The miners' express. (Dubuque, Iowa) 1849-1854, 1854-01-25
LOSS OF THE STEAMER SAN FRAN
CiSCO-LlEUT WlNDER'S MAR.
RATIVE

AlSAO-JsiEOl. -
RATlvE
Ger New York exchanges, OF saturday, con-
tan very extended accounts of ibe late terrible
disaster which beiel the Steamer San Francisco
AT sea, partial rapor's OF which we have had ty
telegraph. We suhioin the narrative of Lieut..
Winder, being all we can find room tor tn day
We left New York on the 2lst OF December
with most favorable weather Oar voyage pro
missed to be an unusually rleasan. ON. Tor we
had ship whose QUALITIES were Of the first
order, commanded by officers thu ,.ost able
and geutemaniy.
Ahngt nine clock on the morning OF The
second day tremendous gale spTang up, winch
Increased 10 a hurricane, and about twelve o.
clock at right our engine gave out, and soon
alter foremost was carried away Inc
s;aIboafd wheei-house was smashed IN by Ire
mendous sea aud portion of The upper CABIN
was stove hal retired early TO my state ro1n
very sick, but the water coming into 1t freely,
l conc luded that 1t would be better to leave
My room vas situated upon the Gpp,r deck.
lett my room and went out into The upper ga :
hon The first thing that saw was fur or five
walters holding the doors OF the saloon TO pre-
vent their being burst open by the wind.
went down into the lower cabin and found a
group oil persons upon ma,rasses near the loot
OF the Stars TO keep themselves out OF The
water, which was washing about the cabin.
laid down upon one of the mattresses, aud held
on to the baEisters to keep myself from being
dashed about the saloon; soon fell asleep; h'w
long remained so cannot tell, but think u
was not long. 1t was near daylight whsG
was awakened by tremendous crash, followed
immediately by large budy oil water rlish'n.
in a food down the companion way. II fell up
on me, and swept me twice across the cabin aud
back again, with stunning violence. With DIES
perate effort succeeded in regaining my feet,
and saw sotcc persons climbing up the steps,
and followed them.
On reaching the deck the first sight which
met my eyes were the bodies of two men, who
had been killed by the crushing in Of the upper
cabin; crawled over one of the bodies and
managed to find my way across the deck, h"d.
ing OH to various parts Of the wreck; got To-
ward the stern, aud fell in with two or three
officers, and took glance at the aspect OF
affairs; never shall forget the narrowing spec
tacle--she presented the appearance Of total
wreck. was under the impression that she
was full of water, and had settled down 10 the
level Of the deck. The surface OF the water
tor a large space around was covered with the
debris Of the upper works, and HOLDING on TO
these, and struggling amid the wreck Of matter
were many men, suppose $50, attempting to
save the mselyes in the raging sea, by catching
at the broken limbers. The wind was blowing
perfect hurricane, and it was with the utmost
difficulty that held on and prevented myseii
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 around saw Lieut. Murray, standing
at the nizzen mast, and went an to him. !
held on there for while, until the hrst mate
came alt for the purpose of cutting It away, out
the sea and hurricane were too violent To aaH'h
OF his so doing. then retu. ned to the first Po-
sition ] occupied Here were three other Ohio
ers, one lady and chd-Major Wise, wife
and child, together with Lieuts. Chandler ana
Van Voost, and Drs. Sa,terlee and Writ. We
sat Eliminating on the prospect before US, ana
none of us had the slightest hope OF escape.
Al this time sever negro walters came along
with lie prescrvers, and soldier brought me
one; but the weather was 50 Intensely cold, II The
prospect that eur misery would only be unneces
ly prolonged seemed SO apparent, that we made
no use ofthem The sea was making breach ov'
er us at every roll& the exposure was SO bensm-
bling that we cast our eyes aboutsus tor shell 60
We discovered that there were many persons IN
the lower cabin, principally the ladies' OF the
officers; we went below, and afterward induced
Major Wise TO bring his wife and ch'ld elown
also, as the ship was not in sGch bad condition
rs we had anticipated. We found there some
of the ladies', together with number OF ofhc-
ers and children, collected at the after part OF
the saloon
The forward part Of the chain had been
crushed in by the force of the tremendous sra
already alluded to; at each roll of the large ship
bodies Of water entered the cabin al the crushed
in part Of the deck. We covered ourselves
with wet blankets, for We were nearly frozen,
few of us having on any other clothing bnt our
shirts and drawers-liere we remained the
greater part Of the day. surprising il would not
be long ere the vessel would sink. Sometime
during the evening Captain Watkins came int"
the cabin, aud requested that the officers would
all go out 10 bailing, and assist in keeping the
ship afoat. Two officers went out at time,
and set The men to baling ont the engine room;
az soon as one gang Of men become exhausted,
We set new relays 10 work, and thus kept up
the work ell night. But Notwithstanding our
strenuous endeavors, the water kept gaining on
US, the pumps having become checked The
bailing was kept up for several days and nights
during which time the evidence of the sea gra-
dually subsidized We then got the pumps TO
work, and succeeded in keeping the ship nearly
free from water. The captain and officers, by
extraordinary exertions, stopped some OF the
worst leaks around the guards, and at the end
Of the beam The decks were then temporarily
repaired, by planking, and mailing sail and oil
cloths over them. We kept reliefs Of three or
fur men with mattresses. at each end Of the
shaft, 10 prevent the water from coming in
there. About this time-for have no recoilec-
ton Of dates, as deemed our case hopeless,
and kept record of events-we wers cheered
by the prospect of getting the machinery in
working order. A temporary steering appara
tns was erected, and an attempt made to get the
ship under way. Up to this time she had been
rolling about lnastless and rudderless, a huge
log upon the ocean. After one or two revolu
tons Of. the wheels, the machinery gave out,
aud all further attempt was pronounced hope
less; thus were our hopes blasted, As nothing
further could be done than to keep the pumps
IN operation, we followed this up with the most
scrupulous assiduity for several days, when two
vessels hove in sight, and again lighted up our
gloomy prospects. One Of The ships, the Ma
leon, came alongside. We were then light
ening our ship as much as possible, by throwing
over provisions and heavy articles The Napo.
leon promised to stay by us, but after picking
up many provisions as she wanted, left US
during the night.
We found that the ship bid fair to keep afloat
and began TO take such measures for our person
al comfort the circumstances wouldhdmit of,
IN the way OF obtaining dry clothing and pro-
per food. Hope again began to dawn upon our
prospects, notwithstanding the extreme rough
ness Of the weather. The next visitor to cheer
US was the bark Kiiby, of Boston. Capt. Wat
kns went on board and made contract tor the
conveyance Of the passengers to the nearest
port; he then called for volunteers to stay by
him, he intended 10 make one more attempt
to save the ship. In ten minutes he had twen-
ty men, the number he required, who volun-
teered to stay by him and aid in the attempt.
We sent an officer and some twenty men on
board the kilby to throw over her cargo and
tighten her for the reception Of the tempest
ossed passengers. About 2 clock, P. NJ, we
comne ised transhpPng the ladies' and children
IN > all bnals, and BY night had about 100 men
women and children transferred to her, intend
ing 1, complete tie transhipment in the morn
ing. About 7 or ) Z. M. we were alarmed bv
the new dancer by FIRE we found the ship T.
be on FIRE near the cook 8 gallery; after some
considerable exertion we succeeded in extn-
gushing it. During the night heavy gale
sprung up, accompanied by the worst cross sea
we had been subjected to during the whole yoy.
aye Our vessel commenced leaking badly,
aud the gangs of hailers were set to work as
before /; our labor was much increased bv the
irving ont of the pumps We continued IN