The Fremont weekly journal. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County, Ohio) 1867-1877, 1872-05-31
Fortv.two Vessels Wrecked While
Seal Fishing of Newfoundland
Four thousand Lives 1mpeEtled
TbaraI1u

EOrtV-tWO Vessels WTecKoo WINE
Seal Fishing of Newtoundland=-
Four thousand Lives 1mpes1Ied
Thereby.
New YORK, May 27th.-Captain Allston OF
the Retriever steamer lost during the terri
Bile storms which prevailed during the New
foundland seal fishery, this spring, reports the
total wreck of forty-two vessels, including sew
eral steamships. Ths number Of lives lmper-
lied by these disasters amounts to nearly four
thousand, of whicbvery few have yet been ac-
counted for.
The Times tomorrow will publish the par
ticulars Of the loss of vessels off the coast OF
Labrador and Newfoundland during sealing
voyage, this spring. Up to the latest possible
mail date, over forty vessels, including four
steamships, had been heard from as total
wrecks, having been dashed to- pieces while
amid huge icebergs aad plains Of ice during
| terrific hurricane. On an average, each OF
those vessels carried about one hundred men,
who were employed as seal hunters, and out
of these four thousand human souls only one
hundred and ssvsnty-five have been accounted
for. The large majority of these unfOrtunates
have left families behind, exclusively depend
ent on them for sustenanee.
| During the night of the loss of the steam
ship Retriever, on board of which vessel was
Captain AllstOn, who furnishes the shocking
| intelligence, sixteen sail vessels were hem
med in by high boulders and bergs of ice, over
which tremendous seas dashed high and wild,
so that it was impossible at times to discern
| the icy islands, and charge after charge of the
| ungoTernable ships against these mighty
barriers soon cleft the boughs and bulwarks
assunder, and consigned many brave forms
and brave hearts to watery graves. While
this fleet lay to as q last effort to survive the
wild northwestern hurricane that roarsd and
ruled around them, many tossing crafts cut
down each other, and one fearful instance is
recorded wherein vessel driven on an ice
berg by huge sea fell back with a mighty
crash upon brig, the Twin Sisters, which lay
beneath the berg. A large number Of men
were instantly crushed to death, and the Twin
Sisters literally burst in two. The rest, only
fifteen out of ninety-eight, clung TO broken
spars, and were by chance picked up by the
crew of the Retriever. Toward morning, the
hurricane, which had ragged all night without
abating, began to subside. In the light Of
that drsary dawn, the scene which presented
itself to those on board the only survivor Of
the fleet of sixteen, the Retriever, cannot posi-
bly be described lnasmuch as one who had wit
messed the sight shrinks hopelessly from the
task of explaining the horror and ghastlness
The ice had wedged in the space intervening
between the position or the vessels and the
shore. Upon rudely heaped boulders anc
cakes of ice were strewn masts, yards, rigging
| clothing ana DrOKen nuns III Ine WuuSSb US
order. Worse still, there were blood smeareG
corpses crushed to death by masses of ice clio
sing in on them. Some were actually cut IL
two by the powerful jammlng Of the foes, anC
others, half drowned and exhausted, died from
: intense frost. The stiffened bodies lay strewI
around in most CHASTITY attitudes, while many
, of them could hardly be recognized, they haC
been so mangled. The consequence of thi
l wholesale ruin to the seal hunting feet o
Newfoundland will steep that country agail
in the poverty and misery from which it ha
but recently arisen. The dreary news Of 81
many wrecks, and the long catalogue of dead
spreads desolation over the island, and ha
visited many home with bitter grief ant
wild despair. But, says Captain Allston, tn
whole has not yet been told. Hundreds Of tn
feet are still to be heard from, and their fat
may be even as gloomy as that of the forty
two vessels Of which this account is presented