Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1872-09-07

| eight; the number of officers and crew forty
| six, making eighty-iOur in all known to be
saved. The number known to be drowned is
| nne; number missing from boat No. and
probably drowned, ten. The number unheard
from is twcnty-tOur Total, 127. The names OF
the saved have been sent by telegraph, and no
| new names are reported by this arrival. Capt.
| Mauray makes the following report TO the agent
Of the Pacific Mail steamship company:
| have to report the loss by fire of the char
| tered steamship Bicnville, under my command,
| on the morning of August 18th, at sea, in lati-
| tude deg. min. u sec. north, and long. 7 deg.
| min. 10 sec. west, by account at AS A. NJ.
| The officer on deck called me and reported
that the vessel was on fire. | gave order to call
| the crew TO the five quarter pumps, and had the
| steam turned on to the fire eXtinguSher lead
ing TO the forward freight room. | kept the ship
before the wind, hauling down the head sail,
| leaving the head of the iib up, and had the en-
CINE stopped. | mad the hose led down to the
| fire hatch, one of the matches taken off, and
| made an attempt to get below with water, but
the volume of smoke was so great that had TO
| close the hatch Immediately. had water led
| TO the forward ventiator and started it below,
| at the same time having the matches battened
| over with wet awnings and everything closed
| below. The steam pumps were disabled Il few
| moment; afterward caused by the breaking OF
| the working arm. Our supply of water was en-
| tirely cut oil from that source. ] then detached
| the chief officer and second officer in order to
| get the boats prepared. | had the hand pumps
| and fire buckets got out as well as;the fire ex-
| tinguishers | had four boats lowered and they
| were dropped astern. | provided them with
boat keepers Two of the large life boats were
manned, and all the passengers by this time
were on deck i'll the forward dayits
had water and provisions furnished them
all; there was full supply of life preServcrs
| and | had extra ones, as well as provisions,
| placed on the quarter deck. At 80 A. M, only
| steam could be dscerned and | had hopes OF
/ for WottIinU's island oh CT, ~ i,yo
| miles distant
Soon the smoke and fire worked their way
through both sides Of the ship, just ahead of the
boilers. The steam pump Ibeing broken as ii
was, | saw that it was hopeless case for the
| ship, and gave orders TO diSembark the passen.
gers. directed the boats to lay by the ship
| and divided the women and children up as
| equally as possible. then had them placed in
boats, and gave each Of the largest boats 4
| suitable crew. Two boats were safely loaded
| and sent off. A third was also loaded and sent
| off, but owing TO the carelessneSS OF one of tho
| crew, it was caught under the counter of the
| ship and capsized and stove at the same time.
The people were all picked up, however, and
placed in another boat.
AT seven A. NJ. all the boats were sent off ex.
cept two of the smaller ones. Neither of these
were life boats. More persons remained on
board than these could possibly hold. / then
mad asome Eof the ships crew and some boys
from the steerage put in one Of the boats, anG
Mr. Hagar, chief officer, sent off in charge OF
| the last boat. Two of the lightest laden boats
were beaded, and three persons put in each.
The flames were intense by this time, and at
hali-paSt seven A. NJ. ] left the ship. The flames
were bursting from the cabins by this time.
The largest life boat filled and capsized. The
fire was increasing, but by the aid of the wreck
OF the steven life boat, which was floating
around, they were righted and bailed. Seven
or ten Others however, were lost
| An account is given of the voyage TO Eluethe
ra island, where they landed. We learned that
five boats had redched Nassau, where the pas
sengers had arrived. One of the boats capsizet
on the beach at Eluethera island, and nine per
sons were drowned. Only the names of Mrs
Branner and her three children are known a.
| lost.
There is still one boat missing; she was only
moderately loaded. She was one of our bes
boats, and was well provided with water and
food.
The fire bro out between decks, Immediately
over the boiler, and not in the fire hold, as was
at first supposed. | am unable to give the orr
gin Of the fire.
L. H. Lawler of Albany gave an interesting
narrative of the burning OF the steamer and sub
sequent sutferings of the survivors. He LOST
everything, and is suffering greatly from expos
ure and fatigue, and was scarcely able to rectC
consecutivcly the narrowing scenes through
which he passed after the burning of the steam
er. He says
We left New York on the 10th of August
bound for Aspinwall. We had one hundred
and thirty passengers and pleasant voyage until
the 10Th. About O'Clock on the morning of
that day, in latitude, 2512, longitude
IA Is, smoke was discovered issuing
from the hatch below the Storage deck
The donkey engine was set at work, but soon
broke down, when the flames still continuing to
increase, orders were issued TO batten do WI the
hatch and prepare TO take to boats. At seven
| O'Clock Captain Mauray ordered the life boats
| launched Thprp in nbnr md
they ought to have been capable of carrying all
the passengers. The number placed in these
varied from ten to thirty-three. The latter
| number was far too great, and some of the boats
were unseaworthy. The sea was very rough,
| and the terrified passengers, with no land IN
| sight saw death staring them in tile face. The
| first boat launched contained twenty persons,
| and was swamped at the ships stern. After
| much trouble, however, the passengers in the
boat were saved; and | should observe that
| placing ten persons in the same boat caused an
undue proportion to the number thrown into
the Others, and in this way life was unnecessarily
| sacrificed.
The sea ran very high, and the sun was
| blazing hot, so our SufferingS were terrible.
After we had left the ship about ten minutes the
second mate, John Golf, approached in another
| boat and Signalized us. He told us when he
| came alongside that we must take four more
| persons in our boat, in which there were al
| ready twenty-Seyen. Three clambered in, and
simultaneously with the fourth getting in our
| boat capszed, and we were all thrown into the
| sea.
| | have no hesitation in saying that the re-
sponSibiity therefor rests upon one whose recl1-
| less, heartless and inhuman conduct in forcing
| four additional persons into our already sinking
boat, under the threat, "Get in or I'll throw you
| in, that we were pTecipltated into the water
| and ten of our number drowned. There were
| twenty-seven mates and four ladies' Incredi-
| bic as it may seem, the mate pulled toward his
| ship and made no effort whatever TO save us,
| not even the ladies. The mates boat took on
| other passengers at the steamer, and subse-
| quently landed at James point, Eluethera
| island.
AT the time we were capsized we were dis
| tant sixty miles from the nearest island. Words
cannot describe our iexcruciating sufferlngs af-
| ter this. The sun was intensely hot, and we
| chung as best we could to the gunwale of the
boat for several hours, with heavy seas washing
| over us and tropical sun pouring upon our
| uncovered heads We were without food or
| water for iorty-two hours, there being but one
| lemon TO be divided among the twenty-five sur
viyorS. AfterIclinglng to the boat all these long
| hours, the broken boat, which was first cap
| sized, drilted toward u.s. This was our only
| hope, having no oars and no means by which to
| right our own boat, and we could have lasted
but few moments longer. One or two who
| had sufficient strength managed TO crawl into
| the broken boat, and with their own hands
| began the work of bailing out our own boat.
| We all had on life preservers otherwise none Of
| us could have survived. In the broken boat we
| found one oar. Finally our boat was bailed,
and we got into her.
A sailor named Peter Barry, who subsequently
| proved himself hero, improvised a sail, using
| the skirts of the ladies and the shirts of the
men rugged to an oar, and we made our way
with this aid, as best we could, toward the
| land.
Before leaving the ship Captain Mauray told
us that the nearest land was Waltlands Island,
and for this point we made taking our bearings
from the sun, and Judging the hour, all having
| lost our watches. Even now our sufferings were
intense, with wet clothing, the great heat of the
sun, and the pangs Of hunger upon us, we de-
| spared OF being saved. Heavy seas were con.
unually breaking over u.s. adding to our misery
At about two O'Clock the steamer exploded
WIN q tremendous report, and Immediately
sank, bearing everything on board with her.
| Nothing whatever was saved. | hone never 10
witness or experience such suffering as attended
us after this; but, cheered on by our sailor hero
all, even the ladies, bore up with fortiiude and
resignation. When night came we took Tho
stars for our bearings, and kept before the wind
with our strangely contrved sail. The wave,
ran thirty or forty feet high and we believed
although we could see no land, that we wer,
near 1t. We coasted all that night, endeayorino
to find safe landing place. 1t was a task Of
immense difficulty in the terrific gale and tire
mendous surf which was rolling.
| At about three A. NJ we landed Mt Cat island