Fremont journal. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County [Ohio]) 1853-1866, 1854-11-24
Incidents 81 the Loss OF the New
ErH,

This fne new ship. in the New York and
Bremen emigrant trade. our readers have
been panied TO learn, was lost OH Monday
night BY Bleaching on Long Island and OF
or too hundred and sixty persons perished.
The New York papers now come to US
with all the heart.rending details, from
which we learn that there is evidence Of the
most criminal negligence on the part Of the
officers and crew of the vessel, and that
owing entirely 10 want Of watchfulness,
the vessel was beached and lost The
Tribune says:-
at would seem that few hours before
this event occurred the weather was fine.
as fine indeed as any experienced in the
course Of voyage across the Atlantic, ex-
tending over period Of forty days
The ship was new it was her first voyage;
and we have heard no complaint Of her or
dinary crew being in any way Inefficient
There was little or no fog, and the vessel
was in the neighborhood of a coast where
the soundings alone will show almost the
precise position Of ship during the dark
est nights Of winter And yet this vessel.
freighted with living cargo of427 human
beings lies total wreck on the shore, and
although some 260 lives are lost there is no
bar where the guilty ones-lf guilty ones
there be-can be punished; no tribunal
save that of public opinion from which those
mangled bodies can claim retribution."
This is most emphatic condemnation,
but seems warranted from all fscts whish
have thus far come to light. The rescued
all testify to the same charge ofnegligence
on the part of officers and there seems no
doubt but that this awful destruction oflife
was useless and could have been avoided.
Some of the incidents are SO hesrt-fend-
ing as to compel the reader to tears. The
reporter Of the Tribune, who proceeded 10
the spot, tells this tale:--
Watching an opportunity, as a spent
wave receded, We Ieaped into the mizen
rigging. Such spectacle as the decks of
the New Era then presented we hope new
er to be called to witness again. The fore.
castle was beaten in, and the top Of the
poop. cabin on the lar6osrd side had large
hole in it that the waves had made. The
deck had been swept of everything. The
frames of the bulwarks stood above the
waves, like the feshless rios of a leviathan,
while protruding through them were the
bodies of men, women and children, all OF
them naked, or but partially covered with
the clothes they had on when asleep in
their berths. But the most awful sight of
all was directly below our feet. There, be-
tween the side Of the poop-cabin and the
mizen chains, about score OF corpses, all
stark, stiff and cold, lay in every conceiva-
BILE attitude of agony, manned, crushed and
bruised. with eyes washed from their sock
etc, and teeth set like yises. and every fea-
ture fearfully convulsed; there, promiscu-
ously heaped together, were old men whose
race had nearly run young maidens, just
blooming into womanhood. and babes whose
lives were measured but by weeks. Efe-
ry age and sex had its representative here,
and told in ghasty types how much hu-
manly may suffer. The blood had frozen
into blackness beneath their fnger-nails.
and with the halfclnched hand, showed
how strong had been the grip on the rig
ging-how long and fierce the strife for
life "a contest in which they did not yield
until the bleak blast had frozen their hearts
blood, and their unconscious hands had
loosened their grasp, when their lives went
out into the dark night Swallowed up be-
meath the seething waves that burst madly
over the ship"
What "a terrible record is this Will such
horrors ever cease? 1t makes us shudder
to think upon the sea, so rife has i becoms
OF death, and we begin to think there mus
be some judgement Of Heaven let loose up
on man that so many of the race should
thus be hurried into ocean graves.--Sdn
; dusky Register