The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1858-04-14
/ III f DISPATCH.
WEDNESDAY MORNING, AppII :. ,..s
''f1F
y. ,. ship In q Perilous CondttIon


The following II an extract from ta,,.r xr,...,
by an officer on board the U. s. frirate cumber.
land, dated Fnnchal, Madeira, March 9th.
was awakened in the morning bv e..,,, =
unusual motion IN the ship and thouvht We sn.st
os az sea, put found that the wind. blowing fresh
on shore, had raised heavy sea The barora,ar
soiag Down very rapidly indicated bad weather
,.n,ia s'e WHO vas just from the quarter which
soe'a prevent our slipping. and therefore We
prepared TO ride ont the gale I was taxing
Hiorhng nAp. when one Of the officerg came 10 m
room and said be had never yet found himself IL
...' ssa''iou Oh such imminent peril, whereupon ]
went on deck. Certainly / had never seer arr
thing like it in my sea ex periences. There ws,s
uuuleef oil other vessels caught like ourselves In
TIE roadstead. aud was wondering how long ,bex
couid possibly ride in it,with their simple anchors
, wheh suddenly saw the distance between one OF
them aud us, lessening.
AT first could not believe 1t possible that we
were the victims, but the orders in quick succes-
sion to let go our other anchors, showed me in a
moment that we had parted our cable In the
meantime we were drifting right on to Loo Rock
which was covered with foam A brig Law rioht
astern Gf us, aud down we bore onr resistless
weight upon the devoted vessel: one heavy snrye
and away went her iibboom, another and we ex.
pec1ea 10 see her go to pieces but providentially
she sheared OF. and passed her. lust grazing her
sides stu we drfted and felt that the crisis had
come knew that If we struck Loo Rock with
such sea on, not man, In all human probability
Couiu escape. We brought ND at last with our
other anchors.
Soon after we saw The other three vessels go
ashore, two broken into thousand pieces the
instant they struck; the third sent high and dry
on the beach, The crew of the last were all lost:
but one little boy whose fear made him stick
TO the vessel. i standing ON the gun deck.
when the First Lieutenant sung out to the Captain
'JIbooom and flying jibb0om gone. sir = Let them
go! answered the Captain, aud continued his
conversation. The hurricane increasing con.
sultation was held as to the necessity of throw
ing some of the guns overheard aud cutting away
the nasts and it decided to throw over four of
the forward guns and have everything ready to
cut away If she began to drag.
Life buoys were prepared to float the men ashore
IN case we should be fortunate as to strike the
beach. The sea exceeded anything any one on
board had ever before. While standing on
deck we the little brig begin to drift, Sor-
rowfuly we watched her going TO what seemed
her certain fate, when she let go her starboard an
ch0r, but began to drift again; but inst ms she
got among the breakers she made sail aud a tortu-
nate shit OF the wind reached her, and weather
ing one of the points of the island, she made her
escape.
So things continued until nightfall, the barome-
ter still falling, and the hurricane increasing
every moment. / went below for "A few moments.
when some one sung out that we had parted anoth.
er cable. Feeling that it was all over with u.s. /
took OF my heavy boots and made what other
preparation l could for going ashore. found
however, that we were still riding by our three
anchors. The wind now began to shift a little to
the westward, to the relief of every one as it had
become apparent that few hours more continu
ance OF the gale from the same quarter, the sea
would become so powerful that we must be driven
ashore or go down at our anchors. About
O'Clock, p. NJ, the wind came out west, the sea be
gan 20 go down. the barometer rose, and all felt
that we had escaped the greatest peril of our
lives.