Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1884-12-26
4 VESSEL WRECKED.
rERRIBLE sUFFERINGs or rHE IN
FORTUNATE CREB.
The sole survivor Tells ritnui story Of How
He Crawied over Three Miles Of snow
to Place OF safcty-SiS
Lives Lost.

The story of another wreck comes from
Sable Island, y. =. Ii Is one of the Saddcst
vet reported from the graveyard of the Attain
tic. The brig \. :. H., Captain LCmarChand,
owned hy q. Meyer a Co., ut ST Pierre, Mi
quclon, sailed from that place on the 18th
inst, with II cargo of dry fish for Boston and
crew of seven men. During the great gale
of Friday night last she dashed To- pieces on
Sable islandand only one man only survives
to tell the story. This was the first mate, who
arrived in the Dominion government steamer
Landsdowne Thursday night and made the
following statement:
The day after leaving ST. Pierre we en-
countorod heavy winds from the southwest,
which continued and changed next day to
north and northeast, accompanied by heavy
snow. At four o'clock that evening we made
out West End light of Sable Island and Il few
minutes later the vessel dashed upon the sand
bank. The crew had suffered terribly from
exposure and cold during the proceeding
thirty-siN hours and were thoroughly dis
hartened when the ship struck. The first
dash against the sand-har knocked the bottom
out of the vessel and she soon became match
wood, the beach being strewn with debris.
Three of the crew were washed overheard
when the vessel struck and found speedy re-
| lief in death. Four of us were len on deck.
| rigging Spars, etc, which were drifting on
| the surf breakers. We were i'll this position
| for nearly an hour. Darkness was setting
! i'll and a snow-storm was raging with great
| violence. Being driven about with binding
! force by the heavy winds, the prospects of
| our being saved were gloomy indeed. The
! steward became frenzied and prCferring death
/ To further suffering gashed his throat from
| ear to ear with razor and then jumped into
| the surf After floating on the debris for an
! hour, Captain Lemarchand n sailor and N.Y.
| self were washed ashore, but we had only
| escaped the horrors Of the deep to face the
| tcrrors of the cold. The thermometer was
10 degrees below zero. Wet through. our
! clothes frozen stiff, our hands and feet frost
! bitten, almost exhausted in the darkness,
| with snow and sand dashng against our
! faces like pebbles, we were in despair. We
| could then see rays of the lighthouse, three
! miles distant across the sSnd-har.
| "The three of us started on that dismal
| journey, but after one mile the captain and
| the sailor lay down from exhaustion and
| were soon frozen to death. ! pressed on
| toward the light God only knows how GOT
over the sand. cannot begin to describe il
10 you. | shall never forget the horrors OF
| that night When within quarter of mile
| of the light fell down exhausted tn die, but
| after few minutes | raised myself, made
| nnal effort 10 save my life and Crawled the
rest of the distance on my hands and knees
| reaching there at two o'clock in the morning
| six hours after leaving the frozen bodies o
| my comrades. After while recovered from
exhaustion sufficiently to tell the story of tn,
| wreck.
At daylight officials started for the scene o
the disaster, but could only find debris cover
| ing the beach. The bodies of the captain
and sailor were found and Inferred il
the sand whore they fell. The suicid,
stewards body was washed ashore and buriec
near where the vessel struck"
Captain Guildford, of the Landsdownc, VIII,
has had over forty years experience on thi'
coast, says the late gales were among th
worst he ever saw. The snow storm of Fri
/ day night was so thick he could not see tn
first officer at the other end of the brig. Tn
vapor from the water and cold at Sable Islam,
rose to the height of thirty feet.