The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1854-10-19

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and candid have not written q word that I
90 not honestly believe. have not attempted
Dy iaise coloring to mislead my friends, but have
stated the truth, that they may know that Kan
sas peculiarly fitted for slave labor-was in
.enoeo LOT slave State, and will be so unless
the South sleeps On its rights, and neelects it's
outy. Your afectionate brother,
ED. M. DoBsoN.
REsCuk OF CAPT. LUCE, AND HIS ACCOUNT OF
THE Loss OF THE STEAMER ARCTIC.
Since the issue of our last paper, the gratif,-
ing ineeingence has been received of the res
cue Oh capt. Luce, the noble commander of the
unior.unaso steamer Arctic, together with sew
erai OF her passengers and crew. bv the shin
Cambria, which arrived at Quebec on Fridav
night The persons thus saved from death
wore picked up at sea, upon RATS and frag.
men's Oh the ship, On the second day after the
disaster Their names are:
): =. Luce, late captain Of the Arctic: Geo.
+. Allen, of New York Jas Smith. of Miss;s.
sippi; and Frederick May, all passengers ON
the Arctic; and J. A. Govet Francois of the
Vesta. Also, the following firemen. belonging
to the Arctic: Patrick Moran, Alex. Grant
Michael Russell, John Riley, and John Pattcr
son.
| NoP'' Luce las Iorwaroeo 20 Mr.. Collins by
telegraph, from Quebec, q statement of the
| incidents OF the wreck, and of his own suffer-
ings and rescue, of which the following is the
substance
AT the time of the unfortunate collision I
was below, working out the position of the
steamer. | Immediately ran on deck, and saw
the iron steamer under the starboard bow. and
passing astern, grazing and tearing the guards
In her progress. The bows of the strange YES.
sci seemed to be literally cut or crushed off
for ten feet, and seeing that she must probably
sink in ten minutes, and taking glance at
our own ship, and believing that we were COM
paratively uninjured, the boats were cleared
and the first officer and six men left with
boat to board the stranger, and ascertain the
extent of her damage.
The engineers were Immediately instructed
to put on the steam pumps and the four deck
pumps were worked by the passengers and
crew. The ship was at once headed for land,
and several Intellectual attempts were made to
stop the leak by getting sails over the bows.
Finding that the leak was gaining on them
very FAST notwithstanding the very powerful
efforts made to keep the ship free, resolved to
| get the boats ready, and have as many ladies
and children placed in them as possible. No
sooner, however, had an attempt been made to
do this, than the fremen and others rushed
into the boats in spite of all opposition. See
ing this state of things, | ordered the boats
astern to be kept in readiness until order could
be restored, when, to my dismay saw them
cut the rope in the bow, and soon disappear
astern in the fog.
Another boat was broken down by persons
rushing in at the davits, and many were pre-
cipitated into che sea and drowned. This &C.
CURED while | had been engaged in getting
| tha ako hoo IL II hoo H.
the second officer in charge, when the same
scene was enacted as with the first boat
then gave orders to the second officer to let 20
and tow after the ship, keeping near the stern,
to be ready to take the women and children
as soon as the fires were out and the engine
should stop.
| My attention was then drawn to the quar-
| ter-boat, which found broken down, but hang
| ing by one tackle. rush was made for her
also and some fifteen got in and cut the tackle,
and were soon out of sight. Not q seaman was
left on board, or a carpenter, and we were
without tools to assist us in building raft as
our only hope; and the only officer left us was
MIR. Dorian, the third mate, who worked nobly
| for the success of all.
| Many of the passengers, who deserve great
praise for their GOODNESS and energy, did all in
their power until the latest moment before the
ship sunk. Mr. Rogers, the chief engineer,
with part of his assistants, had taken one of
the small deck boats, and before the ship went
down pulled away with about eighteen persons
To form raft, it became necessary to get
the only remaining boat IA ife-boat) into the
water. This being accomplished, Mr. Dorian,
the chief officer of the boat, taking care to keep
the oars on board the steamer to prevent those
in the boat from leaving the ship proceeded
to work, still hoping to be able to get the wom-
en- and children on board his beat at last
They had made considerable progress in col
lecting spars, when the alarm was given that
the ship was sinking, and the boat was showed
off without oars or anything to hold themselves
In an instant after, at about a quarter past
five P. M, the ship went down, carrying every
soul on board with her. | soon found myself
on the surface, after brief struggle, with my
own helpless child In my arms; then | again
found myself impelled downward to great
depth, and before reached the surface sec
ond time, had nearly persisted, and lost the
hold of my child, as struggled upwards.
When got upon the surface of the water,
the most awful and heart-rending scene pre-
sented itself to my view. Over two hundred
| men, women, and children, were struggling
! together amid pieces of the wreck, calling upon
each other for help, and imploring God to as
sist them. Such an appalling scene may God
Amid this struggling mass of human beings
discovered my child, and was in the act of
trying to save him. when portion of the pad
die box came rushing up edgewards, just gra-
zing my head, and falling with its whole
weight upon the head of my darling child.
then succeeded in getting on the top of
the paddle box in company with eleven others.
One, however, soon left for another piece, and
others remained until relieved by death. We
stood in water up to our knees, the sea fire.
qusntly breaking over us. We separated from
our friends of the wreck, and passed the night,
each expecting every hour to be bis last.
The morning came, but not living soul
could be seen but our own party consisting of
seven men. About noon, Mr.. S. M. Woodruff,
of New York, was relieved by death, and all
the others now began to suffer severely from
the want of water, except George F. Allen and
myself
Night at last came on, thick and dreary,
with our minds made up that neither of US
would see the light of another day. Very soon,
three more of our suffering party were relieved
by death, and Mr.. Allen, young man, and
myself, were all that were now left, and we
were much exhausted. We slept for while
during the night and became samewhat re-
freshed.
About an hour before daylight on Friday,
the 29th, we saw q vessels light near u.s. We
all exerted ourselves to the utmost of our abil-
tiles in hailing, but the light disappeared to
the eastward of us. Soon after daylight
barque hove in sight to the northwest. The
fog having Iightened little, we observed that
she was steering apparently for US, but in
short time she appeared to have changed her