The Manitowoc tribune. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1866-1878, 1868-04-16

between I and o'clock last night, after
being upon the fragment of the wreck
twelve hours. drenehed to the skin, his
clothes frozen, and himself more dead
than alive after his perilous ride not far
from fifteen miles.
Mr. Leonard saw about twenty passen-
gers Jump into the water. Some swan
around for some time, and others seem
to sink Immediately. He saw no women
jump overheard, and did not see any
women in the water. He believes that
there was about ten women ON board, all
whom must have perished.
Among those on board who were known
Mr. Leonard was Geo. w. Emery Joseph
Doucett of Manitowoc; Mr.. Chamberlain
one of the two picked up by the Cor
nelia, and some Of the officers and crew
of the boat.
Mr. Lonard states that an attempt was
made to launch the steamers boats but
the rapidity of which the flames spread
it impossible to accomplish the
object Mr.. Leonard says the sea was
not very high and that the boats could
have easily weathered it if they could
have been launched.
The statement of Edward Henneber-
ry corroborates that of the others. He
says:
I got up early yesterday Thursday
O. clock. | had been
up about an hour and half, I should
think, when | saw smoke arising on the
main deck, in the port quarter, and just
below the ladies cabin The smoke /
had hardly noticed when saw blaze
spriuging up. The fire seemed to have
been kindled right on the deck. There
was lot of tubs and some straw lying
near, and the fire got among them right
away. | at once cried out Fire fire ~
Several of the crew who were up came
hurrying to where the fire was, the bell
was rung, and the passengers who were
not up before came tumbling out from
their berths and state-rooms- Instantly
there was great confusion, and with this
the fire increased so rapidly as made me
that it must have been burning
a long time before [ discovered it. The
fire was a long way aft Of the engine and
boiler, in the port quarter. The flames
sprung up, and spread almost instantly
into the ladies cabin overhead, through
out the freight on the main deck; it did
not seem to take five minutes before the
after part of the boat was all on fire. The
fire spread into the ladies cabin so rapidly
that [ do not think all the women had
time to leave it, [ heard some one sag
that some of the ladies and children were
burned. We all rushed into the forward
part of the boat Back of the engine
the boats was all in flames Some of the
crew tried to get at the small boats, which
were aft. [ went with them, but we did
not get further than the smoke stack. 1t
was no use trying the whole after part
was burr ing up, and the boats themselves
were on fire. | was perfectly cool all the
time, knew the boat was going up,
and somehow or other [ felt that | was
all right. So waited about ten minutes
think, before [, with the assistance of
five or six others, showed the gang plank
overheard. During this time the flames
were making great headway, and in FIVE
or six minutes after the fire was first seen
by me the engines stopped working.
All the passengers had crowded into the
bow, and some of them, the women and
children, especially. were crying and
wringing their hands and moaning IN a
way pititul to see and hear. Six or seven
of us showed the g-plank oyer, just
forward of the paddle-boxes. waited
until the gang-plank had foated past,
and then [ jumped. [ was the first man
overheard [ swan to the gang plank,
and ten or fifteen others followed me.
So many of us on the plank caused it to
sink, and we all had hard work to keep
it and ourselves up. got along pretty
well, until three or four, seeing that was
holding my own, got around by me and
took hold of me. [ shook them all off,
except colored boy, the cook S helper.
He put both arms about my neck, and L
could not shake him off. then helped
him to get on the plank, and one man.
who was about twenty five years old. and
wore a moustache and whlskers, caught
hold of my wrist and drew me on the
plank. Johnnie O. 'Brien [ helped on the
plank two or three times. He was wash
ed off almost as fast as [ could get him
on. We all struggled very hard, but
there WASH a man said word. L got
hold of one of the gang plank ropes, and
[ stuck to it until [ Was picked off. |
could see about me men having hold OF
boxes, chairs, tenders, and two. men l
saw clinging to bag of wool. We float
ed past the bag, and one of the men said
to me-he wasn't more than ten feet
You re going pretty fast. There
was very heavy sea, and after we had
been in the water fifteen or twenty min
utes, swell lifted the plauk and capsized
it. All who had hold of it, except me,
were washed away, and [ did not see any
of then any more. | Was chilled through.
The watei. was almost at freezing point.
[ was just able to climb on to the gang
plank after the rest had gone, and | knew
that if | staid in the water could not
long. So [ stood up on the gang plank
and steadied myself by the ropes. j had
all my clothes on and these were soon
frozen so they were stiff. As | stood on
the gang plank by myself, | had no
thought of death the same confidence l
had felt in being saved, from the first,
still clung to me- Hooked about me and
though the sea was rolling heavily. l
could see the, lakes surface dotted here
and there with pieces of the wreck, to
many ofwhich men were clinging. About
half a mile away saw one Of the boats
tenders and woman clinging to it. As
I was watching her / saw her disappear
under . swell [ saw the fender afterwards
but she was gone. The boat drifted
to the leward in shore much faster than
| on the gang plank. About twenty min
utes after left her sawa crowd of pas
sengers all gathered ON the hurricane deck
Many Of. tie men were stripped to their
shirts. Nearly all of them had life pre-
servers or were lashed to doors tables
planks and boxes This was about the last
[ saw of the wreck ! did not hear any
screaming or cries the sea made noise
that drowned all that. The last noticed
about the wreck she was burned almost to
the waters edge and the walking beam
was just falling in. was chilled through
and felt myself freezing. | did not dare
let 90 the ropes, for if [ did should De