The Lamoille news. (Hyde Park, Vt.) 1877-1881, 1880-09-15
Loss of a Steamship,

The steamship Vera Cruz, which seiieo
L.o,,a Novg Yorl, for Havana and Vera Cruz,
Mexico. has been wrecked in hurricane on
the coast of Florida. The first intimaloh Oh
the disaster was received when portions Vi Tue
steamships mail and several coIpses noa,eu
ashore on the Florida coast. Inc positiVe
knowledge that the steamer had foundered
was afterwards obtained from the lips OF thir-
teen survivors, eight sailors and three passen-
gers. who confirmed the rumors OF the YES
sells loss. There were about ~ persons
ON board the steamer-28 OF these being pas
sengers and the rest comprising the oIleefs
and crew. Among the passengers was MAJOR
General Alfred A. Torbert, Federal cavalry
officer and intimate friend OF Generals Graht
and Hancock, and who has been United States
consul at Paris and Havana and minister AT
Central America. The story OF the disaster
as told in the first dispatches to the New
York Herald, is as follows:
On Saturday ai ernoon the steamer encoun-
| tered strong gale, which soon Increased IN
| fury. The sea ran very high and the CITY oil
Vera Cruz labored heavily but sturdily Tor
| some hours. Every effort was mado to keep
| her before the wind, but it was tound neces'
sary at one o'clock on Sunday morning
throw out a drag to keep her head about.
| This secured the desired result tor the time
being, but the gale had now grown to hurri-
cane and immense waves began breaking over
| the doomed steamer.
Each succeeding wave tore away pieces OF
her upper works until her deck was finally
swept clear, even the rigging being torn and
shattered. The drag ceased to fulfill its tunc.
tons, aud as the seas rose over her bows ana
deuged her decks they soon reached the iuf-
nae 8 and exlinguished the fires, the hatchps
having been torn from their lastenings by the
pillows
The fires being out soon put a stop to the
encines, and the City OF Vera Cruz lay at the
| mercy OF the waves aud storm. Not even tho
donkey pump could be worked to relieve the
vessel of the water she was rapidly making in
her hold. In this extremity Captain Van
Size ordered his men to throw overboa' the
deck load, task that had been begun about
midnight. But the sea was too heavy to per-
nit the crew carrying out their captains
men were carried off their feet by incoming
seas and many OF them washed overheard.
Captain Van Size and his officers acted cour.
ageously in the performance OF their seveia
duties, but were one by one washed overheard
IRON their stations as the steamer labored il
the trough OF the sea. As near as can be
ascertained, the captain persisted fully an hou
before the vessel finally euccumbed, and whcI
nearly ali the hands we're lest. The lew
remaining alive on board now saw that thcr,
was no hope, so they took to tn,
lite preservers, the lfeboats havin,
, already disappeared; in iect, every boat anC
lite RAFT was stove in when the top hamper
went by the board The sailors and tn,
j. passengers then seized fragments OF spars
: stateroom doors or any other movable article
: that would float, and awaited the end all knew
- to be at hand.
Tho surviving sailors state that tho vesse
: was about thirty miles off shore at this time
the hurricane being one of terrible fury. b.
the time the shipwrecked men and women ha
, equipped themselves with their imprompt
buoys the final catastrophe occurred, it ben
then, as already stated, about hali-past five A
N. With one awful and tremendous lurch tn
: steamer suddenly sank into the ocean, tn
= swirl carrying down many of the living.
the seventy souls on board before the storr
Q began on Y thirteen have reached the Ian
a alive. These thirteen were all men, three {
them passengers, eight deck hands, one eng
neer and one oiler. They were all in tn
water bulfeted by a tempestuous sea. for froi
twenty -iour 10 twenty six hours, and there
no doubt that but tor this ordeal many NOR
would have been saved, tor there can be bu
little doubt that several persisted after tn
laundering of the steamer through exhaustion
Such is the story OF the wreck, which, thoug
Eiet, clearly tells the tale.