The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1858-09-29


/ chiefly taken off the bowsprit though a few were
/ plckca up hoaunG wound. At about eight oblock
one OF the mctall' ats came I'D with about TWEEN
ty.t4ree person. luding the first, second and
t.l,u iI 9hceTs; ards three or four men were
picked up tioa FAP. piece Of the broken boat
The second OF 200 ais taken dp, having been swim
ming, with nc4 125 a,o float him, for six hours.
The Sc" YES 'E3"d officers were severely burnt,
on, one ma IS burnt frightfully and some
other male passen gers slightly Tho"e were but six
women saved, three Of whom ,,ere burnt, one in a
shocking manner. Capt. Remand acted with the ut
most Kindness. He gave clothes as far as he could
lurnsh them to the suffering passengers, and acted
as nurse, doctor and surgeon, to the burnt peonle
dressing the wounds of the females with a deIicacv
ana tenderness that evinced benevolent and amia-
bic disposition. did not see an officer of the shin
during the fire, and am certain there not one of
! them or the crew on the poop, except man at the
! wheel for short time. / understood that when
the captain heard of the fire, he rushed on deck
! without cap, and when he saw the flames, ex-
/ claimed, eve are all lost" He tried to get out
I ooat which, when let down, was swamped, and he
! whether accidentally not, | do not know fell
INTO the sea and was soon left far behind The fourth
0Hcer was In this boat. He cut her loose from the
/ daVlts; she was carried under the screw and
/ smashed, and several in her drowned. Three or
! four men escaped on fragment and were picked up
! by the Maurice as before stated About the same
time one metallic life boat let down FROM. the
/ port bow, and swamped, but got cleared away with
about thirty-three persons in her. including the first
| and third officers and seven women.
! Inc men in this boat capsiZed her two or three
times in trying to clear her of water. Ten persons
! were thuS drowned, including some women. They
afterwards bailed her out with life preservers cut
| IN two, and pulled to the Maurice, having picked
| up two or three passengers before reaching the
! bark. Altogether there were sixty-seven souls
! taken into the Maurice during the night.
Norwegian bark came up with the steamer the
! next morning and boat observed going
! around the burning ship. They NAV have picked
! up lew persons, but only very few. The Mau-
] had ~ II
| Al about O'Clock the Maurice sailed for Fayal to
deposit the rescued passengers. At about o'clock
the same afternoon, she fell in with the bark Lotus
capt. Irety OF Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, from Liv-
| eipoo ior lialiiaE. As | was anxious to get on
British Territory, Capt Trefy kindly gave me pas
! sage. He was also anxious to take all the Amcri-
! can citizens, but there such rush of foreign
ers into the boats that only load of eleven could
be got oil, and even several Of these were foreign
| ers.
The fire is known to have arisen from very culpa-
! bic negligence Of some Of the crew. The captain
ana surgeon considered it cXpedient to fumgate the
| Steerage with burning tar. The operation was to
! be performed by the boatswain under the sUperin-
! tendencc of the fourth officer. The boatswain
heated the end Of chain to dip in tar to produce
! smoke The end became too hot to hold and be let
1t drop upon the deck, to which it set fire. The tar
| upset, and Immediately all about was in fiames A
feeble attempt was made to cNtinguish it. but with
! out effect There was nothing at hand to meet such
| an emergency. The rescued passengers saved no
! greater part of these torn off and otherwise
! lost. Six hundred souls were supposed to be on
! board, including many women and children. Mr..
Brew is the only British subject saved He isin the
British civil service and his way to British CO.
lumbia. He will proceed to Boston in the steamer
! Eastern State on Tuesday en- route for New Y ork.
The following is the statement of Prof. Theodore
G. Glaubensklee of New York City:
PROF. GLAUBENSKLEE'S STATEMENT.
! I nj artn 81 t,vn l
! being in my state-room, heard the cry of 'Fre."
fastening on deck, saw the flames breaking throurh
! the middle deck. The captain was trying to get
the people ont of the second boat on the mort side
to have it lowered. FASTENED to the fore deck to
! Keep the people from the boat. After a few min
utes turned around to go to the quarter deck, but
| could not get through the flames. | remained on
the forecaste the ship all this time ooinm onward
against the wind. With the assistance of a sailor
cut down the jib sails to throw into the water to
use in checking the progress of the fire. but the peo-
| pie on deck did not understand our intention and
merely threw them into the water | tried to dis
cover something with which to save the passenger
| but nothing to be found. The spars had been
thrown overheard, and the buckets, being near the
! pipe, were all on fire.
In about half an hour the foremast fell, and
! shortly after the mainmast, and at about the same
| time the engine appeared to stop. The ship, which
thus far had been heading wes gradually turned to
the north, and finally to the northeast Soon after
the boiler seemed to collapse and ten minutes after
the fames and smoke drove to the forecaste. The
| suffering then became intense, our only hope now
being intwo vessels in the distance of which after
ward proved to be the Maurice approached us SLOWLY
the other, further off steering west apparently took
no notice OF US, although she signacd to do by
the captain Of the Maurice. Having taken my stand
on the chains on the starboard side, gradually an
| vanced forward to make room for Others At about
D clock the Maurice sent off boat, and as soon
as 1t came near jumped into the water and reached
| it. Seven others were taken in, and the boat re-
| turned to the bark. Two boats. belonging to the
| bark, continued to ply to and from the steamer
| picking up all they could until the darkness made
1t impossible to find more of the sufferers. Soon
after sunset, the first officer and about a dozen
| Others came to the bark, having saved themselves
/ by lie-boat Later, some Swedish sailors came
| III part OF a boat, and Mr.. Brew and German in
| part of another boat.
Mr.. Glaubensklee's account of the origin of the
fire comedies with that of Mr. Brew in every par
ticular.
When Capt Waters Of the Prince Albert ascer-
tained that twelve of the Austria's survivors had
arrived, he kindly offered all free passage, and
detained the steamer for the purpose of allowing
| them to embark. Ten of them availed themselves
of'his generosity, and sailed for New York at )
! O'Clock Sunday afternoon.
The report that the Austria's magazine exploded
her agent Mr.. kunhardt scarcely credits. He states
that she never carried more than fifteen or twenty
charges of half pound each for her signal gums
and that half of those must have been fired at Ham
| burg and Southampton; and the explosion could
| there
none such on board, the Germans are not addict
| ed to the use of ardent spirits
The Austria was fine iron screw steamer OF
| 1884 tons, built in 1857 by Mcssrs Laird Co. OF
! Greenock. She was built in nine water tight COM
partmcnts, and her apparatus for eXtnguishing
ire was OF the first order. She had direct, con-
densing engine more properly known among nau-
| tcal men as a steam-hammcr engine. She belong
ed to the Hamburg and American Stcam-Packet
Company of Hamburg, and is the last one of the
four steamers built for that line, combining all the
| latest improvements and being the most costly
steamer of the line. She must have cost upward of
| $500, GOO, which is fully covered by insurance on
the other side. She to sail hence for South
ampt0n and Hamburg on the lst of October.
The insurance on the vessel is about $40, ,000 and
will nearly cover her loss. She insured in Eu-
| rope, chiefly in Hamburg and London. The insur-
ance on the cargOi uncertain. The total value was
supposed to have been not less than 100000, and
may have been S450000 or S500,000. The consgn-
ees had not received a duplicate of her manifest
| but expected to DO so by the City Of Washington,
which arrived late yesterday afternoon. The car
go, however, is said to have been insured in Europe
and not over $l20 600 is supposed to have been Sc
cured in the United States, the principal part Of
which was in Wall street offices.
There is hope that of the unfortunate
| passengers were picked up by n Norwegian bark
that was seen in the vicinity Of the burning vessel
but it is a very faint one. The bark Maurice, be
fore she transferred portion of the rescued to tho
| Lotus, had decided to run for Fayal and land the
! passengers. Whether she proceeded to Fayal OF
continued on her voyage to Nantes is not men
toned.
The n. Y. Tribunesavs-There are many specula
tions to the of the fire. 1t is said that some
| German merchants have been known to pack dan
gerous goods chemical preparations in the middle
of dry goods cases. to cheat the agents out of the
high rates Of freight for eXtra-haZardOus freight.
In this dishonest way the ships placed in great
! danger, and there seem no means of detecting it
1t is well known that similar frauds are practicet
upon ship-owners sending ships south from New
York Butin this instance it appears that the mis-
chief resulted wholly from the carclessness of the
officers and sailors on board.
Right upon the heels of the fire came the eXplo
sion; and the flames beginning to rage fercely, the
wild, unreasoning instinct of sclEpreservatior
swept down all discipline and authority. A rusl
made for the boats, and a mob OF ailrightet
people dashed into them, regardless of everything
in their cagerness to escape from the blazing ship
The boats were Swamped, and hundreds drowned
thus the disaster became tentod more serious in it
effects than it would otherwise have been.
But at such times it is useless to expect that dis
cpine will prevail. And yet in scenes of equal peri
there have been brave who did not quail before
the danger. When the Birkenhead troop steamer
struck rock, near the Cape Of Good Hope, and
broke in two, there only7boats enough to save
the women and children. There was no rushing noI
crowding then. Col. Moore called his brave Inns
killens and formed them into line the deck Of the
sinking steamer, while their wives and children EN-
barked in the boats. The noble fellows, as hey
stood in line gave three cheers for their departing
dear ones, and maintained their ranks unbroken til
the deck was swept from under their feet.
The New York Herald says:
The fire was caused by a culpable act of careless
ness the part of two of the officers of the