Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1860-09-20
Accidentto the Lady Elgin-State-
ment Of Lieut.. HartsuG.

mr.. uartsoH 10 HeuteOant 10 the United
States army. and 10 stationed q: For Mack.
inaw.
was on board the steamer Lady Eigip
when she colljded with The schooner Angus.
Ia, asleep in my berth. ] Immediately
jumped from my berth and saw the schoon-
er fosting away. Did not think any seri.
ous dsmsge bad been done a. frs', but soou
discovered that the steamer was setlling.-l
Immediately left my berth. which was 10
the after cabin, and ran toward the pilot
house. where found Capt. Wilson on the
hurricane deck. I asked him IL he thought
there was any danger, and he replied ihs,
he thought she would float, He told me
where there were life preseryers on the
hurricane deck, and I went and passed them
down to the passengers In the cabin till
they we're ,sbout exhausted, when took one
myself and waited Oh the hurricane deck -
While there quite q number came on the
deck, only few Of whom were females, but
how many came up could not say, as II
was very dark. From a quarter to half on
hour s6es she wss struck, she broke up, the
hurricane deck dosting of. and the hulk 60
ing to the bottom with q tremendous noise.
As she broke, jumped with my life pre,er-
ver-s board six or eigh; feet long and sbou,
one wide-into the water, which was at this
time only few feet below US, and pulled
with all my might to escape from the mass
OF the wreck. After the confusion had
somswhat subsidsd. heard the voice of
Capt. Wilson cheering and encouraging the
people on the wreck, telling them that the
shore was but few miles off. AMI that if
they kept calm and obeyed bis directions
they might all be saved. heard him in
this manner for perhaps ten minutes, and
then had separated so far from the hurri.
cane deck, on which the Captain and a
large number were that heard no more..-
All around me were numbers OF persons
floating on pieces Of the wreck, until it be-
came daylight. When it became SO light
that could see some distance, discovered
large mass Of the wreck little distance
to the windward of us, covered with people,
] then got on quite large piece of wreck
which was floating near me, and which con-
tained no other person, and TO other person
got on it after did. The large mass to the
windwrrd. which have Just spoken. now
began to seperate. then left the piece
was on and got on large piece OF the hur.
ricane deck, on which there were four other
persons-don,t know who ,bev were. On
this fragment rem.ined until we reached
within about a quarter of n mile of the shore
when our raft broke up, and two of the four
on it with Inc were washed off and drowned
A momen, after the remainder of OIL, party
were washed off by . heavy sea, and one O.
, more of our little par,v drowned. i, Nv re-.
) naming comp.nion con,rived ,o reo,in m,
r,f,. and 7 ao.in ,ook n . M. n,...,ve,
wbicb found ,eo,, and ~ ,b;. eo.,s,
70 The shore inst beIow Tho blnfT. For
tb. ,;ne I "a. SVEN, from tho r.f, un,il /
reached ,be ,bore. + w,, ..x.,,l ,;,ns. n. i;
ed deep under the waves. When clos, in
to the shore, | was thrown from nv life
preserver and went to the bottom, and al.
though the water was not more than three
or four feet deep, was SO exhausted a. to
be unable to rise, and crawled for some dis.
taI,ce under the water until I reached dry
land.
Early in the morning I discovered . frep.
meut of the wreck a short distance from me
on which was a woman and three men,
She was so much exhausted that she seem.
ed unable TO keep from dropping to slesp
although the exertions of the three men
were continually in use TO prevent il. She
was finally drowned while remaining or
the wreck. being una BILE TO keen her hear
from the water. Her body remained on III,
fragment of the wreck az long as il was i,
!. aiobt. Isaw m,oy pieces of ,hs wreck
r. containing from two to four persons can
sized, almost invariably drowning all tha
were on them. To avoid the capsizine O.
our frall bark, | instructed the men with m.
:, to so sit on it Us to keep the edges Jnde
! water. This prevented US capsizing. and a
the same time enabled Us to float faster, W,
sailing in this wsy passed many Of the othe
:. RATS. saw one woman alone floating oil
. dining table, and a short time after dis
covered her, the table capsized and she dis
!, appeared under water for several second,
:, but finally reap peared on the surface, cling
: ing to the table, aud eventually, by gre.
exertious, she repained her seat upon ,h