Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1872-10-26
AsHIP SEAM CYCLONE.

OH lbc NONd vi iNCN' - S"N'
Talmage, from England, on his return
home last month, the shipwas caughtin
a cyclone and narrowly escaped destruc-
ton. He made it the occasion of ser
mon in the Brooklyn Tabernacle, from
which, as printed in the New York
Methodist, we beg leave to extract the
description given ofthestorm,as follows:
Two weeks ago last Thursday, the
steamer 'Greece," OF the National Line,
swung out into the river Mersex at Liv-
erpooI, bound for New York. We had
on board seven hundred, crew and pas
sengers. We came together strangers
Englishmen, Irishmen, Italians, Swedes,
Norwegians, Americans, Two flags
foated from the masts, British and
American ensigns. SO may they ever
float, land no red hand of war ever snatch
either of them down. In the same
prayer that We put up for our own ma
tional prosperity, we will send up the
petition, "God save the Queen :" We
had new vessel, or one SO thoroughly
remoddled that the voyage had around
it all the uncertainties Of trial "trip.
The great steamer felt its way cautious
" out into the sea. The pilot was dis
charged and committing ourselves to
the care of Him who holdeth the winds
in His fist, we were fairly started on our
voyage of three thousand miles. 1t was
rough nearly all the way-the sea with
strong buffeting diaputing our path.
But one week ago last night, at eleven
o'clock, after the lights had been put
out, cyclone-a wind just made to
tear ships to pieces-caught us i'll It's
clutches. 1t came down so suddenly
that we had not time to take in the
sails, or to tasten the matches. You
may know that the bottom of the Allan
ic is strewn with the ghastly work of
cyclones Oh they are cruel winds.
They have hot breath, as though they
came up from internal furnaces. Their
merriment is the cry of afrighted pas
sengers. Their play is the laundering
of steamers. Aud when ship goes
down they laugh until both continents
hear them. They go in circles, or, as |
describe them with my hand-rolling
on rolling on With finger of terror
writing on the white sheet Of the wave
this sentence of doom "Let all that
come within this circle perish Brig
antines, 60 down Clippers, 60 down!
Steamships, so down." And the vessel,
hearing the terrible voice, crouches in
the surf, and as the waters gurgle
through the matches and port holes, it
lowers away, thousands of feet down,
further and further, until at last it strikes
the bottom and all is peace, for they
have landed. Helmsman, dead at the
wheel !, Engineer, dead amid the ex-
tinguiAed furnaces Captain, dead in
the gangway Passengers, dead in the
cabin Buried in the great cemetery of
dead steamers, beside the Ciiy Of BIS
fon, the Lexington, the President, the
Cambrd-waiting for the archangels
trumpet to split up the decks, and
wrench open the cabin-doors, and un-
fasten the hatches.
Thought that | had seen storms on
the sea before; but all of them together
might have come under one wing OF
that cyclone We were only eight or
nine hundred miles from home, and in
high expectation OF soon seeing our
friends, for there was no one on board
so poor as not to have a friend But it
seemed as if we were to be disappoint
ed. The most of us expected then and
there to die There were none who
made light OF the peril, save two; one
was an Englishman, and he was drunk,
and the other was an American, and he
was fool Oh! what time it was. y
night to make ones hair turn white.
We came out of the berths, and stoodin
the gangway, and looked into the steer
age, and sat in the cabin While seated
there, we heard overhead something
like minute-guns. 1t was the bursting
of the sails We held on with both
hands to keep our places. Those who
attempted TO cross the floor came back
bruised and gashed. Cups and glasses
were dashed TO fragments; pieces ofthe
table getting loose, swung across the
saloon. 1t seemed as if the hurricane
took that great ship of thousands of
tons and stood it on end, and said
',Shall sink il, or let it go this once''
And then j, came down with such force
that the pillows trampled over it each
mounted of fury We felt that every
thing depended on the propellingscrew.
If that stopped for an instant, We knew
the vessel would fall off into the trough
Of the sea and sink and SO we prayed
that the screw, which three times since
leaving Liverpool had already stopped,
might not stop now. Oh ! how ,anx-
iously we listened for the regular thump,-
thump, thump CT the machinery, upon