Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1854-10-20
Statement of Mr.. BALKAN, Second Officer
of the Arctic,

On Wednesday, 9th, ut noon, Cape Rpcc
bearing 4. W. IS miles distant, while run.
ming in very thick fog, were struck on the
starboard bow, about Sky feet ahaft the
cutwater, by an iron steamer. which made
three large holes in the ship,--two below the
water, one Of which was about five and n half
feet in length and one or one and a half feet
wdc, leaving the whole cutwa'cr and stem
OF the iron steamer clean through the Arcf,c's
side
So dense was the fog that the vessel could
not be seen minute before the collision
The wheel was put hard to srarboard, the en-
CINE stopped instantly, and backed at full
speed until cl ar Of the other steamer, which
occupied couple Of minutes. The French
steamer seemed to be sinking bow first
Captain LrcE Immediately gave orders to
clear way the quarter boats, which w done.
and Mr., GouRLEY, C.ivf Officer. lrIt the Arctic,
in charge Of the .twrho I'd hl t
On lowering the pnit bot. the Caitain
exclaimed, I" Hoist up that boa aga'u. Mr.
BAALHAx," and bcckoned me to ~ t. him
Upon doing 80, he ordered me to 60 over the
bow to ascertain, if possible, what damage
had been done. then found the holes above
mentioned. Upon informing him Of the facts, ,
he gave orders to get sail up and try and get
them round the bow, to endcayor to stop the
leak which was promptly done, but To no
advantage whatever, 50 much OF the bow and
iron broken off from the other steamer pro-
jccting that the sails could not be brought
close to the vessel 5 side.
The carpenter was then lowered down over
the vessels side, and pillows and mattresses
handed dawn To him, tn try If possible TO
| force them in but the leak was found to be
so far below the water line that they could
not be got in, and every cxertion to stop the
leak proved unavailing.
Capt. LuCK then ordered the ships head to
/ be kept for land, which bore \, ". by W.
! BY this time we had lost sight of the Chiei
Oihcer boat, and the other Gamer, which
we supposed had sunk.
We had not been on our course more than
four or five minutes before she ran over boat
and crew belonging to the other vessel. all oi
whom persisted with the except IN of on,
wLo caught hold of rope hanging over I'll,
bow. Directly the boat was seen orders wer,
given tu stop the engine, which the Chie
! Engineer said could not be- done, as the sliJ
| WIS fast sinking.
In about thirty minutes all the lower FIRE.
wrre out, and al leust three iert oi water il
the sui p tore and att By this timr the CON
tusion among the Passengers was very great
hut they used all efforts 10 assist the crew il
keeping the deck pumps going, and II
ilShtrilihG the sup forward, Tor the purpose
oi endtHvoring To get at the leak from til,
inside, which was found to he useless-un,
numbers of them going into the boats whicl
were still hanging 10 the dayis.
In - minutes after the collision,I came M
from the fore-hold aud informed the Gar tIil
that the water was On level with the lowe
deck beams, aud that it was impossible to gc
ut the leak. | then asked him what c tho
would Do the fate OF the ship, when he state,
his belief TO me that there was no hope u