Lynchburg daily Virginian. [volume] (Lynchburg [Va.]) 1852-1861, 1854-01-18
Wreck of The San Francisco.
THRILLING NARRATIN /
STATEMENT OF LIEUT. wTNDER

with most favorable weather. Our voyage prom
| ised 10 be an unusually pleasant one,for we bad
ship whose qualities of the first order com
| manded by officers the most able and gentleman
ly.
ond day tremendous gale sprang up, when IN
! creased to a hurricane aud about twelve O'Clock
at night our engines gave OF and soon after our
| foremost was carried away The starboard wheel
house wns smashed in BY tremendous sea and
portion of the upper cabin was stoAe' haa
retired early TO my state room very SICK, Dur the
water coming into it freely, concluded mat
| il would he better TO leave. Ny room was
| situated upon the upper deck. | left my
| room and went out into the upper saloon.
| The first thing | saw four or hive walt
| rrs holding the doors of the saloon Ia prevent
| their being burst open by the wind. ! went down
into the lower cabin and found group of persons
sitting upon mattresses the foot OF the stairs
To- keep themselves out of the water, which was
washing about the cabin laid down upon one
of the mattresses aud held on Ia the bannsters
to keep myself from being dashed about the sa-
loon | soon fell asleep. how long remained 81
| cannot tell, hut think IL was not long. II was
near daylight when was aroused by tremen-
dons ernsh.followed Immediately by large body
of water rushing in "A flood Down the companion
way II fell upon me, aud swept me twice across
the cabin and back again with stunning violence.
my feet, and saw some persons climbing up the
steps aud followed them On reaching the deck
the first sight which met my eyes were the bod
les of two men, who had been kllledby the crush
ing in of the upper cabin | crawled over one
# the bodies and managed to find my way across
the deck, holding on To various parts OF the wreck
| got TO the sternand fell IN with two or more Of
feers and took glance al the aspect of affairs
never shnll forget the narrowing speetacls--she
presented the appearance of total wreck.
was under the impression TINT she full of
water. and had settled down 10 the level OF the
deck. The surface of the water for largo
space around was covered with the debris OF the
upper works, aud holding on te these, aud strug-
ling nmid the wreck OF matter were 100 men, !
suppose, attempting to save Themselves III tie
raging sea, 10y catching at the broken timhers
The wind was blowing perfect hurricane, aud
il was with the utmost difficulty that | held on
4 prevented 'nyself from being blown overheard
Not Il soldd was heard from the drowing men.as
they stro,e. With III tbe energy Of despair, to
save themsehe There thry were, lle human
beings, hcfoad tn possibility OF human suteor
and soon the last o.c sank IL rise no more. On
looking around saw Lieut.. Murray, OF the Navy,
standing at the mizzen mast and went aft to him
held on there for while: when the FIRST mate
came att for the purpose of cutting it away but
the sea md hurricane were too violent to admit
OF his so doing. then returned to the first po-
stion occupied. Here were three ether officers,
one Indy aud a child-Ani. Wse,wte and child,
tog thor with Licuts Chandler and Van Noost.
and Drs. Satterlce aud Writ. We sat rumina-
ting on the prospect before us, and none oi Us
had the slightest hope of escape. Al this time
several negro walters came along with life pre-
servers, and soldier brought me one, but the
weather was 80 intensity cold, aud the prospect
that our misery would only be unnecessarily lro-
longed seemed so apparent, TINT we made no use
of them. The sea was making breach over Us
at every roll, and the exposure was 50 benumhing
that we cast about Us for shelter. We discover
ed that there were many persons in the lower
cabin principally the ladies of the officers
went below, and afterwards induced Major Wise
TO bring his wife and children down also, as the
ship was not IN such bad condition ms we had
anticipated. We found there some of The Indies,
together with number of officers and children,
collected at the utter part of the saloon.
The forward part of the cabin had been crash.
ed III by the force of the tremendous already
alluded to, at each roll of the ship large bodies
of water entered the cabin at 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 but our shirts and
drawers, Here we remained the greater art of
the day, surprising ii would not bp long ere tie
vessel would sink, Sometime during the even
ing Capt. Watkins came into the cabin. and
qursted that the officers would go ont to bailing,
and assist in keeping he ship afloat Two off
GERS went out ut time, and set the men To bail
ing out the engine room; as soon as one gang of
men became exhausted we set new relays to work
and thus kept up the work all night But not
wlthstanding our strenuous endeaNoIs, the wa
ter kept gaining ON US the pumps having be-
come choked. The bailing was kept up for soy
eral days and nights during which time the sio-
lence of the gradually subsidized. We then
| ha "a, Nd .,1t hon,
the ship nearly free from water. The captain
and officers, by extraordinary cxertons, stopped
some of the worst leaks around the guards, aud
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 four men with mattresses at each end
of the shaft to prevent the water from coming
in there. About this timc-for have no recol-
lection of duties, as deemed our case hopeless
and kept no record of eyents--we were chcercd
! by the prospect ot getting the machinery in wor-
! king order. temporary steering apparatus
was erect ID, and an attempt made to get the ship
under way. Up to this time she had been rolling
about mastlcss and rudderless. huge log upon
the ocean After one or two revolutions of the
wheels, the machinery gave out and all further
attempt was pronounced hopeless; thus were
our hopes blasted. As nothing further could be
done than to keep the pumps III operation, VT
followed this up with the most scrupulous assid-
uity for several days. when two vessels hove in
sight, and again lighted up or gloomy prospects.
One of the ships, the Napoleon, came along side
We were then lighting our ship as much as pos
sible, by throwing over provisions and heavy ar
ticles. The Napoleon promised to stay by us.
but after picking up as many provisions as She
wanted, left us during the night
We found that the ship bid fair to keep ailoat
and began to take such measures for our person
al comfort as the circumstances would ermit
in the way of obtaining dry clothing and proper