The Mineral argus., 1884-10-23
The Story Ofa Famous shipwreok.


Ex-Lieut. Governor Young of Ohio be-
gan his military career ten years before
the civil war, as a private in the regular
artillery, and was one of the soldiers on
board the steamer San Francisco,
wrecked at sea, and went through ter
rible experiences which he narrated the
other day to a st. Louis reporter.
There were 700 passengers on boardthe
steamer, with 200 colored servants in
addition, to supply the steamship COM
panies with help on the California
coast. Among the passengers were five
companies of the Third Artillery, under
command of Colonel Gates. Included
among the passengers were thirty Ia
dies and twenty-five children.
"We left New York" said the gov
ernor, ION the 21st day of December,
1852. and were wrecked on the orn
ing of the oath day of December, owing
to the breaking of the engine in terri
fc gale, in which the ship foundered;
the masts were carried away with the
smokestacks. A portion of one of the
engines broke and the rudder chains
broke, leaving us a wreck. The gales
lasted thirteen days, from the "a Of De-
cember till the 7th of January, and the
weather was intensely cold. The ship
drifted toward the Gulf Stream.
about six days afterwards a great wave
swept over the ship, by which Major
Washington, Lieutenant Smith, Major
George Taylor and their families we're
carried away. / heard the shrieks of
people drowning, and saw, or imagined
I saw the head and arms of those strug-
Cling in the waves, and saw them gradu-
ally disappear without the possibility
of any help or any assistance being
rendered them. After that terrible
gale I was the only man left above deck,
having caught hold of two cross bars,
and thereby sustained myself and pre-
vented myself from being washed
overheard. On the 9th of January
a ship hove in sight and sailed around
us and went away without disclosing
what or who she was. The gale was
still blowing and she was a quarter of
a mile off. Then hope faded from
hearts as she disappeared. But the
next morning at ten o'clock the same
ship again approached us, and while
some distance away we could descIy the
following legend fastened to her mizzen-
mast: Be of good cheer; 1 will ave
or sink by you. Creighton The ship
was the Three Bells, Captain Creighton
in command. That gave life to our
~ooN1o oN1 roxvsroI kho.r hNOoo xf mas
cue. The strange ship sailed around
us for two days, putting herself in sight
during the continuance of the gale, and
on the third day. the 7th of January,
she came with another ship, which she
had hailed. She was the Autocrat, a
packet ship, on her way from New York
to Liverpool. She was loaded to the
scuppers with provisions of all kinds.
The master of this ship was named Shat
fer, and, in my opinion, was the mean
est man that ever lived, be-
cause, after 1913 men and woman had
been rescued from the boats, he refused
to break his bulk but fed the unfortun-
ates on oatmeal and bug-crackers which
had been left from the previous voyage of
emigrants. / was on board his ship.
So mean was he that he refused on one
occasion to give enough coal to fill a
sack to sink a poor girl who had died
on the passage, and the sailors made up
a ballast with old links of chain and old
iron to sink the dead girl. A remons-
trance was made to the captain by some
of the passengers. He said that he
would not be permitted to break bulk
without a special license of the CON
signees. Notwithstanding all this,
Congress in its generosity made a pres
emit to the captain of S. 5000.
We were landed at Liverpool and got
back to New York on the 10th of March,
1853. Captain Creighton, the no.
BILE man who said he would sail or sink
by us, did all he promised. His ship
was heavily laden with chloride of lime
and Scotch whisky, and when the boats
had picked up and brought the San
Francisco passengers IN board, includ-
ing women and children, he had no
scruples about custom houses, duties or
breaking bulk, but threw open his
matches and cast overheard enough Of
his freight to make room for about two
hundred of the rescued people who had
been taken by him, and landed them
safe at New York, he being on the way
from Glasgow to New York when he
fell in with the wrecked ship. Congress
voted Captain Creighton a large sum Of
money and a new ship called the New
Three Bells which was built at the
navy yard in Brooklyn, a beautiful model
of which was placed in the patent ONCE
at WASHINGTON