Morning journal and courier., 1881-12-09
The Wild Sea.
Thrilling Experiences on Board the
 Necknr.
From the New York Herald.

IT rom the NeW 1Orh heIaLu
 The Neckar, of the North German LIoyds line, came into her dock at Hoboken We'd nesday with her upper deck filtered with wreckage in every direction. She had six boats smashed up and carried away, and the fractured davits, twisted iron rails and sp1in- tered woodwork of the guards showed how great must have been the force of the seas that time after time swept over the vessel The bridge amidships was also carried clean away, the chart house was swept inside out by sea, the steerage companion was washed away and the water poured down by hun dreds of gallons among the emigrants the entrance to the saloon was smashed up and the saloon itself for time flooded to the depth of few inches. One sailor was un- fortunately lost, having been washed over board during the worst of the weather on the 23d ult. Another poor fellow had both his legs broken on the 26th, and almost all the officers and crew were more or less cut and bruised. The vessel behaved throughout the passage splendidly; not nut or bolt in the terrible strain admirably, and the hull of the storm-tossed vessel is as sound as the day she left Bremen on her perilous voyage.
 Chief Officer Stormer gave brief account of the voyage as he sat on camp stool i'll his cabin yesterday afternoon. He is bluff, frank faced sailor, and the bad gash across his nose, which he got when the bridge was washed away, testifes to the rough usage he got from the waves. His right hand was in a bandage, two of the fingers being lacerated through getting iammed in the twisted iron rails
 THE CAPTAINS STORY.
 ''We left Bremen on the 20th and South ampton on the 22nd," he said, land almost from the hour of starting until crossing the banks we had succession of the most terri ble gales and hurricanes I ever saw on the Atlantic The storms came with a westerly wind, but varying all the way from south to north. It was extraordinary weather through out; the squalls were simply terrific, and with regard to the gales, no sooner did one gale begin to abate little than another sprang up from another quarter. l cannot give you day by day record of our experi- ence, because when the navigation room was washed out away the log went along with the rest. On the 23d the weather was simply awful, and during the worst part of bad day we lost @ sailor, Helmers by name, a native of Germany. It was in the evening, and he had gone to set the masthead light The ship took dip just as he got forward and huge wave swept over the forecastle head, carrying him overheard. Of course in such 8 sea it was an utter impossibllity to lower away boat, and if that had been pos sible she would not have lived five minutes in it. However, we stopped the engines, cast ropes over and did all that lay in our power, but unavailingly, as the poor fellow was soon swallowed up by the waves. I do not recall that anything special happened until the 26th. The storms and gales continued every day till we reached the Banks. At half-past twelve p. m. on the day named terrific sea broke over the vessel It spent it's fury mainly on the navigation house and the bridge. The former place was con- pletely gutted and the doors and windows, in fact the whole side, wrecked. All the charts, papers and everything in the place were swept away. Fortunately no one was in there at the time or they would probably have been killed. I was on the bridge at the time it was carried away, but being in the center where it crosses the hur- ricane deck I saved myself by clinging to the deck rails. I was not even carried to the deck below and got off with this broken nose, which will soon be all right again. One of the sailors was not so fortunate. He was caught up by the sea and dashed along the deck, and when we managed to pick him up it was found that both the poor fellows legs were broken. His name is Nietsche; he will be taken to the hospital to-day.
 THE wHEELHoUsE CARRIED AWAY.
 s'During the afternoon of the 26th the weather improved little, but as it began to grow dark it came on to blow harder than ever. Shortly after five o'clock we shipped B tremendous sea, which carried away three of the boats on the port side. You can judge of the force of the volume of water
 
 broken davits and crumpled up strong iron rails. The debris of the boats smashed near 1y every pane of glass in the skyights of the engine room and great quantity of water forced it's way down among the machinery. Another sea soon afterward struck the saloon entrances, making short work of one side of it, and there was partial flooding of the sa- loon, which did not however, amount to much-only few inches of water, in fact, soaking the carpets, but fortunately not invading the staterooms to any extent. Yet another sea wrecked the wheelhouse and car ried away and smashed up yards of the deck railing. Fortunately, however, the steering apparatus was not in any way damaged. Although not quite so bad as on the 23d and 26th, the storms continued with little abate- ment of violence until the 29th, when we had another terrible experience. During the worst of the hurricane that blew on that day three more boats were smashed up and car ried away. The steerage companion was washed in and the wave swept down into the steerage, and, as you may imagine, giving the emigrants pretty bad scare. Steerage passengers have way of keeping their pos sessions all filtered about, and the poor folks things were all afoat in less time than it takes to tell about it. However, no one was hurt, the water soon subsided and it only remained to dry the peoples things, which was done as speedily as possible. One old woman died 1n the steerage, but It was Of old age and ex- haustion, not through any injury she re- ceived on the vessel. Happily the worst of the weather ended with the 29th, but until we had crossed the Banks we had 8 continu- ous gale, after which the weather moderated considerably.
 ssOf minor injuries sustained by the officers and crew I cannot begin to tell you, as scarcely man escaped unhurt, but there were no serious casualties, beyond those I have mentioned. The passengers behaved exceedingly well; of course there was, as might be expected, considerable alarm ex- hibited by the steerage passengers, but at no time did they conclude that they were going tolbe drownedior anything of that sort. I can safely say that in all my experience on the Atlantic, extending back over many years, never saw such terrific squalls and such continuance of gales and hurricanes"
 The passengers, who were mostly Ger mans, spoke in the highest terms of praise of the Neckar and Captain Wiligerod, his off