Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1872-05-28
A Terrible Story.
Fearful Loss of Life Among the Ice.

NEW YORK, May 27.-The Times tomorrow
publishes particulars of the recent losses of veS-
sells in the ice off Labrador and Newfoundland
during the sealing yOyaging this spring. To
the latest possible mail date over forty vessels
including four steamships, have been heard from
as total wrecks, having been dashed to pieces
while amid huge icebergs and plains of ice dur
ing terrific hurricane. On an average, each of
those vessels carried about 100 men, employed
as seal hunters, and out of those 1000 human
souls only 175 have been accounted for The
large majority of these unlortunates have
left families behind, exclusively dependent on
them for snstenance. The vessels known to he
lost are Maid OF Judas, 81 men; Shark, 102
men; Bloodhound, steamship, 125 men; Eclipse,
80; Rover, 80; Retriever steamship, $50 men,
saved; K. Il. y, 100 men, all hands persisted
Aurora, "A men; Laplander 80 men; Witch of
the Waves, 93 men; Edgar Doran, 1872 men,
Twin Sisters, IS men; Swan, 81 men; Terra
Move, ll3 men; Flash, 101 men; Lenora 81
men; First Fruit, 10 men, Lord of the Isles, rs
men; ESqulmauN, l04 men; Auster, 81 men;
margarine, 40 men; Hawk, steamship, 115
men; Emily Ann, 113 men; Meteor, 10 men;
lronsides, lis men; Lucknow, 9S men; William
and Mary, 81 men; Pride of the Sea III men.
all known TO be lost; Hector, 100 men: Broth
ers, 30 men; Iceland, steamship, 122 men; Hero
AZ men; Nightingale, 90 men, all known to be
lost; Balaklaya, 10 men, Byzantine, 80 men;
Herbert Luby, 9S men; Queen of the Isles. 96
men; Hunter, so men, all known to have per-
ished; Mary Jane, 40 men; Redman, IS men:
Home Of the North 1872 men
Many Others have not yet been heard FROM
but all those recounted above have been totally
wrecked, and their crews have not been account.
ed for eXceptin very rare instances, and the few
VINO were saved could not give any definite in.
telligence of those they had left behind them
during the night of the loss of the Retriever,
sixteen sail of vessels were hemmed in by hinh
boulders and bergs of ice, over which tremen-
dous seas dashed high and wild so it was i'm
possible at times to discern the lev islands
and charge after charge of ungovcruable
ships against these mighty barriers soon
cleft the bows and bulwarks asunder. and con-
signed many stalwart forms and brave hearts TO
watery graves. While this fleet lay TO, as a last
effort to survive the wild northeastern hurricane
many tossing crafts cut down each other, and
one fearful instance is recorded wherein a vessel
driven on an iceberg by huge sea, fell back
with a mighty crash on the brig The Twin
Sisters, which lay beneath the berg A large
number Of men were instantly crushed 10
death, and The Twin Sisters literally
burst in two. The rest, only Is out of 9S, chung
to the broken spars and were by chance picked
up by the crew of the Retriever. The Retriever
barely reached land in the morning, when she
sunk IN shallow water, the crew escaping in
boats The consequence OF this wholesale ruin to
the hunting feet of Newfoundland will steep
that country again in poverty and misery, from
which it has but recently arisen Hundreds
OF the fleet are still to be heard from,
from, and their fate may be even as gloomy as
that of the forty-One vessels of which this ac-
count is presented In the light of that dreary
dawn, the scene which presented itself to those
on board the only survivor of the fleet of sixteen
the Retriever, cannot possibly be described. The
ice had wedged in the space intervening between
the position of the vessels and the shore, upon
rudely heaped bOulders and flakes of ice were
Strewn maSts, yards, rigging, clothing and
broken huIIS IN the widest disorder. Worse
still the bood-Smeared corpses, crushed to
death by the pans of ice closing on them. Some
were actually cut in two by the powerful jam
ming of the foes; and others, hali-drowned
and exhausted died from intense frost
CHASTITY attitudes. The terrors which surround
ed their death were pictured upon the blanched
face of every corpse, while many of them could
hardly be recognized, they had been so man
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