The Fremont weekly journal. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County, Ohio) 1867-1877, 1873-02-14

scription. The captain, finding the
men determined to leave the vessel,
sent below and armed himself with
a revolver, and ascending the poop,
declared his determination to shoot
the first man who tried to leave the
vessel before the women were saved.
The first boat launched was lowered
by q number of the passengers by
cutting the ropes. There being no
ladder at hand, the only way of get
ting into it was by leaping and fall
ing some twelve or fifteen feet. As
there was terrible rush toward the
boat, the scene was one of distress
ing confusion, and man and boy
fell into the water and were drown
ed. The officers did all they could
to force the man who first got into
the boat to leave it, that the women
might be saved, but to no purpose.
Even firing, with blank cartridges, it
is supposed at first was unavailing.
About thirty persons having got in
to the boat, it put of. Not one of
the crew was in it. Another life
boat was launched, man got into
it and was ordered to leave. He re-
fused and the captain shot him in
the calf. Then Captain Knowles
placed his wife in the boat, and said
to the boatswain, who had already
got in: "Here's a charge for you,
Boatswsin, take care of her and the
rest, and God bless you" Wringing
his wife's hand, he bade her good by.
saying, 81 shall never see you again. y
It is impossible to describe the
panic that ragged all this time.
Heartrending scenes were witnessed
on all sides. One Of the passengers,
seeing the captains wife in the boat,
threw his own wife in and threw his
baby to her and entered the boat
himself. A little girl was thrown
into the boat by her father, who
tried to save the rest Of his family,
but the seething, maddened crowd
pressing toward the side of the yes
sci, prevented, and with his wife and
two other children, he went down
with the ill-fated vessels. The en-.
gineer made frantic efforts to save
his wife and children, but was jam
med between the cookhouse and gun
vale, and received dreadful injuries.
Though afterwards rescued he is in
precarious state Only two of the
seven boats aboard were launched,
owing, no doubt, to the panic, and
one seriously injured as the tackle
was cut and the boat fell into the
sea.
When The second boat had got of,
it seemed to become 8 question of
moments. The quarter deck was
still crowded by men, women and
children, some crying, some swear
ing, and some praying. The cap
tain and pilot were together, and the
latter was heard saying: "If you
vans to save yourselves. make for
the topmasts,'' to which many poor
people rushed. In quarter of an
hour, a tug picked up the second
boat with the thirty occupants, and
then steamed away.
About three quarters of an hour
after being struck the Northfeet
went down, head first, with awful
suddenness, with three hundred and
twenty seven souls on board. At
that moment the first boat was one
hundred yards, and the second
twenty or thirty from the vessel.
and the second twenty or thirty from
the vessel. The crew of the first
boat, after landing the women, rowed
round the scene of the wreck and
saved five men trying to swim to
shore. A lugger took off the occu-
pants Of the second boat, thirty-four
passengers, and pilot cutter res
cued the pilot and ten men, who,
having gone down with the vessel,
rose to the surface and clung to the
maintopmast rigging. The vessel
lies in eleven fathoms ofwater. The
survivors say that the captain dis
played the greatest heroism, main
tanned his presence Of mind from
the first to last, stroVe hard to put
an end to the panic, and did his duty
brayely to the end. He was at the
last moment going across the deck,
in the hope of enabling some of the
crowd crushing around the boats on
that side, to get away from the ship.
The survivors say that the other
boats got adrift when the ship sunk,
and that if the passengers had al
lowed them to be lowered properly,
they could have saved at least one
hundred more lives. unfortunate
ly the women could not climb the
masts, although the men did all in
their power to help them consequent
ly, all the women and children, with
the exception of the captains wife
and another woman and two chill
dren were drowned.