The Evansville daily journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ia. [i.e. Ind.]) 1848-1862, 1858-10-02
EVANSVILLE ND, SATURDAY MORNING, OCTOBER :, 1856
the poop. I.pulled after the ship and picked

the poop. pulled after the ship and picked
up German who was swimming stoutly /;
/ got him beside me in the boat and we
padded after the ship with the laths; now
saw vessel under sail approaching; she
reached the steamer at about 6P. NJ, we con-
tinued pulling toward them, and about half
past clock, after being five hours in the
water, got within hail of the sailing vessel,
which put off boat and took Us on baard.
She proved to be the French bark Maurice,
Capt. Ernest Renaud, of Nantes bound from
Newfoundland for the Isle of Bourbon, with
fish. She had up to that time, rescued forty
passengers of the burning steamer, chiefly,
taken off the bowspEit, though a few We're
picked up floating around. At about 8
o'clock one Of the metallic boats came up
with about % persons, including the FIRST
and third officers afterward three or four
men were picked up, floating on G piece os
the broken boat.
The second mate was taken up, having
been swimming, with nothing to float him,
for six hours. The second and third officers
were severely burned one male passenger
was burned frightfully, and some other male
passengers slightly. There were but six
women saved, three of whom were burned,
one in a shocking manner Capt. Renaud
acted with the utmost kindness. lie gave
clothes as far as he could furnish them to
the suffering passengers, aud acted as n
nurse, doctor and surgeon to the burned
people, dressing the wounds of the females
with q delicacy and tenderness that evinced
q benevolent and amiable disposition.
did not see an officer of the ship during the
fire, and am certain there was not one of
them or the crew on the poop, except a man
at the wheel for a short time. / understood
that when the Captain heard of the fire,
he rushed on the deck without a cap, and
when he saw the flames, exclaimed, ave
are all lost" He tried to get out boat
which, when let down, was swamped, and
he, whether accidentally or not | do not
know, fell into the sea, and was soon left
far behind. The fourth officer was in his
boat. He cut her loose from the davitS
was carried under the screw and smashed,
and several in her drowned three or four
men escaped on fragment, and were pick
ed up by the Maurice, as before stated
About the same time one metallic Hfe-boat
was let down from the port bow and swamp
ell, but got cleared away with about 80 pas
scugers in her, including the first and third
officers and several women. The men in
this beat capsized her two or three times in
trying to clear her out of water. Ten per-
sons were thus drowned, including some
women. They afterward 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-seren souls
taken into the Maurice during The night.
y Norwegian bark came UP with the
steamer the next morning. and q oat was
observed going around the burning ship
They may have picked up few persons,
but only very few. The Maurice had no
communication with the Norwegian. At
al out o clock the Maurice sailed to Fayal
to deposit the rescued passengers. At about
2 clock the same afternoon she fell in with
the bark Lotus, Capt. Trefy, Of Yarmouth,
Nova Scotia, from Liverpool to Halifax As
| was anxious to get on British territory,
Capt. Trefy kindly gave me passage. He
was also anxious to take all the American
citizens, but there was such q rush of for
eigners into the boats that only one load of
eleven could be got off, and even several of
these were foreigners. The fire is known to
have arisen from very culpable negligence
OF some of the crew. The captain and sur
geon considered it expedient to fumigate the
Stcerage with burning tar. Tie operation
was to be performed by the boatswain under
the superintendent of the fourth offcer-
The boatswain heated the end of chain to
dip.into the tar to produce smoke. The cad
became too hot 10 hold, and he let it drop
upon the deck, to which it set fire. The tar
upset, and immediately all about was in
flames. y feeble attempt was made to ex-
tinguish it, but without success. There was
nothing at hand to meet such an emergency.
The rescued passengers saved nothing but
the clothes on their backs, and even the
greater part of these were torn off and 9th
erwise lost. Six hundred souls were sup
posed to be on board, including many women
and children. Mr.. Brew is the only British
subject saved. He is in the British civil
service, and on his way to British Columbia
He will proceed to Boston in the steamer
Eastern State ON Tuesday, en- route to New
York.