Washington telegraph., 1854-02-22
Loss of the San Francisco.


which we find in the New York Tribune
No disaster has, for long time. excited so
much interest as this dreadful one, or crea-
ted such wide spread anxiety.
NARRATIVE OF LIEUT.. wINDER.
We are indebted for the following narra-
five of the occurrence on board the San
Francisco, to Lieut. Winder, Company G.
Lieut. Winder, was one Of the rescued pas
sengers who arrived yesterday on board the
iron ship Three Bells. Captain Creighton.
The account given by Lieut. Winder is as
follows:
We left New York on the 21st of De-
cember with most favorable weather Our
voyage promised to be an unusually pleas
ant one, for we had ship whose qualities
were of the first order, commanded by Off
GERS the most able and gentlemanly.
About 9 o'clock on the morning of the
second day tremendous gale sprang up,
which increased to hurricane and about
twelve o'clock at night our engines gave
out, and soon after our foremast was carried
away. The star-board wheel-house was
smashed in by a tremendous sea and por-
ton of the upper cabin was stove. l had
retired early to my state room very sick but
the water coming in 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 saw was four or FIVE wait
ers holding the doors of the saloon to pre-
vent their being burst open by the wind
Invent down into the lower cabin and found
group of persons sitting upon mattresses
near the foot of the stairs to keep themselves
the cabin l laid down upon one of the
mattresses. and held on to the banisters to
keep myself from being dashed about the
saloon; soon fell asleep, how long | re-
manned so cannot tell. but | think it was
not long 1t was near daylight when | was
awakened by tremendous crash, followed
Immediately By large body of water rush
ing IN flood down the companion way
1t fell upon me, and swept me twice across
the cabin and back again, with stunning vo-
lence With desperate effort | succeeded
in regaining my feet, and saw some persons
climbing up the steps and followed them
On reaching the deck the first sight which
met my eyes were the bodies Of Two men
who had been killed by the crushing in of
the upper cabin; | crawled over one of the
bodies and managed to find my way across
the deck, holding to various parts of the
wreck; got toward the stern and fell in with
two or three other officers, and took a glance
at the aspect of affairs; never shall | forget
the narrowing spectacle, she presented the
appearance of total wreck. | was under
the impression that she was full of water
and had settled down to the level of the
deck.
The surface of the water for a large space
around was covered with the debris of the
upper works, and holding on to these, and
struggling amidst the wreck of matter, were
many men, suppose $50. attempting to
save themselves in the raging sea, by catch
ing at the broken timbers. The wind was
blowing perfect hurricane. ana 1t was with
the utmost difficulty that held on and pre-
vented myself from being blown overheard.
Not sound was heard from the drowning
men, as they strove with all the: energy OF
despair, to save themselves There they
were, $50 human beings, beyond the posi-
bity of human succor and soon the last one
sunk to rise no more. On looking around,
saw Lieut.. Maury. of the Navy, standing
at the mzzan mast, and went aft to him
l helJ on there while, until the first mate
came aft for the purpose of cutting it away,
but the sea and hurricane were too violent
to admit of his so doing. 1 then returned
to the first position occupied. Here were
three other officers, a lady and a child. Ma
jor Wise. wife and child, together with Its
Chandler and Van Voost. and Drs. Satter
lee and Writ We sat Illuminating on the
prospect before US, and none of us had the
slightest hope of escape At this time sew
eral negro walters came along with life pre-
servers and soldier brought me one ; but
the weather was so intensely cold. and the
prospect that ou- misery would only be un-
necessarily prolonged seemed so apparent,
that we made no use of them. The sea
was making breach over us at every roll.
and the exposure was SO bcnumbing that we
cast about us for shelter We discovered
that there were many persons in the lower
cabin, principally the ladies of the officers
we went below, and afterwards induced Ma
jor Wise to bring his wife and child below
also, as the ship was not in so bad condi-
tion as we had anticipated. We found
there some of the ladies. together with a
number of officers and children, collected
at the after part of the saloon. The for
ward part of the cabin had been crushed in
by the force of the tremendous sea 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 bankotss for we were
nearly frozen. few of MS having on any 9th
er clothing but our shirts and drawers.
Here we remained greater part Of the
day, supposing it would not be long ere the