Connecticut western news., 1873-04-25
The Atlantic Disaster.
Additional Details of the Sad Affair.

Additional Details of the Sad Affair.
 At a preliminary examination as to the cause of the disaster to the steamer Atlantic nothing of consequence was There is no doubt, however, according to the statements of the of- fcers and passengers, that the Atlantic was not properly coaled for the voyage at this season. Her passage was not She made nine hundred miles in the first three days. Gales were encountered on the 25th and 26th which lowered her speed to 196 and 118, but on the 27th she made 244 miles 29th, 199 miles 30th, 235 miles 31st, 264 miles, and on Monday, calm day, but 169 miles. The ship had then pass ed Halifax, but, having on board only 13O tons of coal, was put back. It is evident that she was put to sea some five hundred tons of coal short. Cap tain Williams is reticent in regard to his reckoning he had never been to Halifax before. It is certain, however, that he was twenty miles nearer land than he supposed, and his allowance for the westerly current could not have been correct. The sun and the stars showed eight, but the ship, with the wind abeam and aft, was evidently too quick for the calculation.
 THE FOUNDATION FOR THE CALAMITY lies in insufficient coaling and miscal- culation, and, perhaps, some incompe- tency upon the part of the watch on deck. Captain Williams is silent upon the all-important point as to his reckon ing. All agree, however, that he was hero in the supreme moment, and any one would believe it who could have heard his heartbroken, sobbing accents, " My God, if could only have saved woman or child ; the memory of that girl climbing about my neck and be- seeching me to save her will haunt me to my own grave" Captain Williams, nevertheless, was worthy of the name of hisillustrious prototype of the Oneida. He stood by his ship until the last soul was saved, or till safety was rendered absolutely sure.
 AMONG THEDEAD-HEARTREND SCENES.
 The scene at Meagher's Island was very sad. Bodies that had been recov- cred were laid in rows along the sloping ledgef and it required 8 strong nerve to walk among them and not succumb to tears. There were mothers and little children, strong men staring sightless, their eyes protruding and froth issuing from their mouths. Little children were there, bruised and bloody, but with that sweet expression which, strange as it may seem, usually comes of violent deaths.
 GHOULs PILLAGING THE CORPSEs.
 It is very sad to say that the bodies were pilfaged after they washed ashore and were then turned adrift again. An emigrant with thirty sovere1gns sewed in his vest was found, and all of them cut out. The robber of the dead was apprehended by the magistrate.
 A large trench was dug, in which the bodies of the poor unclaimed were put to rest.
 APPEARANCE or THE DEAD.
 A feeling deeper than reverent1al awe, sensation as might be experienced by one standing on the threshold of death, chilled to the very marrow the bones of the looker-on, and it was with slow step and half-averted glance that the gleaner of news approached this solemn assem- bly,. Then what sight met the eye ! There, on the brow of that rocky island, partly on the stone, partly on the grassy earth, wet with last nights rain and cut up by brown patches of moss, lay the aged and the young, the strong and the feeble, capitalized at last by the blow that fell so suddenly on them. Ay 1! man, woman and child had been alike swallowed up by the greedy deep. Side by side lay they, some of whose faces bore the imprint of that peace so much spoken of others were set resolutely, as if the last thought of the living crea- ture had been duty and others again revealed nothing of the final emotions that must have crowded the few fast passing minutes that elapsed ere eterni- ty opened up'before them.
 PICTURE OF THE coRPsEs.
 The dead lay in all positions, too half recumbent, stiffened by death, and icy cold wildly agitated, as if the struggle had been long and bitter easy and natural, making one almost believe that no agony had been suffered by the departed defensive, as if resisting the buffeting of the maddened waves on the horrid still night on the bare cliffs in all stages of dress, from the well-to-do emigrant with his clothes all on, evi- dencing his habits, to the weary sailor just relieved from his watch, who had turned in, cladi in wet garments women, whose dresses had been torn to rags by the action of the breakers children as they might have been in their beds but one and all carefully and reveren- tially covered where mutilation disfg- ured the form, for, alas {! the work of rescue needs a bold and interruptions hand, and the floating body must be gaffed as it washes by, and, no matter where the sharp hook strikes, whether on face or neck or body, it cuts and tears frightfully. Some corpses had been so terribly lacerated that sail cloth had been used to cover up the features and limbs which love itself could no longer recognize. Hands, arms, feet and legs that were bare were seen around, and all were bleached and shrunken horribly.
 DEATH APPEARS LIFE LIKE.
 Faces were discolored and blotched red, green-yea, all manner of hideous colors and, again, there were those fai1 and rosy as in life. Gazing upon some of these forms one would have sworn they slept, and so strong was the illu- sion that in stepping by them the step was light, for fear of waking those who never will wake until the sound of the "last trump"