Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1873-04-03

boats useless. Seeing that no help could
be got from the boats, l got the pas
sengers into the rigging and outside
the rails and encouraged them
TO 90 forward where the ship was high
est and less exposed to the water. Inc
third officer, Mr.. Brady, and Quarter
masters Owens and Speakman having,
by this time, established communication
with the eoutlying rock, about forty yards
distant. by means of line, got iour
other lines to the rock, along which
about two hundred people passed. Be-
! tween the rock and the shore
there was passage one hundred yards
wide. A rope was successfully passed
| across this passage, by which means
about fifty got TO land, though many
were drowned in the attempt.
All five o'clock in the morning the
first boat appeared from the island, but
she was too small to be of any assist
ance. Through the exertions of Mr..
Brady, the third officer, the islanders
were aroused, and by six o'clock in the
forenoon, three of the largest boats
came TO our assistance. By their efforts
all that remained on the side of the
ship and on the rock were landed in
safety and cared for by a poor fisher
man named Clancy, and his daughter.
During the day the survivors, to the
number of four hundred and twenty
nine were drafted off to various houses
scattered about, the resident magistrate,
Edmund Ryan, rendering valuable as
sistance. The chief officer having got
up the mizzen rigging, the sea
! cut off his retreat and he
stood for six hours by a woman who
had been placed in the rigging. The
sea was too high to attempt his rescue.
at three O'Clock in the evening a cler-
gyman, Rev. NJ. Ancient, succeeded in
getting him line and getting him off.
Many of the passengers, saloon and
steerage, died in the rigging from cold.
| Among the number was the purser of
| the ship. Before the boats went out l
placed two ladies in the life-bOat, but
| finding the boat useless, carried them to
the main rigging, where left them and
went aft to encourage Others to go for
ward on the side of the ship.
| At this juncture the boilers exploded
and the boat rolled over to the leeward,
| the ship at this time being on her beam S
end. Finding myself useless these, l
went to take some ladies forward, but
! found them gone, nor did l see them
afterward. Many passengers at this
time could not be stimulated to any
effort to save themselves, but lay in the
rigging and died from fright and eX-
pOsure. 1 remained on the side
encouraging, helping, and directing, un-
til about fifteen were landed. When
landed, finding my hands and legs were
becoming useless, / left the ship, two
other boats being close to her, and en-
I L - oil In N no
shore dispatched Mr.. Brady, the third
officer, off TO Halifax, across the coun-
try, to telegraph the news of the disas-
! ter and to obtain assistance. Mr.. Nor
row, the Cunard line agent, promptly
responded and sent two steamers with
provisions, to convey the survivors
| TO Halifax, where they will be cared for,
and forwarded to New York on the first
opportunity in charge of the first and
| fourth officers, the third officer and four
men being left at the island TO care for
the dead as they come ashore. Captain
Sheridan diver has received provis-
ional authority as to the salvage of the
cargo and materials. The second officer
was lost with one of the life-boats.
HALIFAX, n. s., April 2.-The fol-
lowing is the Chronicles report of the
disaster: ait is our painful duty this
morning to record the most terrible ma
rine disaster that has ever occurred on
our coast-the loss of a great ocean
steamship with about seven hundred
and fifty lives. Yesterday afternoon
the report became current that steam
er Lad been wrecked somewhere on the
coast, and one or two lives lost. The
report was regarded as one of the ca
nards put aflOat on All-FOOl's day, and
little regard was paid to it. Soon the
report became more definite, and We
learned that the steamer Atlantic, of the
White Star line, was ashore near Pros
had been "8 u. that several lives
were inclined TO regard the story as a
malicious hoax. A little later, however,
it became known that the report was
well founded, and that but a small part
of the truth had been told. The fact
being that the Atlantic had been
wrecked on Meagher's Rock, near
Prospect, twenty-five miles west of
Halifax, and out of about one thousand
souls on board, seven hundred and fifty
were lost. Need We say that the terri
BILE announcement created a profound
feeling of horror throughout the COM
munity? Having ascertained that one
man from the wrecked ship had arrived
in town, a reporter went in search of
him. He proved to be Mr.. Brady,
third officer of the Atlantic, who
was badly bruised, wOrn-out, and almost
speechless after the terrible events of
the morning. Nevertheless he cheer
fully gave such information as he could
in regard to the Atlantic. Mr.. Brady
said they left Liverpool on Thurday,
March Goth, and touched at Queenstown
the next day to receive the mails and
passengers, after which she started on
her voyage across the ocean. She had a
full cargo of general merchandise and a
very large number of passengers. Mr..
Brady could not give the number, but
thought there were more than eight
hundred in the steerage and about fifty
in the cabin. These, with her crew,
would probably make the total number
not less than one thousand souls. She
was commanded by Captain James Ag-
new Williams. Rough weather was eX-
perienced, but nothing worthy ofnOte Oc-
CURED until noon of Monday, March 3lst,
when, coal being short, Captain VIII
liams resolved to put into Halifax for
supply. The captain and Mr.. Brady
had the night watch up to midnight,
when they were relieved by the chief
and the fourth officer At that time
they Judged from the gambrO light they
bore nOrth-nOrthwest thirty-nine miles.
The sea was rough and the night dark.
The chief and the fourth officer having
taken charge, Mr.. Brady went below
and turned into his berth. The cap
tain at the same time went to his
room to lie down. What occurred be-
tween midnight and two O'clock, the
time Of the disaster, Brady cannot tell,
as he was sleeping. He was awakened
and thrown out of his bunk by the shock
when the steamer struck. She struck
heavily three or four times. Mr.. Brady
ran up to the deck and found it full
of passengers. He found an ak, and
with it commenced to clear away
the starbnard life-boat. He observed
that the captain and other officers were
engaged in clearing other boats. Mr..
Brady succeeded in getting his life
boat out. This was the only boat
launched, and ii had no sooner touched
the water than a crowd made a rush to
get intOit, when Mr.. Brady had to use
force 10 prevent them from rushing in.
DE put two women and about a dozen
men into it and also got in himself.
Just then the steamer fell over and
sank, the boat with its living freight
was carried down with the steamer and
all in 1t Were drowned except Mr.. Brady.
The hull of the steamer became almost
totally submerged, and only the bow
and masts remained above the water.
The greater part OF the passengers were
in their rooms below at the time and
Immediately drowned. Indeed, so soon
after striking the steamer sunk, that
many of the passengers We're no doubt
sleeping peacefully i'm blissful ignorance
of all that was going on around them,
and passed into eternity without strug-
aral hundred, were washed overheard
when the shin fell over and their criea