STEAMSHIP "VICKSBURG" CRUSHED BY ICEBERGS, SOUTH OF ST. JOHNS, N.F.

Auckland Star, Volume VI, Issue 1689, 17 July 1875, Page 2

STEAMSHIP "VICKSBURG" CRUSHED BY ICEBERGS, SOUTH OF ST. JOHNS, N.F.

FORTY SOULS, INCLUDING THE CAPTAIN, WENT DOWN ON THE SHIP.

New York, June 10th.—News is received here of the wreck of the stesmship Vicksburg, with the loss of 40 lives. Captain Cooper, of the steamer State of Georgia, which arrived at this port at an early hour to-day, makes the following statement: June sth, latitude 46 34 north, longitude 47 "58 west, we discovered a ships boat, with sails set on the port bow. I made immediately for her, and she proved to be boat No. 1 of the illfated , steamer Vicksburg, of Liverpool, belonging to the Dominion line, and commanded by Captain Bennett. There were five men in her in a very exhausted state. Their feet and legs were very much swollen, so mucn so that their boots had to be cut from their feet.

James Crowley, one of the rescued men, says: "The Vicksburg left Quebec on Thursday morning, May 27th, with a ship's crew of 60 men, all told, and eight saloon Dassengers. At 930 p.m. on Monday, all Bands were called to shorten sail. The ship was stopped among heavy ice, and headed to the south, when we proceeded at full speed to get clear of the ice. At 12 o'clock, at full speed, we struck the ice. The engines were immediately reversed. The ship struck heavily aft on the port quarter, <• carrying away the fans of the propeller, and a hole was knocked through the plates on that quarter, through which the ship made a great deal of water. The Captain gave orders to launch* the boats, with their respective crews, and told them to mind that the distance from St. John's was 120 miles northwest. The ship sunk about 10 o'clock, floating boat No. 2 from.her davits with the chief officer and •boat 30 j people in her. She got dear and

pulled to the windward. After the ship w en down, we saw the captain and some other person floating on a bale of hay, among the wreckage. We tried all we could to pick them np, but owing to the boat being half full of water and the ice about, were not able to do so." Interviews are published with several other survivors of the wreck. From these interviews it seems that those of the crew and passengers who escaped in the boats, abandoned the vessel and those on board to their fate in a manner which is somewhat discreditable, to say the least. It is also qnite clearly shown that nearly 50 instead of 40 lives were lost.