The Nashville daily union. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1862-1866, 1862-09-17

Terrible 5oono at Sea Narrative
Of Survivor from the Golden
Gate
Mr. A. BATES, . steerage passenger oh
board the California steamer Golden Gate
furnishes San Francisco paper the iol-
lowing interesting narrative Of the scene
ON board that vessel when abe was burn
cd At sea:
The dav was very warm, and | was
sittinp ON deck forward. This was about
half-p,st four IT, The afternoon all was
ouiet. suddenly saw smoke Issuing
from the deck, about midships and near
The smoke stack. ! watched il a mo-
ment, when. becoming convinced there
was q Gre, l cried ont. Just at this mo-
ment others saw tie smoke, too, and we
all rushed towards the pumps or brakes
forward. which were chiefly used for
cleaning The deck
Wo used the pumps az best we could.
We took turns working. J worked a few
minutes. when, seeing IL would do no
Good. L went forward. All then began to
crowd forward, and had no life preserv-
( crs. for they were in the boats behind,
! anu no oiir r0iii,i 20 through tine iirr after
I them. In about five minutes from The
time saw the smoke, the flames burst
/ through, the decks Il seems as II the
means for extinguishing a fire had been
neglected, for the pumps would not work
The flames kop; coming forward every
moment and all pressed closer to the
bows Ropes were now attached TO The
vessel and thrown over The sides TO hold
on to Some were so frightened that The
moment the flames came near them they
Jumped wildly overheard and were
drowned Others climbed over and helt
on to the ropes as long ~ they could
They got exhausted and dropped of
singly, and in pairs.
There were ten boats abOard--enougl
TO save every soul on bOard-but only
three Of them could be got at, Two o
three, loaded chiefly with the crew, go
safely 10 the shore. The other sailet
away for Manzanilia, and has not bee
heard from. The men that got into thu
boats lcaped overheard and were picket
M The officers seemed to do very wei
and the men were not insnbOrdinatC
but appeared 10 obey orders and Wor
well.
/ secured rope and determined {
stay aboard till the last moment an
then swim for the shore. / am yer,
good swimmer. ! had stripped mysel
of everything but my shirt had abou
my waist a belt with some money, but
large sum which bad in nay trunk wa
: lost.
While thus standing on the bow
grasping my rope, continued Mr.. Bate!
little girl, lovely child about eigE
years Of age, came to me and asked m
to save her. Aer name was Addie Man
chester, and her father lived in San Fran
cisco. She said
2 ooh, mister, can you swim 2
, / told her i could. She begged me S
hard 10 save her that ] determined to tr
to do 80 anyhow. told her would try
save her if she would do just as | fol
e her. She said
, g. will do Just az you tell me. Say
me, do, please don't want 10 be drown
' cd"
% showed her how to act--to get on IN
\ back and grasp me tightly, but that 81
3 must not choke me. She promised to
Just as / told her She was quite coo
just as the fire got up to us, the yess
3 struck the bar. get over taking Add
- with me. She held on to me tight, as
told her so do. | struck for the beacI
not far Or The breakers ran very higl
got past the first ono in safety with m
;, burden. got past the second one ais
81 After | passed the third one, found thu
. Addie was gone. turned round an
saw her going down behind me. A ma
> on plank, who was passing, grasped h,
d by the hair and pulled her on his plan
,. saw she was safer than with me, So
continued on, and was dragged on Il
beach. lay on the beach insensible f
y about half an hour. When J came foo
3 saw Addic. She was lively.
G dug a hole in the sand to keep war
4 in We buried the dead each in a sep
rate grave, which we scraped ont wi
our hands and pieces Of boards.
% Next morning we Travelled milan
g About five miles of We reached n sprin
here we rested. Some Of our party The
started across the mountains TO rca,
Manganilla; others, including myseI
were TO remain until assistance reach,
us. We had nothing TO cat. That a
ternoon, and after our friends had IL
us, the 81, Ions came along and took
ahnorI