New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1870-04-08

Captain and Grew to Leave tHe S1'p
Forty.two souis Envolved In an Un-
certain Fate.
from the New York Herald.]
The terrible ocean calamities Of the
beginning of 1870 have received another
and melancholy addition to their number.
The British mail steamship Venezuela
sailed from Liverpool on the fifth OF
March, with thirteen cabin passengers.
She carried crew Of forty-two officers
and men, and WAS an irOG steamer, 270
feet long, with other dimensions to cor
respond, brig rigged and of 1852 tons
register. She put to sea under favorable
conditions, steaming out with general
cargo and her passengers, bound for Bar
BADGES, Laguayra, Porto Cabello, Santa
Martha ana Colon, being due at Barbadoes
on the tweDty-irst instant. Her course
was about southwest by west,eand this
direction she pursued, encountering hesvy
weather and all the dangerous and dis
agreeable incidents of the month OF March
at sea.
Ten DAYS out and two thousand miles
from Liverpool. right in mid-ocean, at
half-past eight in the morning, the pas
sengers, while at breakfast in the saloon.
were startled by q sudden and tremendous
crash, which shook the vessel like an
earthquake, and made every one tremble
with fear. Instantly all hands were on
deck, and hurried examination showed
that the rudder and outer stern post of the
Venezuela had been carried away-the
rudder Wrenched from its pintles and
the stern post torn violently away.
As the steamship was built in compart-
ments, with strong watertght bulkheads,
the whole vessel did not fall; but through
the large hole in the stern, seven by ten
feet, and mostly below the water line, the
sea poured in, rushing in volumes, and In
five minutes the compartments occupied
as storeroom for the cargo and ships
provisions was fun OF water.
The length of the stOre-room was twenty
feet, and the ship in the brief time OF five
minutes, had to sustain the additional
weight imposed by the admission of thirty.
five tons of surging and splashing: water,
gaining even more force than would be
produced by this weight by the crowding
of the external sea and the frightful roll
ing and pitching of the steamer, sending
at each throw this destroyer of thirty-6ve
tons, against the interior bulkhead, and
threatening all with instant death.
The scene on board the Venezuela was now
one where the strongest and bravest were
required to look death in the face and
stand beside their own watery grave. The
passengers were struck with terror. EN-
barking but few days before for the
sunny cline of the South, some fer busi-
ness, others for pleasure, and others yet to
fulfil offices of piety and duty, they were
appalled, and filed with dismay at this
sudden calamity. But there was little time
for thoughts of a melancholy character.
1t was the duty of every one to work at
the pumps, to save the steamer, and to do
the bidding of Captain Crowell, who, in
all the gloomy forbodings Of the hour,
acted his part with firmness and GOODNESS.
The ships stores in the flooded store
room were now submerged and kept up
a terrible humping against the deck
above. The store-room itself was situated
below the saloon, the latter being below
| the spar deck, at the extreme after part oi
rhe ship. Directly forward of the store
! room was the engine room. The store
toom Was twenty feet long, with width
of the full breadth of beam, and extended
to the ships floor below. Now the great
fear was that the water would tear away
the bulkhead separating the engine from
the store-room. breaking the main body OF
the ship, and sink her instantly. Or ii
was feared that the water would force up
the deck in the saloon, rush through aud
food this compartment, in which case all
hands would have gone to the bottom.
They at once began work, put up shores
between the spar-deck overhead and the
saloon deck, to keep the planking down,
and resist the immense pressure of thirty
five tons of water, which, if admitted,
would founder them on the spot. The
water had already rushed into the saloon
from other passages, and they now began
to bale to keep afoat, and all hands toiled
like beavers.
In the meantime the boats We're put in
readiness to clear away as the last resort.
They worked hours, and the water was
making visible headway, rising up in the
saloon, and keeping every one at the
buckets.
Constant watches were kept for sail, but
none appeared. Nightfall drew on, but
no relief. Darkness overwhelmed the sea,
but no lights cheered the suffering souls.
Theirs were anxious eyes, and theirs were
longing hearts. Miduights came on with
desperate anxiety, but no relief came.
They were as if in the midst of a vast
deseI with "water, eWater everywhere
and not drop to drink" The weather
was Still furious. gales, tornadoes, lashipg
seas, tremendous. waves, and the whited
forms of the crested pillows, and the
whistle Of the rigging; these had no
cheer.
Unmanageable from the first CT ash, the
sails were of little service, and the steering
gear was. of course, gone. There was no
time to rig jury rudder, all attention
being required at the pumps and buckets.
So the Venezuela diifted about, insubor-
dinate to all control. The head sails
would not pay off her head, and the after
sails could not keep her to the wind.
1t is one of the most difficult matters in
seamanship to control vessel with her
sails alone, especially in a violent seaway.
sagged down by thirty-fve tons Of furious
water, anchoring, as it were, the ship to
her quarters.
Matters did not alter their complexion
till the morning of the sixteenth. when
Captain Cowell deserted steamer coming
o.er the horizon. He signaledin distress.
The Camilla, steamship, from Palermo,
Sicily, bound for New York, with a cargo
Of oranges, bore up. Both vessels were
now in thirty-three degrees thirty minutes
north, longitude forty-three degrees thirty
minutes west. 1t was eight o'clock, and
by ten o'clock eight male, five female, and
two children passengers were transferred
in boats on board the Camilla. --
They left the Venezuela believing that
she was doomed for the bottom. 1t was
a providental escape. The captain re-