The weekly Minnesotian., 1854-02-04

"a The San Francisco. &
The San francisco was an entirely new yes
cl, built by VIM. Fl. Webb for W. II. Aspinwall
I Co, proprietors Of the Pacific Mail Steamship
inc. Commodore kearney and Capt. Bell, OF
he Navy, were also concerned in the building |
Of the ship. She had fine model and was a very |
strong craft The spar and hurricane deck ran
The whole length of the vessel. She had
plain clipper bow, and was rigged with two
masts, carrying foresaii, fore-topsaii and jibs,
with smoke-ppes fore and aft. Her deck length |
was 2S5 feet keel. 2S0; beam, Al hold, 25
5000. She was donb}e-ironed, dag |
onally braced forward and aft, with plates let |
into the timber inside, running from bilge to
top. A large iron band .ran around the ship
upon the top of the timbers. directly under the
waterways, to which the diagonal plates were
rivctted. The plates were all bolted to the
tmbers and rivctted at each crossing. forming
a perfect truss-work the whole length of the
ship, keeping her from "hogging." In order
to give additional strength lcngthwise, two
bulkhcads were built fore and aft, Oh either
side of the engine and boilers, from the bottom
of the ship to the second deck, secured to the
kclsOns below and to beams and strlngers. and
under beams in both decks above. She was
further strengthened by letting into this bulk
head double iron diagonal braces, bolted to
staunches and kelsons at the bottom, and
stringers above under beams. She was plank
ed with oak five inches thick, bolted edgewise
and on face, copper fastened and coppered to
deep level line. She had two engines of 900
horse power each, both working upon the same
crank opposite each other. They were the
oscillating engine" and have been adopted
by Government, and will be used hereafter in
preference to the side lever,h as combining
greater strength less complications less liable
TO accident. and occupying less space. The
wheels were % feet in diameter, 10 feet face, 5
feet dip, and constructed upon q principle late
ly discovered in England, but never introduced
into this country. 1t is called :Morgan's Ec-
centric" or the feathcring foat," by which a
difficulty has, it is said, been overcome, long
considered impractcablc, on account of being
too complex for any practicable purposes. She
had statcrOcm accommodation for $50 cabin
passengers, and stccrage berths for 1000. The
upper deck was occupied exclusively by the Of
ficcrs of the ship. On the deck below were the
stcerage quarters. wafer closets. store-room,
barber's shop, kitchen, bakery, officers mess
ROOM enginc-room, bathroom, and ladies' ca
bin. The staterooms are very large, with two
doors, one opening into the cabin, the other out
upon a spacious walk on deck.
Loss Of the Steamer San Francisco-Lieu..
Winders Narrative.
| Our New York exchanges contain very eX-
| tcUUtu dCCOuut5 Vi tHc litS VII uisdStSi
which befel the steamer San Francisco. We
subjoin the narrative of Lieut.. Windcr. He
was rescued, it will be seen, by the Three Bells.
The kilby arrived at Boston after much suffer-
ing among those rescued and brought off the
wreck by her -
| We left New York on the 2lst of December
with most favorable weather. Our voyage pro-
! nj, r., la N " for 70
had a ship whose qualities were of the first Or
der commanded by officers the most able and
| gcntlcmany.
| About nine click ON the morning of the Sc
cond day, tremendous gale sprang up, which
increased to hurricane, and about twelve
o'clock at night our engine gave out, and soon
after our foremost was carried away. The star
! board wheel house was smashed i'll by tre-
mcndons sea and portion of the upper cabin
was stove. had retired early to my state
room, very sick, but the water cominng into it
freely, CONCLUDED that it would be better to
leave. My room was situated upon the upper
deck. left my room and went out into the
upper saloon. The first thing that [ saw was
four or five walters holding the doors Of the sa-
loon, to prevent their being burst open by the
wind. | went down into the lower cabin and
! found a group OF persons sitting upon matiras
scS near the foot of the stains, to keep them
selves out Of the water, which was washing
about the cabin. | laid down upon one of the
mattresses. and held on to the banistcrs to keel
myself from being dashed about the saloon :
soon fell asleep: how long remained SO can
rot tell, but think it was not long. 1t wa!
near daylight when | was awakened by a tire
mendous crash. followed Immediately by iarg
body Of water rushing in flood down the com
panion way. 1t fell upon me and swept M
twice across the cabin and back again. witt
stunning violence. With desperate effort
succeeded in regaining my feet, and saw som
persons climbing up the steps, and FOLLOWED
them.
On reaching the deck the first sight that NE
my eyes were the bodies of two men. who ha
been killed by the crushing in ofthc upper ca
bin | craWlcd over one of the bodies and man
aged TO find my way across the deck holding o
to various parts of the wreck / got toward th
stcrn. and fell in with two or three officers. an
took glance at the aspect of affairs: ncvt
shall forget the narrowing spcctacle-she pre-
. scnted the appearance of total wreck. | va
under the impression that she was full Of wate
f and had settled down to the level of the dccl
The surface OF the water for large spac
, around was covered with the debris of the VI
per works. and holding on TO these, and strus
, Cling with the wreck of matter, were many.
suppose l30, attempting to save themselves
the raging sea, by catching at the broken tin
bers. The wind was blowing perfect hurr
cane, and it was with the utmost difficulty tha
held on and prevented myself from bein
blown overheard. Not sound was heard frol
the drowning men, as they strcyc with all tn
energy of despair, to save themselves. Ther
they were, $50 human beings, beyond the po:
sibility OF human succor. and soon the last on
sank to rise no more. On looking around | say
, Lieut.. Murray, of the Navy, standing at tn
, mizzen mast. and went aft TO him. | held 0
!, there for a while, until the first mate came al
r for the purpose of cutting it away, but the sc
and hurricane were too violent to admit of hi
, so doing. l then returned to the first positio
, occupied. Here were three other officers, on
, lady and child--Major Wise, wife and child
together with Licuts. Chandler and Van Voost
and Drs. Sattcrlec and Writ. We sat ruminat
ing on the prospect before us, and none OF II
had the slightest hope of escape. At this tim'
several negro walters came along with life pre-
f servers, and n soldier brought me one but TIL
weather was so intensely cold. and the prospec
/ that mispru would only 20 uDnpcrcSaril-