The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1867-08-02
TERRIBLE MARINE DISASTER !.
Burning OF a Ship a. Sea by the Ex-
plosion of Cargo of Petroleum.

The follwing interesting particulars IT
the burning of the bark Mcteor, from New
York bound to London, are given by Capt.
Mason, who was one of the survivors:
We left New York June 18th, for Lon
don with a cargo of petroleum oil. All
went well. till the morning of the l4th,
when in latitude thirty nine degrees twenty
one minutes north, longitude sixty nine
degrees nine minutes west, at ! A NJ, the
watch was thrown into confusion by the.
decks blowing up and flames running up
the masts, the boats all destroyed, and
sails all on fire. In few mnates all
three masts went over the side in flames.
AT the time of the accident there were five
men below, two of whom got on deck the
rest perished in the flames The remain
der Of the crew, ten in number, then
could be got hold of. / ordered them, be-
fore the masts fell, wait for, but two did
not do so. The chief officer and one of
the crew kept to the pieces of the decks
and driftcd away, and when the masts
fell, which took place about three minutes
after the explosion, the remainder of the
crew, with myself, took to them but to our
sorrow we found that VIC could not away
from the burning ship owing to the bob.
stay holding us fast, the heat at that time
beiHg so intense that at times We had TO
S Altering at tlat time no tongue can cxprcss,
immerse our bodies in the wafer Onr
all being so crippled with burns and bruises
not being able to assist ourselves. One of
! the men, with broken legs, we la>hcd
to the spars, also another with one lee bro
ken. Onc was so bulnt, he had no skin
on his body from the waist to the top of
his head, and blind; another with the
skin burnt off his legs and back. The
ship coming head to wild, she was burn
ing all aft, the masts drifting alongside.
and expecting her to sink every minute,
taking the masts with her. the only thing
We had to sit en-. About eleven A. NJ. the
man with both legs broken died on tho
spars. We were in the same position till
about one P. NJ, when the spars driftea
little ahead which gave US slight protec.
tion from the flames, which at that time
were upwards of one hundred feet high
n few minutes after that a vessel came in
owing to the wind being light She dill
not leave US, but beat to windv J, and
the Captain made the best of his way to
our help but it was some time before he
could ascertain whether any OF the crew
were left alive, owing to the glare of the
fire and intensity of the smoke At dis
tance of four miles he put off his boat,
but before it reached as one Of our burnt
men died. The fire had now reached the
copper. About 6 P. NJ, the boat came mp
and We were got in truly exhausted. We
found the vessel TO be the PrusSian bark b
Lucy oad Ruu1, .Shieh from New York
for Cork or Falmouth for orders, and also
that the Captain had picked up one Of
the crew at P. NJ, on a loose spar. The
with this man.
The following were saved: Matthew Ma
son, master; j. g. Lambent. B. Bricn,
| g broken; James Malcolm, John Boyd,
and Peter johnson. The following are
ost ; II. L. Danielson, mate, drowned
Adolphus Scher, died Robert Baker,
burnt second mate, name unknown, burnt
and an able seaman, name unknoHn 4. d.