The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1875-06-17
New YORK, June 10, 1873.

New YORK, June 10, 1873.
The steamship State Of Georgia, which
arrived this morning, brought five sea-
men of the Dominion line steamship
Vicksburg, from Montreal for Liverpool,
which was sunk by the ice on Tuesday,
June lst. The men were picked up June
9TH, nearly dead from exposure, but since
then have been rapidly improving. They
tell fearful tale of distress. Other boats
were launched with large number OF
persons, but the greater number were
seen to perish without getting on the
boats. The Vicksburg went down in the
midst of ice, and the boat was surround
ed by icebergs and field ice when picked
up. The other boats have not yet been
heard from.
The five men rescued had their feet
and legs very much swollen, so much so
that their boots had to be cut from their
feet. They are still suffering from their
great exposure to the wet and cold, but
are recovering as fast as could be ex-
pected.
JAMES CROwLEY's s STATEMENT.
We left Quebec on Tuesday morning,
May 9th, with a ships crew of sixty
men all told and eight saloon passengers,
five gentlemen and three ladies, and
about twenty in the steerage, of whom
four were females The weather was
fine until nine O'Clock Sunday evening,
May 30th, when we fell in with field ice
and were sooA surrounded by it, The
ship was stopped until daylight, when
we proceeded again with but little ice in
sight, AT half past nine p. m. Monday
all hands were called toshorten sail. The
ship was stopped amongst heavy ice and
headed to the south, when we proceeded
at full speed to get clear Of the ice. AT
twelve o'clock, at half speed, we struck
the ice The engines were Immediately
reversed. The ship struck heavily aft on
the port quart er, carrying away the fans
of the propeller, and hole was knocked
through the plates on that quarter through
which the the ship made a great deal OF
water. Got sails over and stopped the
hole up so that but little water came in.
All hands were employed in heaving the
cargo overheard The second officer and
myself were taken from the cargo to clear
away the boats. This was about six
o'clock Il. m, Tuesday, June lst. The
captain ordered the forward wells to be
sounded and six inches of water was
found the after steerage then being full
of water. Tne main hold wells were
also sounded and five feet and half Of
water found. The captain called me on
the bridge and told me not to mind the
boat, and then called everybody aft and
told them to have no fears as he could
take the ship to st. Jolns, N. T. 1t was
then discovered that the fires in the en-
CINE room were drowned out. The cap
tain then gave orders to launch the boats
with their respective crews, and tolt
them to mind that the distance from st
Johns was one hundred and twenty mile
northwest. proceeded to launch No. |
which was my boat, and it was capsizeC
in launching, losing the chronomete
watch, charts, rudder and part Of thu
provisions. She was full of water
O'Brien and | bailed her partly out, wheI
Grogan, Wilkinson and Williams jumped
in. We could not hang on TO the Shil
owing to the sea on and the ice about
OBrien saw the captain on the bridg,
beckoning the boat back, we having drift
ed about one hundred and fifty yard
from the ship. We saw the second ofii
GERS boat lowered all clear with min
hands and himself in her. She cam
round the bow and pulled to windwart
about sixty yards. The ship sunk abou
ten o'clock, floating boat No 2 from he
chocks with the chief officer and abou
thirty people in her. She got clear an,
pulled to windward. 0Brien, after tn
ship went down, saw the captain an
some persons floating on bale OF ha,
among the wreckage. We tried all w
could to pick them up, but owing to tn
boat being half full of water and the ic
about were not able to do so. We ship
ped our mast, kept company with tn
other boats for about two hours, an
then lost sight of them to the westward
We decided then to steer south to &c
clear of the ice. Hove the boat to wit
an oar and bucket as drag till day
light on Wednesday morning. We ha
in the boat about three gallons of water
forty pounds of raw beef fourteen pound
of bread wet with salt water, and CON
pass which did not fall out when tn
boat capsized. Again We put sail on tn
boat and steered south, the wind blow
ing from the northWard and westwar