The Tiffin tribune. (Tiffin, Ohio) 1868-1887, 1872-06-06
VOLUME 24-NUMBER "a
FrghtfaI Hariae Disaster.
NEW YORK, May q

NEW YORK, May =.
The Times Tomorrow viii publish
: the particulars OF the loss Of the YES
} sels or the coasts % Labrador and
Newfoundland during a sealing yOy-
age this spring. Up 10 the latest
possible mail date over forty vessels,
4 including four steamships, had been
] heard from rs total wrecks, having
been dashed 70 pieces while amid
huge icebergs ana plains OF ice du-
ring a 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 seventy-five have been account
ed for. The large majority of those
unfOTtunates have left families behind
exclusively dependent on them FOR
sustenance. The following is a cor
rect list Of the iii-iated crafts which
have not heretofore been Published
Vessels known to be lOst-Maid Of
Judah, 81 men Spark, los men
Bloodhound, steamship, lbs men
Eclipse, 80 men Rover, 90 men Re
triever, steamship, $50 men. Saved
r. G.. 5. 100 men. All hands per-
ished-AurOra, "A men; Laplander
so men Witch of the Waves, 9S
men Edgar DOran 102 men Twin
Sisters, 80 men; Swan, 81 men; Terra
Move, II5 men; Flash, lOl men;
LeOnOra, 81 men; First Fruit, as
men Lord OF the Isles, 70 men Es-
quimRux, 1O4 men; Auster, 81 men;
Margarits, IS men; Hswis, steam
ship, lis men; Emily Ann, 1I3 men
Lucknow, 9S men; William and
Mary, 81 men Pride OF the sea, III
7nsn--All known TO be lOst-HectOr,
100 men; Brothers, 80 men; Iceland.
steamship, l32 men; Hero 45 men
Nightingale, 65 men. All known tObe
lOst-Balkava, 75 men F; Byzantine, so
men Herbert Luby, IS men; Queen
Of the Isles, 96 men; Hunter, 50 men
Mary Jane, 43 men; Red Man, IS
men; Home of the North, 132 men.
Many Others have not yet been
heard from, but all those reeOunted
above have been totally wrecked and
their crews not been accounted for,
except in very rare instances, and the
few who were saved could not give
any definite intelligence Of those
they had left behind them. During
the night of the loss of the steamship
Retriever, on board OF which vessel
was Captain AllstOn, who furnishes
the shocking intelligence, sixteen
sail vessels were hemmed in by high
boulders and bergs OF ice, over which
tremendous seas dashed high and
so wild that it was impossible at
times to discern the icy islands, and
charge after charge OF the ungoverua-
ble ships against these mighty bar
ries soon cleft the bows and bulwarks
asunder and consigned many sLalwart I
forms and brave hearts 10 wateTy /
graves. While this feet lay TO as q
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 was driven ON an iceberg by a
huge sea, fell back with a mighty
crash upon brig, the Twin Sisters,
which lay beneath the berg, and q |
large number Of men were crushed to |
death, and the Twin Sisters literally |
burst in two. The rest, only fifteen |
out OF ninety-eight, chung to broken |
spars, and were by chance picked up /
by the crew of the Retriever. To-
ward morning the hurricane, which |
had ragged all night without abating, /
began to subside. In the light OF
that dreary dawn the scene which /
presented itself to those on board the /
only survivor of tie feet of sixteen, 1
the Retriever, cannot possibly be de-
scribed, inasmuch an one who had 1
witnessed the sight shrinks hOpelessly |
from the task Of explaining its horror |
and ghastliness. The ice had wedged |
in tine space intervening between the /
position Of the vessels and the shore, /
upon rudely heaped bOulders and |
flakes of ice, masts, yards, rigging |
clothing and broken hulls in the |
widest disorder. Worse still were !
the blood smeared corpses crushed to !
death by the sea Of ice closing on /
them. Some were actually cut in /
two by the powerful jamming OF the |
foes, and Others, half drowned and /
exhausted, died from the intense |
frost The stifftnod bOdios Jay strewn I
around in the most CHASTITY attitudes, /
while many OF them could hardly be /
recognized, they had been so man |
gled. The consequence Of this whole |
sale ruin to the seal hunting fleet Of |
Newfoundland will steep that eoun-
try again in poverty and misery, |
from which it has but recently arisen. |
The dreary news Of so many wrecks |
and the long catalogue of dead,
spreads the desolatiOn OF the island |
and have visited many a home with |
bitter grief and despair. But, says |
Captain AllstOn, the whole has not |
yet been told. Hundreds Of fleets are
still to be heard from, and their fate /
may be even as gloomy as that Of the |
forty-One vessels, of which this ac-
count is presented.