Des Moines courier. ([Ottumwa] Iowa) 1848-1854, 1854-05-04
From the Chicago Tribune of the oath.
AWFUL SHRPWRECKS

haitian, on Long Bedch-250 LireS
Lost-Oniy one person saUed from
The f,oo Urecks-Ierribie Suffering
on the Po,chatan.
We have received the full particulars
Of the loss of the a ove vessels on Long
Beach, on the night of the 18th of April
brief Geographic accounts of which we
have received here Several days ago.
The details of the Powhatan are even
! more terrible than the loss of the Mex.
leo and Bristol, Is years ago.
The storm which was felt here or
Friday, and which ragged during The
three successive days, is represented as
/ having been Unprecedented in its vio
lence on the Atlantic COST. Its entire
rage was wreaked upon the ship Pow.
hatan, an old versel of 600 tons, which
on Saturday night, after running before
the gale for some hours, under bare
poles, found herself at last irretrievabIy
entangled in the shoals about twelve
miles below Barnegai inlet.
/ The ship. laden with passengers, left
Havre for New York on the LIST OF
March last, under the command of Capt.
Meyers, Of Baltimore. She was driven
among the shoals at the place we ha We
mentioned above, and remained there
1 until Sunday evening at O'Clock before
she went. TO pieces. 1t was observed
by the anxious eye-witnesses on shore
that directly she struck "haued to the
| wino," from which circumstance it was
impossible for any of her passengers to
leave without certain death being the
result. They trusted that the storm
which had now lasted so long, mus,
soon abate. During the long night OF
Saturday and the whole OF Sunday, the
unfor,unates-it is supposed some two
hundred and fifty in number-were seen
clinging to the leeward bnlwarks Of the
ship, with the sea continually washing
over them, and expecting death at the
rise of every succeeding wave. No
assistance could be Offered TO them, for
the sea then ran SO high that boat OF
any had been at hand,) would have been
INSTANTLY swamped.
Between four and five o'clock on
Sunday afternoon the ships bulwarks
burst, and about so persons, at the same
momcnt, were washed overheard. Mr..
jennings, the wreck master, with others,
made great efforts to save those who
were in the water, but in vain. The
captain, too, was heard to cry from The
ship. "For Gods sake, save some of
those who are drowning Every exer.
.ion was made, but i, was Of no use; and
in all of the six bodies which the wreck
master succeeded in rescuing from the
water life was extinct.
1t was Immediately after this that the
ship commenced going to pieces in
earnest No small boats were to be
procured, for the government boats did
not arrive until all was over. About 5
O'Clock the vessel was completely broken
up. most OF her passengers and crew
were drowned, but n few still survived,
clinging 10 pieces of the wreck The
shrieks Of the diving rose even above
The roaring of the storm, which seemed
to be increasing rather han subsiding, in
fury. Ii was at this moment that huge
wave was noticed rolling inwards--,he
dead and the dying were alike engulphed
within it--and when il had passed over
them, there was not one left alive OF
those passengers and crew of the Inflated
Powhatan, who numbered two hundred
and fifty souls that same morning! A
singular fac, connected with this is that
even the ship itself was splintered into
minute fragments, SO that scarcely a
trace OF her existence remained with the
exception of a few pieces of the rigging
that were washed ashore. She was
probably laden with heavy ballast, for
her hull is supposed to have sunk or else
some portion of it must have been
discovered.
More distressing even than such a
sight as thus to those on shore, was the
sight Of the beach The next morning.
The storm had increased during the
night, and tile waves cast up their dead
far and near. Twenty-sIx men and two
women were discovered near the scene
of the shipwreck, and from Absecom-
some 20 miles below-we learn thai
ahou. forty bodies of men, women and
children-had been washed ashore on
tina, and on Brigan,ine Beach, about a
quarter of mile across the channel.
/ About seven o'clock the ship masts
went bv the board and almost immediate
Iy afterwards the hull 5ursted in two
: and every sou! on board was launched
into eternity. The sea presented a
black mass OF human heads and float
ing pieces of wreck, but in a few
moments all had sunk is rise no more
The beach was s,rewn with the dead
bodias of men, woman and children
pieces of The wreck. the baggage of the
passengers, and empty casks. Nothing
remained TO mark the spot where the
ill-faied ship had wen, down, except the
surging waves beating upon fragment
of the hull which lay upon the beach.
! The crying of the drowning men and
the shrieking Of the women and children
were hnshed-all lay in the deep mum
bered with the dead while the wind
walled loud and mournfully, adding still
more horror to the awful catastrophe
ALI had sunk-captain, officers, crew
and passengers, of two hundred and
] flty persons-uOk q soul aDas LETT To