The Manitowoc tribune. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1866-1878, 1875-02-25
A TERRIBLE SEA DISASTER.
Five Corpses Found Frozen to the
Decks of a Schooner.
from the Brooklyn Union.)

From the Brooklyn Union.I
ST.. PIERRE, N. F., Jan. 28.- During
the terrible weather which prevailed on
this coast since the new year set In great
damage has been done to shipping IN the
adjacent harbors, and several wharves
and moorings have been so badly wreck
ed as to cause the owners lnsufferable
expense. But of all the accidents
none are worthy of notice in view of the
appalling catastrophe which was reveal
ed at the dawn of this morning. Mr..
Guidaume Perot, keeper of the st. Pierre
Lighthouse, was aroused by his wife at
half-past S a. m. to-day, she expressing
a fear that she had heard the crashing
of timber below where their Qarters IN
the lighthouse are As the sea or the
wind was not running very nigh at the
time Perot himself could distinctly hear
at intervals the heavy humping OF what
he knew to be a vessel upon the rocks.
He dressed himself hurriedly and ran to
the house of French fisherman named
Foluuet, who, with his three sons and
the lighthouse-keeper, wenG to the moor
ings of their boats on the beach. There
they found schooner on her beam ends,
and she was being badly shattered by
successive collisions with the heavy
boulders that prop out from the head
land The fishermen launched boat,
but before they were ready to put out
for the wreck she veered about and was
fast drifting on the beach. In less than
fifteen minutes the rudderless craft was
stranded and they could board her with
the aid of pianks laid upon the lopslded
hull, which was literally cased with ice,
as were the decks, the rigging, and the
stumps of her dismasted spars. Out OF
the galley two human legs protruded,
and, upon investigation, the fishermen
found that they belonged to the corpse
of a colored man, whose face was frozen
to the deck and whose body was stiff and
hard as the ice that surrounded 1t. The
steering gear had all been swept away
with the rudder, and the vessel must
have been for weeks the atmercy of the ele-
ments. In the forecastle three bodies
were found which had been either frozen
or starved to death, for no provisions
could be found on board. A corpse was
found on its face beside coil of rope
near the galley, and like the rest, it was
as hard as a stone imbedded in surface
of ice. The cabin windows had been
broken in by the heavy seas, and the
Captains stateroom and mates hunks
were solidly cased with ice. There was
a box of matches and some kindling
wood frozen to the ice near where the
stove or ''bogy' had stood before the
severe lurching of the vessel or the force
of the seas threw it down. A corpse
was found at the downward end of the
cabin with the stove shading the face.
It wore heavy reefng jacket, muffier,
sea-boots, and ''sou' -wester" hat. The
fishermen think that this was the Cap
tain. The two mates, they say, must
have been drowned, as no trace Of them
except their trunks and clothing could
be found. The rigid, CHASTITY aspects of
the corpses struck terror into the very
souls of the hardy fishers who had wit
messed many a horrible scene of death
on that stormy coast. They had to use
axes to literally cut the bodies out of the
ice, and by direction of the Project of
Police here they were laid in a heated
apartment in the Jail to be thawed out
The varied blush and snow-whlte spots
on the limbs, ears, noses, and fingers of
The dead men revealed the fact that
they had been badly frostbitten before
death, and in that way, perhaps, disabled
from doing ship duty. The schooner's
name is the Louis Patineau, of Gaspe
Bay, Quebec. Her papers have been
handed over to the British Consular
Agent here, Mr. Metcalf, who will make
all due inquiries. The cargo, consisting
of lumber, has been claimed by the
fishermen