The Portland daily press., 1879-11-10
The Collision the Result Appar
entity of Gross Carelessness.
A NEWBURYPORT SCHOONER SUNK
AND FIFTEEN LIVES LOST.
Loss Of Captain Howgate's Arctic Yes
sci.

first assistant engineer, EDWARD Jones, w Ill.
Farrell, Patrick Flynn and Luke Kelly fire.
men; Alex. Rose coal passer; Isaac Hammond,
chief clerk; John Foster, porter; Catharlne
Cross, stew ardess, and George Holland and
Moses Pinckney, walters. Four of the passen-
gers and two of the crew were placed on board
an unknown bark and sent to New York.
The Champion had life-saving apparatus for
1863 persons, and, at her official inspection Dec.
g. 1878, was in first class condition. She was
brg-rigged, and was laden with general
argo which was insured She was valued at
about two hundred thousand dollars. She
sailed from New York Thursday last, two days
before her time. This, the agents say, was due
to the fact that their business had greatly in
creased, which necessitated the vessels early
departure. Capt. Lockwood has been in the
employment of company thirteen years
He lives in Charleston, and is unmarried. A
good many of the crew were colored men,
Some residents of Charleston. The following
dispatch was sent to Whaley & Son, agents OF
the line at Lewes, Del. by the New York
agents today:
Please see that those saved have the best accom-
modations the ship affords and tell both captain
and steward to take particular care of them.
The ship Lady Octavia is an old iron ship,
built of the heaviest plate iron, OF ll72 tons,
built in England in 1854. She was from Rio
for Baltimore, with cargo OF coffee She is
owned in Greenock by Adams q Co.
CAPT. LocKwoOD's STATEMENT.
Following is Cast Eockwood's statement of
the sinlino u the steamship Champion: eve
had a remarkably quiet voyage up to the time
of the accident When we lett New York the
weather was foggy, but this cleared away be-
fore we were ten hours out. On the morning
of the collision 1 lett my room about 800 o.
clock, and returned to the pilot house Tor
few seconds 1 had hardly got back to my
room again, when I heard some one sing out,
"Sail ahead, and hard by!" l jumped into the
pilot house, rung the bell to stop the steamer,
and then to back at full speed, saw that
ship was coming down upon us, and that
N. E., and we were going S. S. w. half w.
The ship had full sail on and was headed right
at u.s. We were going under steam, and had
just set the foretopsail. She struck us right
on the bows of the cathead on the starboard
side, and crushed right into Us, staving in our
whole bows I was afraid that my vessel
would sink in almost an instant, and at once
ordered the first mate to go forward and see
what water, if any, the Champion was making;
but, before he had time to return, L found that
my ship was fast sinking. [ then ordered the
second mate to get the boats in readiness;
that is, to cut them loose from my ship, as it
was fast going down. [ also ordered him to
have the ife-raft cut adrift, SO that it might be
rendered useful in case the steamer went
down under foot, as 1 was afraid she would
warn the lady passengers of their great dam
GER rushed into the cabin and cried aloud:
Ladies, the ship is going down! You have
not moment to spare. Never mind your
clothing; come out at once! l believe there
were but three ladies there, but of this
I am not sure. None of them came out,
and the only response / received was loud
screaming and holloing They could have
come out very easily ii they wished, but l
suppose they became panic-stricken
MY duties called me away, and L was still in
hopes that the women had obeyed my sum-
mons, but unfortunately I found out after
terward that they had not. believe that they
were all lost. There has been but one female
saved, and that is the stewardess, Catherine
Cross. When the ship went down, l was
stood number Of the crew. l said Boys, save
yourselves, and don't mind me- Each of1hem
then took life-preserver end expressed his
determination to stand by me. After few
seconds, said: Throw the llfe-raft overheard,
I'll come afterward. Jump for your livesr
This was speedily done, and they left me. l
was the last to leave the vessel, and went down
with her. 1 soon came to the surface again.
This may seem strange, but it IS, nevertheless,
a fact. kept near the surface of the water,
and so, suppose did not experience the sue
ton of the vessel while she was going down.
When I came to the top of the water L found
myself close to the life-raft, on to which was
pulled by those already there [ have been
commander Of the Champion for the past thir-
teen years. Mr.. Leonard, the first officer, was
in charge when the collision took place. He
ran forward the moment it occurred, and that
was the last l saw of him. He was tried and
experienced seaman, and had sailed with me
for over fourteen years, He was man about
48 wears of age, q resident of Brooklyn,
and he leaves wife AMI two children. My
room, where L went just before the collision,
adioined the pilot house: in fact, you could al
most step from one to the other. The Cham
pion carried about five lifeboats and a lfe-raft.
/ understand that four passengers and two sea-
OH a
along some time after the collision l have
heard since that she was a Norwegian, but
that is all. None of us know her name, or
anything about her, beyond the fact that
she was evidently bound north. The Lady
Octavia, the ship that ran into us, saved nine
lives. We saved the reston the life-raft, ex-
cept, of course, those who were picked up by
the unknown bark. The night was beautiful,
starlight one, with little moonlight. We
were about thirty miles from land, from Cape
Henlopen which bore between fifteen and
sixteen miles east-north-east of Five Fathom
Bank lightship. We were in about fourteen
fathoms of water at the time. The last saw
of the Champion, or at least her wreck, the
topmasts were about two feet out OF water. L
would rather not, just at present, say anything
about who was to blame for the collision, but
I think the ship could have avoided it.
STATEMENT OF CAPTAIN JOHNSON.
Capt. James johnson of Greenock, the mas
ter of the Lady Octavia, makes the following
statement: "My ship arrived at Delaware
breakwater from Rio Janeiro for orders on the
23d of October, and sailed for New York about
10 o'clock Thursday night last About 2.15
o'clock yesterday morning when we had sailed
some thirty miles, the collision occurred. The
night was clear, and the moon was shining
brightly. We were moving at the rate OF
three and one-quarter or four knots per hour
My chief mate reported a steamer ahead ten
minutes before the accident happened. The
ctaamar continued on her course and L on
mine, and we approached each other; but, inn
mediately before the crash, the man on the
lookout Of my vessel reported the starboard
light from our port bow, and then she shifted
and her port light became visible, showing she
had turned on her course. We had man on
the lookout constantly, but there could have
been no lookout ON the Champion. Her cap
tain Nockwood) subsequently told me that he
had altered his course moment before the
collision, but assumed no reason for doing SO,
and stated that he did not see my ship, which
indicatessthat my idea in regard to the lookout
was correct Indeed, was informed that the
man who shood have been On the lookout was
aloft loosening sail The steamship sank in
four minutes after the collision, and there was
terrible panic. l at once ordered the boats
lowered, and, in fact, they were in the water
before the steamer went down. Two of her
crew jumped on board my-ship at the time she
struck. In all 80 persons were lost, among
them the first mate and five women. Twelve
VI tH0 uiloSiuS Woio pdooOHSOlc' mean w soy
that the steamer came at us end on, and there
was no possible means of avoiding her. 1t
was impossible to tell the extent of her injur-
les, she went down so quickly and there was
so much confusion. -Four of the passengers
and two of the crew were sent to New York in
a bark that came alongside, but did not get
their names or the name of the vessel they are
on"
NEW YORK Nov. 9.-Bark Petitcodice (Br),
Capt Sleeves, which arrived to-day from Glou-
cester via Delaware Breakwater, has on board
four passengers and two of the crew of the
Champion which was sunk near the entrance
of Delaware Friday morning
Schooner Lost and Fifteen Men Drowned.
NEW YORK, Nov. S.-The Austrian bark
Rebus, arriving in port this afternoon, brings
news of the loss of the schooner Petrol and
fifteen lives, of her passengers and crew, in
Guiding her captain She also brings six sur
vivors from the same vessel, all that are left of
company of q persons. Capt. Ivancich of
the Rebus reports that, when "a days out from
Trieste, from which port he sailed October 1,
he espied the floating hull of dismaSted veS-