored, when, to my dismay, I saw them cut
the rope in the boat, and soon disappear astern in the fog.
Another boat was broken down by persons rushing into
her while hanging at the davits, and many were precipi-
tated into the sea and drowned. This occurred while I
had been engaged in getting the starboard guard-boat
ready, and placed the second officer in charge of her, when
the same fearful scene as with the first boat was being
enacted, men leaping from the top of the rail down
twenty feet, crushing and maiming those who were in the
boat. I then gave orders to the 2nd officer to let go and
row after the ship, keeping under or near the stern to be
ready to take on board women and children as soon as the
fires were out and the engine stopped. My attention was
then directed to the other quarter boat, which I found
broken down, but hanging by one tackle; a rush was
made for her also, and some dozen or fifteen got in and
cut the tackle, and were soon out of sight. In the mean-
time I found that not a seaman was left on board, or car-
penter, and without any tools to assist in building.a raft,
as one only hope, and the only officer left was Mr.
Doran, the third officer, who aided me with the as-
sistance of many of the passengers, who drew great
praise for their coolness and energy in doing all in their
power up to the very last moment before the ship
sunk from under us. The chief engineer, with a
part of his assistants, had taken our smallest deck
boat, and before the ship went down pulledaway, with
about fifteen persons. We had succeeded :in getting
the fore and main yards, main topsail, and two top-
gallant yards overboard, and such other small spars:and
materials as we could collect, when I was fully convinced
that the ship must go down in a very short time, and not
a moment was to be lost in getting the spars lashed to-
gether to form a raft. To do this it became necessary to
get the life-boat, " our only remaining boat," into the
water. This being accomplished, I gave Mr. Doran charge
of the boat, taking care to keep the oars on board, to pre-
vent them from leaving the ship, hoping still to get the
most of the women and children in this boat at last. They
had made considerable progress in securing the spars to-
gether when an alarm was given that the ship was sinking,
and the boat shoved off without oars or anything to help
themselves with, and when the ship sunk the boat had got
clear, probably an eighth of a mile.to leeward. In an in-
stant, about a quarter to five, p.m., the ship went down,
carrying every soul on board with her. I soon found my.
self on the surface, after a brief struggling with my own
helpless child in my arms, when I again found myself
impelled downwards to a great depth, and before I
reached the surface a second time, had nearly perished and
lost the hold of my child. As I struggled to the surface of
the water, a most awful and heartrending scene pre-
sented itself to my view; over two hunched men, women,
and children struggling together amidst pieces of wreck
of every kind, calling on each other for help, and imploring
Almighty God to help them. Such an appalling scene may
God preserve me from witnessing again. I was in the act
of trying to save my child when a portion of the paddle-
box came rushing up edgewise, just grazing my head, and
falling its whole weight upon the head of my darling child.
In another moment I beheld him lying lifeless in the
water. I succeeded in getting on to the top of the paddle-
box, in company with eleven others. One, however, soon
left for another piece of the wreck, finding that it could
not support so many. Others remained till they were
one by one released by death. We stood in water at a
temperature of 45 degrees up to our knees, and frequently
the sea broke entirely over us. We soon seemed to separate
from our friends on other parts of the wreck, and passed
the dreary night, each one of us expecting every hour
would be our last. A length the wished-for morning came,
dreary and cold, with a dense fog, not a living soul to be
seen but our own party, seven now being left. In course
of the morning we saw some water casks and other things
belonging to our ship, but nothing that we could get
could afford us any relief. Our raft was steadily settling,
as it absorbed more and more water. About noon, Mr.
S. M. Woodruff, of New York, was relieved by death. All
the others now began to suffer very severely for the want
of water, except Mr. Geo. F. A. Allen and myself. In that
respect we were very much favoured, although we had not
a drop on the raft. The day continued foggy, except just at
noon, "as near as we could judge." We had a clear ho-
rizon for about half an hour, and nothing could be seen
but water and sky. Night came on thick and dreary,
with our minds made up that neither of us would live to
see the light of another day, and very soon three more of
our suffering party were relieved by death, leaving Mr.
Allen, a young German, and myself. Feeling myself
getting exhausted, I now sat down for the first time,
about eight o'clock in the evening, on a trunk which pro-
videntially had been found on the wreck. In this way I
slept a little through the night, and became somewhat
refreshed. About an hour before daylight, now Friday,
29th, we saw a vessel's light near to us, and we all three
of us exerted ourselves to the utmost of our strength in
hailing, until we became quite exhausted. In about a
quarter of an hour the light disappeared to the east of
us. Soon after daylight a barque hove in sight, to the
N.W. of us, the fog now having lighted a little, steering
apparently for us, but in a short time she seemed to have
changed her course, and again we were doomed to disap-
pointment. Yet I feel in hopes that some of our fellow-
sufferers mayhave been seen and rescued by them. Shortly
after we had given up all hopes of being rescued by the
barque, a ship was discovered to the east of us, steering
directly for us. We now watched her with the most intense
anxiety as she approached us, with the wind varying,
causing her to change her course several points. About noon
they fortunately discovered a :man on the raft near them,
and succeeded in saving him, by the second mate jump-
ing over the side, :and making a rope fast round him,
by which he was got on board safely. This man saved
proved to be a Frenchman, who was a passenger on board
the steamer with which we came in collision. He imme-
diately informed the captain that others were on pieces of
the wreck, and by going aloft he saw us and three others.
We were the first to which the boat was sent, and safely
taken on board about three, p.m. The next was Mr. James
Smith, of Mississippi, second-class passenger. The others
saved were five of our firemen. The ship proved to be
the Cambria, of and from Glasgow, bound to Montreal,
Capt. John Russell, who commanded the barque Jesse
Stevens, and was rescued at sea by Captain Nye, of the
Pacific. Of Captain Russell it would be scarce possible to
. .

say enough in his praise for the kind treatment we every
one of us have received from him during the time we have
been on board his ship. His own comforts he has given
up in every respect for our_ relief. The Rev. Mr. Walker

and lady, and Mr. Sutherland, who were passengers on
board the Cambria, have been unceasing in their endea-
To them and to all on

yours to promote our comfort

board we shall ever owe a debt of gratitude for their un-
bounded kindness to us while on board the Cambria. From
the Frenchman who was first picked up, we learned that

which we came in collision was the iror,
Vesta," from St. Pierre, Newfoundland

to Granville, I

the Yalta was

E.S.E., crossing our
t, wind W. by S.

11 sails

mense

Le had I

.nd aft the

1, I fear, hundred

Saturday morning, seven o'clock, 14t1