Gallipolis journal. [volume] (Gallipolis, Ohio) 1837-1919, 1854-01-26

EThe following narrative of Lieut..
WINDER, who was on board the ill-fated
steamer San Francisco, when she foun-
dered, we clip from the New York Tri-
bune:
NARRATIVE OF LIEUT.. WINDER.
We left New York on the 91st De-
cember with most favorable weather.
Our voyage promised to be an unusual
" pleasant one, for we had a ship whose
qualities were of the first order, COM
manded by officers the most able and
gentlemanly.
About nine o'clock on the morning OF
the second day tremendous gale sprung
up, which increased to hurricane, and
about twelve o'clock our engines gave
out, and soon after our foremast was
carried away. The starbosrd wheel
house was smashed in by tremendous
sea, and a portion of the upper cabin
was stove. / had retired early to my
state-room very sick, but the water COM
ing into it freely, 1 concluded it would
be better to leave. Ny room was stu
ated upon the upper deck. left my
room and went out into the upper sa-
loon. The first thing l saw was four
or FIVE walters holding the doors of the
saloon to prevent their being blown open
by the wind. went down into the To-
wer cabin and found group of persons
sitting upon mattresses near the foot OF
the stairs, to keep themselves out of the
water, which was washing about the ca
bin. laid down upon one of these
mattresses, and held on to the bannis-
ters to keep myself from being dashed
about the saloon; l soon fell asleep; how
long remained so l cannot tell, but l
think it was not long. 1t was near day
light when l was awakened by a tre-
mendous crash, followed Immediately
by large body of water rushing in a
flood down the companion way. 1t fell
upon me, and swept me twice across the
cabin and back again, with stunning vi
olence. With DESPERATE effort succee-
ded in regaining my feet, and saw some
persons climbing up the steps and fol-
lowed them. On reaching the deck the
first sight that met my eyes were the
bodies of two men, who had been killed
by the crushing in of the upper cabin;
l crawled over one of the bodies and
managed TO find my way across the
deck, holding on to various parts of the
wreck; 1 got toward the stern, and fell
in with two or three officers, and took
glance at the aspect of affairs; never
shall forget the narrowing spectacle
she presented the appearance of total
wreck. I was under the impression that
she was full of water, and had settled
down to the level of the deck. The
surface of the water for large space
around was covered with the debris of
the upper works, ,and holding on to these,
and struggling amid the wreck of mat
ter, were many men, suppose $50, at
tempting to save themselves amid the
raging sea, by catching at the broken
timbers. The wind was blowing per-
feet hurricane, and it was with the ut
most difficulty that l held on and pre-
vented myself from being blown over
board. Not a sound was heard from
the drowning men, as they strove, with
all the energy of despair, to save them
selves. There they were, $50 human
beings, beyond the possibility of human
succor, and soon the last one sunk to
rise no more. On looking round l saw
Lieut.. Murray, of the Navy, standing
at the mizzen mast, and went aft to him.
l held on there for a while, until the |
first mate came aft for the purpose of
cutting it away, but the sea and hurri- |
cane were too violent to admit of his so
doing. / then returned to the first posi- |
ton I occupied. Here were three other
one lady and a child-Major |
Wilson, wife and child, together with
Lieuts. Chandler and Van Voost, and
Drs. Satterlee and Writ. We sat ru-
on the prospects before us, and
none of us had the slightest hope of es-
cape. At this time, several negro wal
ters came along with life preservers, and
a soldier brought me one; but the wea-
ther was so intensely cold, and the pros
pect that our misery would only be un-
necessarily prolonged, seemed SO appa-
rent, that we made no use of them. The
sea was making breach over US at ev
cry roll, and the exposure was so be-
numbing that we cast about us for shell
Ter. -.-- r...-.... .
We discovered that there were many
persons in the lower cabin, principally
The ladies of the officers; we went be-
low, and afterward induced Major Wise
to bring his wife. and child down also,
as the ship was not in such bad condi-
lion as we had anticipated. We found
there some of the ladies, together with
a. number of officers and children col
Iected at the after part Of the saloon.
The forward part of the cabin had been
crushed in by the tremendous sea al
ready alluded to; at each roll Of the
'bip large bodies of water entered the
,abin at the crushed in part of the deck.
We covered ourselves with wet blankets
or we were nearly frozen, few of us
having on any other clothing than our
ihirts and drawers. Here-we remained
he greater part of the day, supposing j
t would not be long ere the vessel
uor,l1 s;,L Co,,af;r,o durinu the avan. Z