Cooper's Clarksburg register. [volume] (Clarksburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1851-1861, 1854-11-08
Further Facts in relation to the Arctic,
...Captain Luce,s Statement.
QUEBEC, Oct. IL, 1854

QUEBEC, Oct, ID, 1854.
E. K. COLLINS DEAR S1R-It becomes
my painful duty to inform you of the to-
talloss Of the a. c iic, under.your command
with your wife, son aud daughter.
The Arctic smiled from Liverpool on
Wednesday, Sept, 90. at II A. Nj, with
233 passengers and about $50 of crew.
Nothing of special note occurred during
the passage until Wednesday. Sept. 27,
when at noon, we were on the Banks, in
lat, az, a46i north, and long. 52west, steer
ing west by compass.
The weather had been foggy during the
day generally Il distance of half to thrae
quarters of mile could be seen brt at in
tervals OF. a few minutes very dense fog.
followed by being sufficiently clear to sec
one or twosmiles. At noon I left the deck
for the purpose of working out the posi-
ton OF the ship. In about fifteen minutes
heard the cry of Hard starboard''-
from the officers on deck, and had Just
got out when [ felt crash forward, and
8 at the same moment saw a steamer under
the starboard bow; at the next moment
she struck against our guards and passed
astern of US. The bows of the strange
vessel seemed to be literally cut or crush
ed off for full ten feet and seeing that
she must probably sink in few minutes,
aud taking h'sty glance at our own
ship, and believing that we were compar-
atively uninj ured, my first impulse was to
endeayor to save tbe 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 that
our own SHIP was leaking fearfully.
The engineers were set to work, being
instructed to put on the steam pumps, and
the, four deck pumps were worked by the
passengers and crew, and the ship head
ed for the land, which l judged to
to be about fifty miles distant.
was compelled to leave my boat with the
first officer and crew to take care Of them
solves.
Several Intellectual attempts were made to
stop the leak, by getting sails over the bows;
but finding the leak gained on US very fNst
Notwithstanding all our powerful efforts to
keep her free, | 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 fire
men and others rushed into them in spite
of opposition.
Seeing this state Of things. I ordered
the boats astGrn 10 be kept in readiness
until order could be restored when, TO
my dismay, saw them cut the ropes in
the bon. and soon disappear aSterR IN The
foo. Another boat was broken down by
persous rushing at the davits, and many
were pracipitated into the sea and drown
ed. This occurred while I had been
engaged in getting the starboard guard
boat ready, AID Placed the second officer
in charge, wAen tie same fearful scene as
.a0ith the first boat 90Gs being enactet-men
leaPing from the top of the rail twenty
feet, pushing and manning those who
were in the boat. then gave orders to
the second 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, rs soon as the fires were out and
the engines stopped. My attention was
then drawn to the other quarter boat.
which found broken down but hanging
byone tackle. A rush was made for her al
SO, and some fifteen got in, and cut the tao
kle, and were soon out Of sight. found
that not seamen was left on board, or
carpenter, and were without any tools to
assist us in building raft, as our only
hope. The only officer left was Mr..
Dorian, the third mate who aided me,
with the assistance of many of the pas
sengers, who deserve great praise for their
GOODNESS and energy in doing all in their
power up to the very latest moment be-
fore the ship sunk.
The Chief Engineer, with part of his
assistants, had taken our smallest deck
boat, and before the ship went down, pull
ed away with about fifteen persons.
We had succeeded in getting the fore
and main yard aud two top gallant yards
overheard, and such other small spars and
materials as we could recollect, when was
fully convinced that the ship must go
down in very short time, and not mo-
mentSwas to be lost insgetLing the spars
dashed together TO form raft, to do which
it became necessary to get the lifeboat,
our only remaining boat, into the water.
This being accomplished, saw Mr..
Dorian, the chief officer of the boat, taking
care to keep the oars on board to prevent
them from leaving theship, hoping still to
get most of The women and children in
this boat at last They made considerable
progress in collecting the spars, when an
alarm was given that the ship was sink
ing, and the boat was showed off without
oars or anything to help themselves with,
and when the ship sank the boat had got
lear, probably an eighth Of mile tolee
hard.
Nm an instant, about quarter to Ave
NJ, the ship went down, carrying eve
pul on board with her. Ii
oon found myself on the surface, af- {
2espFisf struggling with my own hope /
d in my arms when again I felt +