The Ouachita telegraph. [volume] (Monroe, La.) 1865-1889, 1878-08-09
MONROE, LOUISIANA, FRIDAY, AUGUST s, 1878.
the night. The passengers wcre asleep.

the night. Tho passengers were asleep.
The Normandy was q very large
vessel, aud perhaps the handsomcst OF
the Channel packets six hundred tons
burthen aud two hundred and twenty
feet long and twenty-five feet broad
she was "young," as the sailors say
she was but seven years old. She had
been built in 1868.
Tho fog gradually thickened the
ship had left the Southampton river
and gained tho open sea, nearly 1T
teen miles beyond the Needles. The
packet advanced slowly. 1t was four
o'clock In tho morning.
Tho 0bscurity was absolute-a kind
Of low sky enveloped the steamer, 50
that the points of her Masts were
hardly distinguishabie.
There Is nothing so terrible rs those
blind ships which travel In the night.
Suddenly, through the fog, loomed
up q great blackness-a phantom, q
mOuntain-a promontory Of shadow
rushing through foam and piercing the
darkness. This was the Mary, a huge
screw-steamer on her way from Odessa
to Grimsby, laden with five hundred
tons of wheat-enormous speed, prodi-
gious weight. The Mary bore straight
There Is no means of avoiding such
| collisions, 80 suddenly do these phan-
toms Of ships tower up through the
seafog. These are encounters without
approaches. Before one has fully seen
them, one Is dead.
The Mary rushing on with all her
steam-power, took the Normandy
amidships and disembowcted her.
The Mary, herself injured by tho
shock, recoiled and stopped short In
her course.
There were twenty-eight seamen on
board tho. Normandy, waiting
ono passengers of whom twelve were
women.
The shock was frightful. In an in
slant everybody was on dcck-men,
women, children, half naked rln-
ming, shriektng, weeping. The water
was rushing into the leak in furious
torrents. The engine furnace, half
Submerged by the flood, roarcd and
craclkled.
The ship had no watcr.tight bulk
heads, there were no life-prcservers.
Standing erect at his post, Captain
Harvey cried:
tsSilence, all and listen. Lower tho
boats. The women first; then the
passengers; then the crew afterwards
the baggage. There are sixty souls to
save" There were sixty and ono /;
but he had forgotten himself.
Tho boats were lowered. There was
u rush. That rush might capsfze the
boats. Ocklef0rti, the lieutenant, and
the three quartermasters, Goodwin,
Bennett and West, held back that
crowd all wild With horror. TO sleep,
and then suddenly and at once to die,
Is frightful.
But above tho shrieks and the
tumult was heard tho grave, stern
voice of tho captain, and this brici
dialogue took place in the darkness
"Englnccr Locks ~
"Captain?"
elbow is the furnace ?"
"DroWned OUT
s:The fre?"
"Extinguished."
"Thc machinery ?''
| "Doad.''
Tho captain called out:
"Lioutcnant OcklefOrd -
Tho lieutenant answered
"Present!"
elbow many minutes have we?"
stTwcnty."
"That will bc enough" continued
the captain. "IIct each ono embark
in his turn. Lieutenant Ocklcford,
| have you got your pistols "'
eyes, captain.'
"Blow out the brains Of tho first man
who attempts to pass before II woman"
All were silent. No one offered any
| further resistance to orders the crowd
felt that great strong soul above it.
The Mary, on her part, had lowered
her boats to succor the victims OF the
wreck she had made
The work Of saving proceeded with
order, and almost without struggle.
There were, as there always must be,
sad scenes OF selfishncss, but there were
also pathetic instances OF sclf-lcvotion.
Harvey, impossible at tho captains
post, commanded, ruled, directed, oc-
cupicd himself with everything and
everybody, governed all that agony by
his iron calm, and seemed to issue his
| orders to the catastrophe itself. The
shipwreck seemed to obey him.
Once he cried out:
"Savc Clement ~
Clement was the cabin -boy-a child.