Year: 1872

The following details have been re- eeived of the loss of the sea-fshing vessel Huntsman, with forty-fve men, on the coast of Labrador, April 18th:

 A tremendous gale set in from the northeast, and the field-ice was quickly broken up into foes, and formed into one of those drifting "packs" that are so dangerous. Scores of huge ice-bergs were also moving about, rending the field-ice with their blows, as if with the hammer of Thor, and dashing against each other in wild commotion. The fierce nor'easter was pressing the ice upon the land, and under the lee of the vessel, grim and frowning, were the sav- age shores of Labrador. The only chance of the Huntsman lay in battling her way through this pack near the shore, so as to reach the more solid ice at some dis tance, where she might find harbor of refuge. For time she fought her way bravely, lodging the onsets of the foes, escaping marvelously the crush of the meeting icebergs, and seemed to have Q charmed life. But before she could clear the dreadful pack of ice-monsters that were roaring around, night came down, dark as pitch, and the storm seemed to increase with the night. Binding snow-drifts swept along the sky-the freezing spray fell upon the deck-the wind howled aloft, the noise of the e'crash- ing foes was awful. The ill-fated Hunts man was now at the mercy of the waves. and in the grim darkness nothing could be done to avoid peril. About g o'clock 8 tremendous sea struck her, hurling her bodily on Fish Rock, where she began immediately to break up. Three of the crew leaped overheard, hoping to escape, just as she was about to strike, but the poor fellows were struck by a foe and killed in a moment. The re- maining ffty-nine men took to the rig ging, as the sea was breaking over the ship but they were only & few minutes there when the masts went overheard, hurling the whole of them into the seeth- ing chaldron. Forty-fve of them sank to rise no more, or were crushed amid the floating ice-masses, the Captain and his son among the number. Seventeen managed to scramble upon the ice, but in most pitiable plight some had both arms broken, some broken legs and ribs. Only three escaped uninjured. What an awful situation for human beings Lying maimed on the ice, writhing in agony, the sea drenching them, the fierce nor easter chilling them, darkness around, the blows of the frost giants resounding on all sides and making night hideoNs. At any moment the ice on which they lay might be rent in pieces, and they hurled into the boiling surges. No won der they almost envied the fate of their comrades, now at peace beneath the waves. When morning at length broke, after the dreary hours of that terrible night, they saw vessel at some distance with the suspicious name of Rescue. The poor fellows managed to crawl along the ice, aiding one another as best they could, the sound men half carrying the others with broken limbs, and so they passed over nearly a mile of broken ice, and at length got on board the Rescue, more dead than alive. One of the sad dest features in this case is that the whole of the men who perished belonged to one little fishing village, called Bay Rob- erts, which is now literally "place oi weeping," for there is hardly family but has lost connection or member.