Lynchburg daily Virginian. [volume] (Lynchburg [Va.]) 1852-1861, 1854-04-26
7,TgsT NEWS BIZ THE MAILS.
AnnalIing Shipwreclk.


NC Beach, is considered the most terrible
on bens be that ever occurred OH the Jersey
cata, he ship was first discovered by Capt.
eoast., - wreck master. on Sunday morning.
lehai"s Law with her head to the South the decks
SIC W. VI ,.;th messengers, and the sea making
govern aach over her. The wind was blowing
eleane gale from the \. N f., the waves run
maintain high, twisting the ship about in
p.aesand as il she were merely cork boat. Al
ihe IL the snow storm raging violently
thoos'I ennings Immediately dispatched all the
#oaP' - his Command to the Government house for
Inen ar and other wrecking apparatus, while he
hio if remained to watch the effects of the bill
h ils', the Inflated vessel. Hour after hour
lows pf hy. and the men did not return. Mean
sup ,be ship became more uneasy, and many I'M
n al,,aate people were swept off by the heavy
o, .f About five O'Clock, L. M, one immense
sun ur.sbed fully one hundred presons over
|ate ,sbe were carried away down the beach
boalp' nndertow. Some of them came ashore,
oy 'n 's.re neked up by Capt. Jennings but all
& anu I'D and awfully mangled. We copy the
H were w.. VA. account of the disaster from the New
q York Herald ,,. ,
Az If the Powhatan all this while, called out in
oe ,sAS voice 10 Mr. Jennings, entreating him to
4 nv 10 save some OF those who might be washed
g Try Capt Jennings replied that all those
as al" oame ashore were dead and that it was
WV licking for them, as they were all killed be-
sare they got out of the water.
.hant seven O'Clock, the ships masts went by
isard and almost Immediately afterwards the
,hg Il listed in two and every soul on board was
l nun into eternity. The sea presented
idaat mass of human heads and floating pieces of
q .bo wreck; but in a few moments all had sunk to
& rise alive no more. The beach was strewn with
q , 1oad hodies of women and children, pieces of
.,e wreck, the baggage of the passengers, and
'lo casks. Nothing remained to mark the
ndt where the Inflated ship had gone ashore ex
a opnt sureing waves beating upon fragment of
+ ,ba bnlk which lay upon the beach.
The CRYING of the drowning men and the shrek
inn If the women and children was hushed-all
ia9 in the deep, numbered with the dead, while the
Wind walled loud and mourntully, adding still
more horror to the awful catastrophe. All had
B Snnk-eaptain, officers, crew and passengers, of
two hundred and fifty persons-not a soul ,cas
Il u n In tell the tale No aid came from the gov
aynment house that night, and Capt. Jennings
was compelled to remain there by himself, "a lone
8 " watcher of the dead.
4 On Monday morning four men arrived from the
station house, but their help came too late. The
Storm it seems, so severe that while on their
way back to the wreck on Sunday, with the life
car and MORTAR two of them fell down exhausted,
and the whole party were obliged to return near
" frozen to death. This party of men, under
be command of Capt. Jennings, set Immediately
about finding and gathering together those bod
les that had been washed ashore. In the short
SPACE of an hour nearly twenty women and chill
den we're found, almost naked scattered along
the beach, some of them dreadfully bruised and
cut
One man was found about fifty yards from the
beach, upon the sandhills, with child in his
arms :; and from his condition it is supposed that
he alone of all on board reached the shore alive,
and crawling out of reach of the waves, in order
10 save his own life and that of the infant in his
H arms. fell down exhausted on the sand, and was
frozen to death during the night. The child was
firmly locked in his arms, quite dead, and ap-
peared sif it had also died ashore from expo
sure.
The whole of this day was spent in searching
for the bodies of the unfortunate people. But one
man was found among the number, all the rest
/ being woinen and children. They appeared to
have been in excellent health, with rosy cheeks
and smiling faces, looking if they were asleep
rather than dead They were all laid side by side,
Until boat could be got to carry them to the
shore.
On Thursday twenty-five bodies were remov-
ed from the beach to the village of Manahawkin.
These consisted of one man and twenty-one
children, all by their features, appearing
to be Germans, the women who had any
clothes on being dressed in coarse materials,
with heavy shoes some of them wooden ones.-
/ All the dead ere conveyed to an clubhouse of
Squire Peckworths where they remained until
collins could be made for them. This melancholy
task of making feceptacles for the dead occu-
pied the attention of the residing in the vii
age, while women were busily employd in wash
ing the bodies and laying them out preparatory
TO their being placed in the cofiins. Too much
praise cannot be awarded to the inhabitants of
Manahawkin for their zeal and industry in giving
a decent burial to the dead