Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1875-02-25
TERRIBLE SEA DISASTER

TERRIBLE SEA DISASTER.
FT.e Cospses Found F-ozen to the Deck OF
Schooner.
Ist. Pierre CNewfoundland) Cor. Brooklyn Union.]
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 wrecked as to cause the owners
insufferable expense. But of all the ac-
cidents none are worthy of notice in view
of the appalling catastrophe which was
revealed here at the dawn of this morn
ing. Griillaume Perot, keeper of the st.
Pierre Lighthouse, was aroused by his
wife at half-past a. IN. to-day, she ex-
pressing fear that she had heard the
crashing of timber below where their
quarters in the lighthouse are. As the
sea or the wind was not running very
high at the time Perot himself could dis
tinctly hear at intervals the heavy bump
ing of what he knew to be vessel upon
the rocks. He dressed himself hurried
ly and ran to the house of French fish
erman named Folquet, who, with his
three sons and the lighthouse keeper,
went to the mcorings of their boats on
the beach. There they found a schooner
on her beam e.ds, and she was being
badly shattered by successive collisions
with the heavy boulders that prop out
from the headland. 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 rudder-
less craft was stranded and they could
board her with the aid of planks laid
upon the lopsided hull, which WAS liter
ally cased with ice, as were the decks,
the rigging, and the stumps of her dis
mantled 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 it. The
steering gear had all been swept away
with the rudder, and the vessel must
have been for weeks at the mercy of the
elements. 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 heavy seas, and the Cap
tain's stateroOm and mates hunks were
sOlidly cased with ice. There was box
OF matches and some kindling wood
frozen in 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. 1t wore
heavy reefing jacket, muller, sea-boots
and "sou 'wester hat. The fishermen
think that this was the Captain. 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 witnessed 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 di-
rection of the Project of the Police, they
were laid in heated apartment of the
Jail to be thawed out. The varied BLUSH
and snow-white spots On the limbs, ears,
noses and fingers of the dead men re-
vealed the fact that they had been badly
frostbitten before death, and in that
way, perhaps, disabled from doing ship
duty.