The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1879-11-29
IN A BINDING SNOW STORM.

PERILoUs VOYAGE OF THE STEAMER POTTER
DAM-HEAvY GALES AND SHARP FROST
The steamship Rotterdam. Captain Lucas, from
Rotterdam. reached her dock at Pavonia ferry.
Jersey City, late on Wednesday evening. She was
the object of much curiosity as she steamed nm the
river minus her maintopmast, which had been
broken off at the masthead in one of the succession
of storms she encountered on her voyage to this
port Her chief officer, Mr.. John vernes re-
counted the incidents of the passage to
HERALD reporter follows:-"We left Rot.
terdam on November and steamed direct TO
Plymouth to take in coal for our Journey. two
had coaled at Rotterdam it would have been impos-
sble for our ship to cross the bar as we were very
heavily laden We met with stir westerly winds and
very high northwesterly seas daily until Thursday,
November 20. on which day. at one O'Clock in the A.
ternoon. a heavy, binding snow storm came on ana
lasted until eleven o'clock at night Occasionally it
would hail tremendous stones aud then again snow
as hard as ever The wind at this time was
blowing east and southeast. About half
wind had Gained down somewhat but there was
heavy sea still running and the ship labored ire
had maintopsail and forebpsail spread The lat
ter torn into ribbons by the wind while the for
mer was carried away entirely. The ship continued
and north and blew tremendous hurricane the
heavy wild sea frequently throwing the ship almost
on her beam ends. The main topmast was snapped
oil clean at the masthead and we were shipping
water both ways. We were ut this time in Longitude
AZ deg. 80 min. west. latitude AZ deg 10 min north
''The heavy laboring of the ship" continued Mr.
Vernes 'caused considerable havoc in the steerage
where most of the hunks knocked down. This
obliged to transfer 1856 steerage passengers to
the second cabin. just before topnast was car
ried away we shipped a heavy sea. which completely
wrecked of tho deck houses carrying the greater
part overheard. The barometer tho afternoon of
the Goth went down to $3.50. and the following
day again up above 80. Later in the
day it registered 29.10. The snow covered the
decks to depth of three feet; it freezing hard
and the rolling of the ship made it almost
impossible to work her During the snow and hail
Storm you couldn't see your hand before your face
We kept the fog whistle going all the time. Captain
Lucas never left the bridge for thrtysix hours, and
and in fact all OF obliged to keep at 1t all
the time. We worked all night and neat day fixing
up the steerage, but 1t not easy task; for
old sailor as l am couldn't keep my legs, the
ship rolled 80 heavily; besides. she listed
heavily to starboard owing to the cargo having
shifted. However we got some Of tho passengers
back into the steerage the next dag. About one
o'clock in the afternoon it commenced to blow
again; there was big swell on. and during the
night another hurricane came up. From that day
we had strong winds daily from southeast and
southwest, which continued up to Wednesday, when
we arrived off Sandy Hook. The nights were in
variaby calm but the wind always bowling
up in the afternoon, and not until the oath did it
abate to any great extent. and there heavy
running all the time"