The Sumter banner. [volume] (Sumterville, S.C.) 1846-1855, 1854-11-01

no cHcitemont, put ladies' and chill.
drcn began to collect on deck with
anxious and inquiring looks, receiving
no hope or consolation, wife and hus.
band, father and daughter, brother
and sister, would weep in each others
embrace, Or kneel together imp 'oring
Almighty God for help. Men would
20 about the decks in /; sort of sbewil
derm"nt, as to what was left to be
done, nos aging hold Of the hand
pumps with re.doublcd energy or
with sickcning effort, applying their
power to the hauling OF freight out OF
tho forward hole, already floating in
water before the lower hatches were
opened. System of management or
concentration of effort was never com
menced or applied to any one object.
Two separate Intellectual attempts to
stop tho leaking by dropping j. sail
down over the bow were made, and
tho engines were kept working the
ship ahead towards tho land, but i'm
the course of an hour, | SHOULD think,
from the timo Of tho COLLISION, tho low.
or furnaces wore drowned out and the
steam pumps stopped. Then it seem.
cd to become onlya question of how
many hours or minutes we would be
above water. -f.,... ral ~ .t
The first officer, with his boaL's
crew, we had left behind from the
first. The second officer, with a 10,
vi the sailors, had lowered another
boat and lplt The ship, and general
scrambIins seemed to be going on as
to who should have places in tho only
two remaining haats that saw on deck.
The stern taciiIing Of another had civ
Gil way from Tho @aight Of persons in
il while il Was swinging over. tho side,
and tiiuk several must have hcen
lost with that. ! saw one lady hang
ing 20 tho bow Ia cklc oft after tic
stern hid broken loose. One Of those
still remaining was a large Que on the
quarterback occupied by ladies' aud
children, and sonle few gentlemen.
The other was OH tic upper dock t;55r-
ward, and in tho possessions of IL lot
l.of lircncn. Things were in rlis con
'lItion ut about two hours atter tho ac
ciLcnt. Captain Luce was supcrin-
tending the lowering Of spars and
yards, aided mostly hy passengers, for
the purpose of making arait, and
complaining that all his ollicers and
men had left him, Most Of tho wp.
men and children w::Ea collected ru,:.,,l
the boat OH the quarter deck, seeming.
ly resigned to ttcir fltn. Somo few
gentlemen excrting all their power to
prevail OH others to work on. at The
pumps, but all to no purpose, she kpnt
on gaining in quantity as steadily as
time progrcsIrl. ah 20"
The engines had stopped working,
and !, seeing that tie CNicf Emyi..cer,
'oiM same Of Ais assistants and Freucp
hHd got tie .forpura boat IN the uuter
orcr dy the do'o, under The pretcncc |
saw of working at the canvass, which
WAS hanging over the bow, so rs to
sink IL down over the leaking places;
but seeing, as thought, symptoms of
tleis real intention to gst off from tho
ship without ton many In the boat, !
dropped myself down near by them
OH IL small raft of three planks
about q foot wide each, and ten or
twelve feet long, and an inch in thick.
ness, dashed together with some rope
and four landspikcs, and which had
just previously hulPcd to lower into
tho water for the purpose Of working
from about the bow of tbs ship. Find.
ing it bore me up showed oil, intrn-
ding to get alongside Of the engineers
boat, hut as showed OIL several fire
men aHd dnse or two AasssHyers drop
pei dorm into tie boat, tie engincer pro
is tiny uyui,ist their doing SO, undai Mc
same time pnshed OF and pulled rel
array .tro'p Me SLIP, wiM about mcirc
o. fourteen persons ie his boat, .lccInr-
ing To MoSe or hoorl, ut hc same time.
"qt he m"s nqtyqiag cB, bnt woulds siay
hy the slip IN he last. At the same
time he or those in tho boat with him.
continued TO pull away in vl,at o,n.
sidcrol was the direction of the
land, and were in few minutes lost in
the fog. | now saw there was no pro.
liable chance for me but to remain
where was. on my frail little raft,
until ! could see Gunsc better chance
after or before the ship went down.
She had ow settled down to the
wheel houses. Thy upper iur, aces
had for some tiino been drowned out.
People on board were doing nothing
but firing. signal guns Of distress, try
ing To got sprs overheard, and tcar-
ing doors oil tho hinges. Nothing else
seemed 10 present itself as ~ means
Of saving the liY0s of somo three bun.
dred souls still on board. | have
crossed tho ATLANTIC nine times now,
and nearly every previous time have
had III charge one or more of my fam
ilY or ncar ralntiYcs hut now ihanl;