Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1878-10-25
Wreck Of the steamer Express.
ABor-r TWENTY LIVES LOST.

THE STAR Yesterday published the particulars
OF the total loss OF the steamer Express, Capt.
James T. Barker, OF the Potomac Transport
ton line. which foundered in Chesapeake bay,
between No-Point and Barren Island, 90 miles
from Baltimore. OF thirty persons on board it
is feared all but nine or ten were lost.
AMONG THE SAVED.
Stephenson Bro, of this city received the
following dispatch from Baltimore this mOrn-
ing: "StOne (clerk), Baily (engineer) Douglas
twheelmanl, Willie Barker captains SOM, and
hye colOred men arrived this morning all right.
A. NEEDHAM, JR.'
NARRATIVE OF SURVIVOR.
James Douglas a quarteTmaSter of the En-
press who was one OF three persons picked up
by the schooner Samuel r. Waite reached Bal
tImore yesterday on the steamer Maggie, and
gave the following narrative to reporter of the
baltimore Sun. He says: The Express was first
struck by the storm at midnight. The gale in
creased In fury until. at O'Clock, it had be-
come furious hurricane. The steamer had
reached the Patuxant, but would not venture in,
ana kept on hoping to get into harbor lower
chOr, but the chain parted almost as soon as it
went over. The Express was going along as
Wen as could be expected until, between $50
and 6 O'Clock a. M, when she was in the mid
die OF the bay, between N0-Point and Barren
Island, the wind Veered to the southwest,
and the steamer Express was thrown over
in less than ten minutes. She labOred hea-
Willy in the trough OF the sea a few minutes,
entirely unmanageable, and then rolled over
until her hull was bottom upward. The saloon
AID upper jOinerS work parted from the hull as
the steamer careened: Those on board, passen-
gers and crew, had barely time to Chamber to
the upper side Of the boat as She turned over
and such as did not seize parts of the saloon or
other timberS and float Off with them must have
been carried under and lost at once. Four of
the crew were below, two white and two COL
ored, and were no doubt drowned. Mr.. Douglass
saw Matilda ISaacS the chambermaid, clinCing
to the upper side OF the huh; saw F. j. Stone
the clerk, go overheard in his night clothes and
believed that Mrs. TarletOn and infant of st
InigoeS, passengers, were lost at the outset of
the disaster. Mr.. Douglass secured piece of
plank from the saloon and f1Oated from the
wreck. He saw Capt. Barker and others do the
definitely who they were. At daybreak he could
not certainly make out any person as afiOat on
the wreck stuff. What might look like q man or
woman may only have been some furniture or
cargo buffeted by the waves. He drifted about
for seven hours, until early in the afternoon of
hauSted, with the slender plank going to pieces
in his grasp, on which life alone depended he
was picked up by the schooner and kindly
treated by capt. Parks, who also rescued Capt
Barker and a cOlOred passenger. The crew of
the schooner told Mr.. Douglass that boats from
the propeller Shirley, then ashore on Barren
Island, had gone out and saved seven men. in
other quartermaSter, and brother to the mar
ratOr, and at least four cOlOred people. but of
the correctness OF this information he had no
other proof. While he was drifting about on
Wednesday morning Mr.. Douglass says he saw
schooner picking up barrels of Oil and other
freight that had belonged to the wreck, and the
vessel pa1d no attention TO him in his periOuS
situation, nor made any effort to save his life
He says he must have drifted twenty miles from
the scene OF the disaster when he was saved.