Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1869-05-04
/. GALLANT CONDUCT.
How she Passengers of tho Wrecked
british, Steamer Santiago were Res
eued by an American Shfpmaster.

, How eAe Passengers of tho WreckeS
british Steamer Santiago were Res
eued by an American shfpmaster.
A good deal of interest has been
excited by the recent arrival of the
feet Of schooners from Boston and
Gloucester. All of them have
made remarkable passages, and
have reached port without accident.
OF course they came through the
Straits of Magellan, and all touched
atValparaiso. One of these schoon-
ers, now lying at Jackson street
wharf.-the S. H. Merrill, Capt. A.
W. Rowe-was the means of rescu-
ing the passengers and crew of q
wrecked steamer in the inhospitable
and lonely regions of Patagonia,
which, though it has already been
briefly alluded to in our columns,
is entitled to more particular men
| ton.
1t seems that the schooner, hay
ing passed the Straits of Magellan,
and being close under Cape Pillar,
On the Pacific side, Capt. Rowe
sighted boat with a signal of dis
tress flying, containing crew of
ten men, They were taken on
board, but not without great diff
Guilty, as it was blowing gale, and
the sea YVES making clean breach
over the boat. The rescued men
proved to be party from the Brit
ish mail steamship Santiago, from
Valparaiso for Liverpool, and
which, when entering the western
entrance Of the Straits, ran into a
sunken ledge and bilged. In three
hours afterward she had disappeared
beneath the water. By dint of great
exertions of the captain, officers and
crew of the Santiago, all the pas
sengers, who numbered over two
hundred, were got on shore, ex-
cepting three, who were drowned. |
Brushwood tents were erected, and
every body placed on an allowance |
of biscuit, of which small guam
tity had been saved, while the party |
which the schooner picked up, had
volunteered to go to Punta Arenas
to seek help, that settlement being |
about 10 miles to the eastward of
the scene of the disaster.
Capt. Rowe at once ran back to
the wreck, where his arrival was
greeted with cheers by the men
and tears by the women and chill
dren, as the stars and stripes were
hoisted over the decks of the gal
liant vessel that was to release them
from the lonely and inclement re-
gion where there was neither food
nor civilized inhabitants. Capt.
Rowe threw overheard q portion of
his cargo, and placed his cabins at
their disposal. The next day they
fell in with the British man of-war
to which vessel the suffer
ing people were transferred. The
schooner then continued her pass
age to Valparaiso, where the news
Of the loss of the steamship and |
the providential escape of her pas
Sengers from death caused much
excitement The CHILEAN press was
in awarding the highest
praise to Capt. Rowe and his Off
GERS. None knew better than he
the responsibility incurred by him
in thus changing the course Of his
schooner, especially in such dam
gerous locality. Even supposing
the vessel to have been fully in
sured, which she was not, the recov-
cry of her insurance would have
been more than doubtful if she had
been lost in retracing her way after
accomplishing her GRAND of mercy.
But the American seaman is prov
above all considerations in
such circumstances other than those
Of humanity and generosity.-San
Et,0DoiepO TyO1oc