The Abbeville banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1847-1869, 1857-10-01
THE LOSS OF THE CENTRAL AMERICA

When the history Of marine disasters shall lie
written, the wreck Of the Central .imericu will
occupy prominent place i'll it's pages. Out of
ak hundred passengers, only about hun.lr,d
an! seventy-iive were saved. What Il terrible
scene il must have been at the moment of ,bc
going down Of this i'll i;,tcd vessel She wen,
storm Of wind, rain and lightning. Bv reference
TO or first page Il more extended nccoun, may
DC seen. We clip the following from the state
mcmt of one of the rescued passengers:
IL had provided myself with life. prescrvcrs
and piece OF spar, aud determined to go down
/ with the vessel, with the great mass of the pas
sengers, all Of whom stood about bracinr them
selves up and securing what was most available
| to buoy them up. She finally went st>r,,. fore
most. was standing near ;ilc smoke stuck Il,
ihe time, and we were all dragged under wafer
with the sinking ship. The general supposilium
| among those that We're saved is that they
were drawn at least twenty feet under water,
and when We finally to the SUI face
we were stiiicd with salt water. The rapidity
| with which was drawn dow II tore the spar from,
my hands and the life prescrvcr from my body
ana when rcachc, the surface my clothing
was almost stripped off of ino. /, however, mel
friend who had two lif..prescrvcrs, who gave
me one, and we also seized on pieces oil tie
| wreck, which helped 10 sustain us.
! "On reaching the surface Of the wafer there
was at least four hundcrd passengers strupuiu,
| about III the water, so:nc sinking, unable to
swim having lost their life prcscrycrs, aud 9th
| rrs sclzinS OH to the pieces of the wreck which
| came up with us. The captain had cut away
| the upper works of the vessel So that when the
! hull sunk they would floa, ufi, but they were
dragged down. aud came up in fragments and
doubtless many were stunned and drowned by
| being struck with the pieces of tho wreck
whilst TO others. they were the ultimate means
OF safety. An occasional flash of lighinin.
showed to each other OF struggling forms.
and all cheered and encouraged each oher At
| first we all in 1t mass together, nppearinr
at glance like crowd Of cattle swimming
| but soon the waves srpar: ted It's and at each
succeeding flash Of lightning we discovered that
| we were being separated and scattered over n
| wider area, until We soon each found ourselves
apparently alone OH the ocean.
! 1T was drcary and desolaic night, the waves
dhshng over us, and TIE sea running with great
fury, the sharp wind chilling Tie Liood in our
| VEINS After heng an hour il The waior, saw
one Of my fellow Sufferers Three -foutI,s had
| doubtless sunk from exhaustion, and the balance
were drifting over the ocean hoping agail.s, hope
:or relief. at about | o'clock in the morning
saw Il SAIL and at 2 o'clock on Sunday morning,
after being six hours das,ng about, had the
| qualification Of finding myself OH the deck of
the Norwegian bark Ellen, Capt a. Johnson
! from Baliz-, Honduras bnun 10 Falmouth Eng
| land. Here found about 20 Of my fellow pas.
sengers. and our joy at again meeting, with
| than Eiu!ness to Providence for our iaculous
delivery, soon caused the chilled blood to course
through our viens