Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1854-10-12


The melancholy intelligence of the loss of
the steamer Arctic, with nearly all on board,
was forwarded to us by telegraph, from New
York, yesterday morning, and in twenty min
utes the public were in possession of the de-
tails of this heart-rending calamity, through
an extra issued from this office. The news
created a profound sensation of sadness in this
city, heightened by the fact that one of our
own townsmen, F. w. Gale, Esq, with his
family, consisting of wife, child, and nurse,
were on board. The steamer was lost by col
lision, during dense fog in the daytime, with
a British propeller constructed of iron, sup
posed to be the Cleopatra, from Quebec, and
having on board the fist regiment of Scottish
Highlanders, numbering with her officers and
crew, about six hundred souls. Though
nothing certain is known as to the fate of the
propeller, every presumption seems to favor
the supposition that she too has sunk with all
on board.
This sad catastrophe, one of the most ap-
palling in the annals of shipwreck, will bring
sadness and sorrow to the bosoms of many
families, both in our own country and in the
old fatherland. The suddenness of the disas-
ter, while it does not aggravate its effects,
adds to the poignancy of feeling with which
we receive its dreadful details. Here were
over one thousand men, women, and children,
in the fullness of exuberant health and spirits,
flushed with hope and the promise of soon
meeting loved relatives and friends within the
sacred precincts of home, bounding over the
blue waters in the pride and power of mighty
ship, cleaving the mist that hung like an en-
vious curtain over their track, laughing at the
winds, and Gliding the tardy flight of time;
suddenly struck by the bolt of death, and
hurled, with horror stricken faces and screams
of agony, to grave below the sea. We who
live to listen to this sad shIpwreck, and to re-
feet upon the incidents which took place con-
nected with it, can never realize the tender
ness, the love, the manly courage, the wo-
manly devotion which were compressed into
the half hour of life in death, during which it
lasted. Fair women, brave men, and inDo-
cent children went down with the sinking
ohiPoS anu etO SACue, OoAu-uSdltSu std ClOneu
over them in solemn, sulen silence.
God, in his abundant goodness, does not
permit any event to take place, that has not,
mingled with its most abundant griefs, some
source of consolation i'll it. Even as we thrill
with horror while picturing to ourselves the
horrors of the shipwreck, the image of the
brave, devoted man who commanded the Arc
tic, rises up before us to claim the tribute of
our fearful admiration for his self sacrificing
devotion to duty. And he was not alone, we
may be sure, in possessing this sublimity of
courage this martyr-spirit of resignation
There were husbands and fathers there, who
might have left their wives and children, and
found passage to the future lonesome world
of life, in the boats and mothers also. who
might have deserted their babes; but, bound
to each other by the strong attraction of love,
and refusing to live alone, they chung together
in that hour of mortal agony, and went down
in each others arms, with Gods smile in
their hearts. We forget the sinking ships,
and the struggles of the perishing voyagers,
when we think of them as they persisted in
the light of immortal love. May God temper
this sad calamity to those who weep for friends
departed "Alas for love, if life were all, and
nought beyond the grave p