Weekly hawk-eye and telegraph. [volume] (Burlington, Iowa) 1855-1857, 1857-03-04
Loss of the Bark Thetks..lA0rrlble Suf'
fcFing AT Sca..Seven Lives Lost.


bound to Falmouth or Cork. She experienced
fine weather till the 2Sth of December, when sh,
met with a succession Of gales from the nortt
west and west, with heavy cross sea, which
! caused her to labor violently, straning her tim
bers severely, carrying away her bulwarks s,arich
ions and starboard quarter galley, and causing
leak from which she took in large quantities o.
water, which induced the Captain to lay her TO-
The men and officers we're kept constantly at the
pumps night and day; but finding the water
gaining on the ship and the wind veering round
to the north east, the Captain on the S1st of De
| cember, deemed it advisable to bear up for Ber
| muda. Capt. Boyle experienced fine weather
and calms till on the evening of the I'd Of Janu
| ary he espied Bermuda light bearing north ives,
| and distant aboutls s miles. Deetning timpru
dent to attempt to make the port in the night
| without . lot, the courses were taken in, the
topsails double reefed, ana the vessel hove to to
await daylight. At this time the wind was $ S
w, which about midnight suddenly shifted and
blew perfect hurricane from the north west,
when topsais were taken in, and the ship was
hove to under reefed mizzen and foretopmast
staysail, all hands being kept constantly at the
pumps excep. such as was required to take in
sail On the morning Of the Sd of January, when
the officers and crew had been constantly on
deck for 4s hours, the captain discovered that
there was l2 feet of water in the hold, and at
noon Of that day, finding the water still gained
on them, Notwithstanding the almost srperhu-
man labor Of the men at the pumps, and seeing
the impossibiity of beating into port, the vessel
was put and kept before the wind, the hurricane
having slightly abated. The captain then order
ed up barrel OF water, cask Of beef, cask of
pork and quantity of bread. Themcn contin-
ued to work the pumps as men only will work tor
dear life, but in spite of sli their efforts the wa
ter continued to gain on them till 8 O'clock on
the morning of the 4th, when it had risen above
the beams, and the ship became entirely unman
ageable. The men then got their clothes aft pre-
paratory to taking to the boats. At 81 o'clock,
Captain Boyle seeing the ship inclining to turn
over to port, ordered the starboard main rigging
to be cut away but before the order could be
executed the ship turned completely over, keel
out of water " -'er 30 iS' 49, t1 5,ts7y f.
'e Notwithstanding the condition of the vessel,
they still managed to cut away the rigging when
she righted, with the loss Of her mainmast, fore
and mizzentop masts and every thing movable
on her decks including the water and provisions
the crews clothing all the boats, four in number
the poop deck and stanchions, the sea violently
breaking clean over the ship. When she righted
the men who we're forward took to the fore rig
sipg and those aft lashed themselves to the poop.
rail and taffrail. The Captain was washed over
board but fortunately rejoined the ship, and sue
ceeded in lashing himself to the rigging.-At
daylight, it was discovered that four men were
missing, who were, no doubt, drowned at the
time the ship capsized. .....,,...e. e.-...s.
On the 9th; 1.-THE bark Hamilton bore down and
spoke the wreck, but the weather was SO rough
that no boat could be sent to the relief OF the
sufferers; so the Hamilton remained by the
wreck waiting for the storm to subside. The men
who were forward went into the foretop; those
aft, except two or three who went into the miz-
zen crostress, were exposed to great dangers and
hardshps, as the sea was continually breaking
over them. =..-..#..s,
On the 9th of January about noon, Gibson, a
seaman, died from drinking salt water, and was
washed overheard. During the afternoon, Jo-
seph Heady, an apprentice did from the same
cause, and during the following night Lewis Sey-
mour, seaman, went down from the toretop to
drink some salt water and never returned. On
the morning of the 10th, after these poor fellows
had been six days lashed to the, rigging, without
a morsel OF food or drop of water, save such
as they were able to obtain from occasional
showers by opening their parched mouths to re-
ceiye the precious drops us they descended from
the sky, a boat from the Hamilton came to their
relief, and took them all, captain and fifteen men
on board the bark. The greater portion of the
Thetis' deck having been torn up, her bowsprit
unshipped. her port fore rigging carried away,
and the ship having become in fact perfect
wreck, the Hamilton LETT her, and proceeded on
her way to New York, where she arrived late on
Friday night last. ..r.,,..l,5l.,
When the crew of the Thets were taken from
the wreck they were Of course almost famished,
and many of them reduced to skeletons, and al
though the Hamilton was short Of provisions for
her own crew, Captain Webster freely divided
| such as they had, but was compelled to put all
on short allowance, and when his vessel arrived
| in port many of the rescued seamen were still
extremely emaciated, and very weak from their
| extreme sufferings and want of nourishing food.
Some OF them were unable TO walk, and pre-.
sented pitable condition as they appeared at
the office of the British consul on Saturday last.
The consul furnished them with clothing, and
supplied their pressing necessities in other res.
| poets, add will soon send them to London, where
they all belong. .
The Thetis was a bark of 600 tons, owned by
Messrs. Fletcher l. Brother, of London, and the
captain. The loss on ship and cargo is abou,
$4,000. The cargo was insured, but whether
| the vessel and freight money were insured is nol
| known.-N. Y, Tribune. ir4
1