Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1872-06-06
The Fishing Disaster.

INC rlSHlnB DibhslcIs
Reports continue to arrive of the dis
asters to the Newfoundland Fishing fleet.
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
hugh icebergs and plains of ice during a
terrific hurricane. On an average, each
of those vessels carried about 100 men,
who were employed as seal hunters and
out of those 1000 human souls only l75
have been accounted for. The large
majority of those unfortunates have lett
families behind exclusively dependent
on them for sustenance.
During the night of the loss Of the
steamship Retriever, upon board of which
was Capt. Allston, who furnishes the
shocking intelligence, sixteen sail of
vessels were hemmed in by high boul-
ders and bergs of ice, over which ire
mendous seas dashed high and wild, so
that it was impossible at times to discern
the icy islands, and charge after charge
Of the ungovernable ships against these
mighty barriers soon cleft bows and bull
warks asunder, and consigned many stall
wart forms and brave hearts to watery
graves. While this fleet lay to, as a last
effort to survive the wild north, eastern
hurricane that roared and ruled around
them, 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 upon brig, the Twin Sis
tiers, which lay beneath the berg. A
large number of men were instantly
crushed to death, and the Twin Sisters
was literally burst in two. The rest, only
fifteen out of ninety-eight, chung to the
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 sub
side. 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, inasmuch as one who had
witnessed the sight shrinks hopelessly
from the task of explaining its normal
horror and gastliness.
The ice had wedged in the space inter.
vening between the position Of the vessels
and the shore. Upon the rude-heaped
boulders and fakes of ice we're strewr
masts, yards, rigging, clothing and broker
hulls in the widest disorder. Worse still
were blood.smeared corpses crushed tc
death by the pans of ice closing on them
Some we're actually cut in two by TIT
powerful jamming of the foes, and Others
half-drowned nnl exhausted, died iron
the intense frost. The stifftned bodie
lay strewn around in most ghastly att
tudes. The terrors which surrounded
their death were pictured upon TIT
blanched face of every corpse, while
many of them could hardly be recog
nized, they had beel so mangled. Thi
was on the morning of the 12th of Apr
and toward 8 o'clock the rough usage
which the strong steamship Retrieve
had received during the previous nigh
began to tell upon her. The incessan
action of the pumps for many hours do
not keep her from sinking rapidly. Il
the afternoon the ice broke up, and
passage toward the shore was opened
In order to reach the land before his shil
foundered, Capt. Allston ordered hi
men to head her for the shore, The,
had hardly reached it before the gooC
ship Retriever sunk to the bulwarks, an(
the water being shallow, she "keele'
over" All hands escaped in the boats
Capt. Allston brings a confirmation,
account Of the wreck of the Huntsmal
off the coast of Labrador; but informa
ton has been published concerning tina
disaster. He believes that the conse
quence of this wholesale ruin to the seal
hunting fleet of Newfoundland will steel
that country again in the poverty an
misery from which it has but recent.
arisen. The dreary news OF so man,
wrecks, and the long catalogue OF tn
dead, spreads desolation over the island
and has visited many home with bite
grief and despair. But, says Capt. All
ston, the whole has not yet been told
Hundreds of the fleet are still to be hearC
from, and their fate may be even a
gloomy as that of the forty-one vessel
known to be lost,