The true Democrat., 1856-02-12

bailing out the boat, which was full of water
 using for that purpose five buckets which were
 fortunately in the boat. After I jumped. one
 and another jumped, the mates first, and then five seamcn, making eleven persons in the boat
 in all. The captain stood on the poop watch ing us, and the mate said to him, Are you
 coming with us. sir ?" He made no reply save
 by shake of his head. The mate then said.
 no else of you are coming, boys ?" Cur
 case seemed almost as hopeless as theirs, and
 no reply was made; the mate then said to us,
 Cast oil the rope, boys" aud we cast loose
 from the ship
 To go back. When I went into the cabin to
 get something to eat, 1 saw the passengers hud
 dled together with blankets and bed rugs wrap
 ped around them; they all seemed very calm,
 but nobody spoke. The newly married couple
 were sitting together locked in each others
 arms. Not one of them made the slightest ef-
 fort to get into the boat. Indeed, 1t seemed as
 though all hope of life had been abandoned | When we put off from the ship she was going
 down fast head foremost, and only little of the after part of the poop-deck was visible
 above the water; there the captain and carpen- ter, with the remainder of the crew, were gath cred and were watching us. In about ten min utes after, the St. Dennis sank beneath the waves, and saw her foreroyal-truck gradually disappear from sight; then some eight or nine people might be seen floating about in the Whirlpool that marked the spot where she had disappeared, cIinging to the fragments of wood which tlOated around; to render assistance was out of our power l said to the mate: " look there,' but he replied q cannot, my heart is too full for the loss of the captain."- believe the mate and captain sailed together many years, and were very dear friends The ! mate said he had cndeavored to persuade him | all that he knew how, to leave the ship, but without avail
 We were now alone on the open sea, at the ! edge of the Gulf Stream, about 200 miles to the | southeast of Sandy Hook, eleven men in bro- 1 ken boat, without chart compass, and desti- 1 ute of water or any provisions, save single | barrel of bread. Our frail vessel was at the | mercy of the gale, which still ragged with great fury, and threatened to overwhelm us every minute Our first stepwas to construct dredge This was composed of two boat oars, with some pieces of wooden grating and other stuff We made these materials as fast together as possi- ble, and running a rope through it, threw it over our bows, aId let 1t drag at the end of ten fathoms of rope This rope was secured at the boat, and kept her head to the sea, breaking the force of the waves. By this means we were enabled to ride out the storm in safety About two hours after we left the ship heavy sea struck us, half filling the boat, and carrying one of our oars overheard.
 We thought that it was all up with us then Our mate sung out It's all right, boys; all is we'll" We drifted along another hour and half, when we shipped another, losing a second oar, leaving only one oar in the boat. We lash ed the last oar so that it could not be wash ed off. The wind then began to moderate very fast, and the sea to subside. After that we shipped no more heavy seas; we kept on drifting with our head to the sea all through Sunday, until toward sundOwn we saw a vessel coming towards us. What course she was go- ing we could not tell; we had neither stars, com pass nor sun to steer by. As we had no oars we paddled toward her with some hickory brooms and pieces of wood which lay in the bottom of the boat. It was slow work and she wen on without seeing us, although we all shouted at the top of lungs to attract her at tention. We felt much depressed at our ill., uck, but instead of pcrishing during the night, IS We expected, the weathersroved extremely fine, aud we passed d comparatively comfortable night, lying down upon each other to keep warm. This, as may be supposed, was not very easy, we were dreucbed to the skin, and the weather was extremely cold; we laid down and baled by turns; thus passed the night, and the next morning at 5 o'clock one of our number perceived a reand-,ft schooner about three miles from us; we paddled toward her with our brooms as fast as possible from the time we sig ghted her until 3 in the afternoon-now near ing as the breeze died away, and then dropping astcrn as it freshened again; at one time we got 90 near to her that We could see the men on her deck, and we hoisted shirt upon our single oar, but they did not observe it, and soon passed out of sight before stiff breeze; our hopes fell as the wind rose, and we began to think that we should never be picked up.
 On Monday the mate told us that he had no further command over Us; we were all equal there, and offered to take his turn at bailng with the rest. The crew unanimously elected him to the command, with the proviso that he might bail or not, as he pleased, and he took his turn with the rest. He told us that our store of provisions was limited, and he hoped we would exercise moderation in partaking of it. This we readily assented to- We had no meal time; as we had no water, each took bite of biscuit when he felt hungry. Some of us were very thursty; others did not suffer so much from thirst. We had drank no fresh water from the Saturday night previous, and | one of our comrades was so tormented by his | burning thirst that he drank twice of salt water on Monday The salt water only increased his i thirst, and he suffered more severely from his lndiscretion.
 Between 3 and 1 o'clock in the afternoon of Monday, the 6th the mate discovered a ship about eight miles to leeward of us. The sight | gladdened us so much that we gave three hear ty cheers, and paddled towards her with our brooms and broken wood. The wind fell calm and we pulled for her with a will, hoisting a red shirt on our single oar to attract her atten- i ton. When we got within couple of miles of her. little breeze sprung up, and to our great dismay she began to make away from us. Af- | ter paddling away for fifteen minutes longer | we gave up the chase, supposing that it would | only end as the other had terminated in disap- | pointment. The wind died away again, and l our hopes were once more revived and we made after her once more, getting this time so near to her that we could plainly distinguish | persons walking about her deck, when the wind again freshened One of our men said: "Well, | bovs hoist up the shirt again, peradventure | they will see it this time" We did so, and they saw us and brought the shipto. We pad dled up to her and found that she was the ship l Naples, Capt Lowell, of Bath, Me-, from Leg 1 horn, with marble for this port. When we went alongside the crew got us on board, took ! out our bread and broomS, and whatever else was in her. We were all too weak and ex- hausted to get on board without assistance.- They tried to hoist our trusty boat on board but her thwarts came out of her, and she broke in two as soon as she left the water. The crew used us as we'll as we could wish for, taking off our wet clothes and supplying us with dry. After furnishing US with food and drink, they 1 put us into their bcrths and covered us up warm and comlortable Their kindness to us, more particularly as they were short of provl- sioas themselves, we shall never forget; and we desire to return our sincere thanks for their goodness to us in the day of our misfortune and distress. We arrived n New York yesterday, ! all well, having recovered from the effects ot cur exposure, after an absence of twelve days three Of which we spent on the St. Denms, two in all open boat at sea, and the other seven on the ship Naples.