LOSS OF THE CABLE STEAMER LA PLATA AND SIXTY LIVES.

Grey River Argus, Volume XVI, Issue 2048, 2 March 1875, Page 2

LOSS OF THE CABLE STEAMER LA PLATA AND SIXTY LIVES.

[SCOTSMAN, DEC. 5.] Intelligence was received on Thursday of the loss of the cable steamer La Plata, with, it is supposed, 60 lives. The Antenor, while on her way home from China, sighted on Monday morning last, near the mouth of the English Channel, a fine large vessel, carrying British colors and flying signals of distress. This vessel turned out to be the Gareloeh, of Glasgow, an emigrant vessel, which had on board 15 survivors of the La Plata, which had gone down the day before. The captain of the Gareloch wished to transfer these persons to tha homeward-bound English vessel. Assent was immediately given, and 14 were received on board the Antenor, it having been found necessary to leave on board the Gareloch, in medical care, a boy who had been reduced to a state of great nervous depression. They were mostly pallid in appearance, and seemed to have suffered greatly. On the arrival of the Antenor at Gravesend on Wednesday, her captain first saw to the comfort of the 14 unfortunate persons on board, and it may truly be said that the greatest possible kindness was shown them. NARRATIVE OF THOMAS CiARKSON, ABLE SEAMAN. The La Plata left Gravesend on the morning of Thursday, the 26 th ult., in charge of a pilot, with cable and apparatus for Rio Grande do Sul and Monte Video. On Friday morning we arrived off St. Katherine's Point, Isle of Wight, and landed the pilot. The ship then steamed down the Channel, with a heavy sea, and the wind increasing towards a gale. Early on Sunday morning we shipped several tremendous seas, one of which carried away a man and our port jollyboat, davits and all. The wind at this time was blowing with almost hurricane force. About half-past seven the same morning, another heavy sea dashed over our decks, carrying with it another of our boats. The gale still increased, and about half-past nine the engineer, Mr Dilks, reported the ship making a great quantity of water. It was agreed to thrown overboard some of the cable with a view of lightning the vessel. The engine fires went out, and the second mate then ordered us to set the maintop, the foretop, and the foresail, and with these the ship was put before the wind, but she lay like a log in the sea. The water increased, and it became evident that she was gradually sinking by thestern. All efforts to pumooutthe water werefutile. With pieces of wood obtained by breaking up packing cases, and waste cotton soaked in paraffin

oil, a fire was made in the donkey engine and Gray, the driver, manfully stuck to his post, but it was evident the time had come when we must try and save ourselves. At first there was very little confusion on board, as many of the men believed the vessel would wear out the gale ; but when we saw our peril in reality, two of my mates, Alexander and Peters, aaid we would hang together to the last. Accordingly we got the starboard quarter boat adrift, and got into her. I tried to get a keg of water, but could not lift it over the rail With a hawser we made a kind of fender to protect the boat from being staved, as she was being violently dashed against the side of the sinking ship. I saw Captain Dudden standing near the chart-room, with the chief engineer by his side. The doctor, with the second and third mates, was on the bridge trying to launch one of the patent rafts. The captain was cool, but appeared to realise the danger of his position. We were in the boat a long time before we could get clear away. The first and second stewards, three engineers, and several other men, making twelve in all, came to us, aud as I was appointed coxswain, I ordered the men to seize the oars and back away from the vessel as quickly as possible, as she was then sinking rapidly. At this time there was a fearful cro3s-sea running, and the boat was in the greatest danger. We saw other boats afloat, each full of men who had left the ship, but two of them soon disappeared, being either stove in against the side of the vessel or capsized by the waves. Numbers of men were seen desperately battling for life, rising and falling with the sea, and shouting piteously for help, which we could not give them. At this time the vessel had subsided so much that only her masts and sails and the top of the funnel were visible. Some of the men succeeded in reaching the masts, and to them they clung as the last resource, whilst dozens of others were floating around. We tried to save all that came near to us. One poor fellow, Bob Mackenzie, I believe, cried, out " In the name of God, Bave me !" Our boat was then edging towards the steamer again, and I was obliged to sheer her off ; else we should have been capsized. Mackenzie swam close to us, and got his hand on the gunwale of the boat. Again he implored me to save him, and I replied, " I cannot look after you this moment, but I will directly." As soon as I got our boat from the wreck I stooped, seized hold of his monkey jacket with my teeth, and dragged him in. Then a boy came up wearing a life belt, and I saved him, too ; as also another youth, who otherwise must have succumbed in a second. We were now fifteen in all, and our little boat was dangerously overloaded. Peter ELughson was the stroke oar, and James Alexander pulled second, and it was wich the greatest difficulty we succeeded in getting away from the vessel. The funnel had disappeared, and there were only the masts and sails to be seen, and the sea was washing over them fiercely. In a second or so we were defeaned by an explosion like unto a thousand cannons being discharged at ot»ce. The masts and sails, with numbers of human beings hanging to them, were shot into the air, while the sea for a considerable distance wa3 full of wreckage of all kinds. To adequately describe the scene at this moment would be simply impossible. The falling sails carried nearly all who were in the water beneath the surface, and so ended their troubles. The heads of many of those who were struggling seemed to fall on their arms, and we saw no more of them. The force of the explosion seemed to still even the fury of the waves, for all around the spot where the La Plata had disappeared the sea for some minutes was as calm as a lake. I heard the voice of a little chap calling for help, but I could not get to him, and was obliged to say, " You are too far ; we cannot get near you." I believe that everybody afloat was drowned immediately after the explosion, for it was impossible that any one could have survived it, so violent wa3 the shock. The ship went down in a regular whirlpool, stern first, and all must have been pressed down by the sails with her. I saw one of the patent rafts afloat, but ahe turned over and floated away with the wreckage. I do not believe the boilers burst, because the engine fires were extinguished fully three hours before the La Plata sank. Neither did the engines break down, for they were working with what little steam was left until the last. She must have taken the water in somewhere below. At all events I am sure she did not fill from the decks, for as long as I was there they dried between each sea. Many of the men changed their clothes when the danger was perceived, and I recollect saying to somebody, "It will be very little use, as there will not be much struggling if we get into such a sea ;" and so it proved. We did all we could to save our unfortunate shipmates, but saw no more of them. Then we fastened a bucket on our own boat to keep her head on the sea, and so we managed to keep afloat. About four o'clock on the Sunday afternoon we sighted a steamer, apparently only two miles off. It was blowing very hard then, and she was under sail as well as steam. We all shouted as loud as we could, and we thought she was edging up to us, but she steamed away, and all hope disappeared. We kept on rowing, and night set in. We had no provisions, excepting a small piece of cheese and a bottle of gin, and our position was fearful. We expected every moment to be swamped, as our boat made much water. Two or three men were employed bailing with buckets the whole time, whilst the whole of us were saturated with the waves and the spray. There was nothing but a raging sea and darkness all around us. Some time about midnight, as near as we could guess, the wind changed: to the north-west, bringing with it a terrible squall of wind and rain and a nasty cross sea. The rain, though it chilled us dreadfully, was exceedingly welcome, because it gave us a driwk of water, of which all of us stood so much in need. We lay in our boat with mouths open, and caught what we could. In that way we passed a dreadful night Several of the crew became delirious, and apparently slept. One of the boys whom we rescued woke from his sleep and said, " What a long walk I've had ; I have come from Belvedere, and want to walk home to Woolwich ;" and the poor little fellowjwould have stept out of the boat in his delirium if I had not prevented him. At daybreak on Monday morning we saw the masts of a ship about eight or ten miles off. We did all that we could to attract her attention, but it was nearly ten o'clock before we were sighted. As her sails were act purposely

to bear down on us, our hearts beat with unspeakable joy. About a quarter-paat eleven she was so close that we had no longer any fear as to our safety. She proved to be the Gareloch, of Glasgow, Captain Greenwood, and in about another quarter of an hour we were all on board. We had been in an open boat for twenty three hours, and, as may be imagined, our condition was most deplorable. The greatest solicitude and kindness were shown towards ua by fie captain, his lady, and all on board. We were taken aft and supplied with brandy and soup and warm clothing as quickly as possible, but on no account were we allowed water, for which several of us were craving, to slack our thirst. We had no time to move a step, as it were, befoie the steamer Antenor, Captain Crompton, came alongside, and we were transhipped to her for London. The captain might have been short of provisions, but it is certain we have nothing to thank him for except our passage home. The treatment we re» ceived at his hands was far different from that shown us by the captain of the Gareloch, who, as 1 have said, did his utmost to relieve our wants. In the Antenor we were brought to Grave3endJ; ; from. : thence we came home by the train at the expense of Mr Walker, the steward. We were told that the Gareloch had experienced very boisterous weather ; that on the Sunday night she lost her spanker boom, and that her after companion had been carried away early in the gale. The picture of the loss of the Londou exactly portrays the foundering of the La Plata, as both went down stern first. The boatswain (Henry Lamont) and the quartermaster s(John Hooper) of the late steamship La Plata, who were picked up on a raft at sea three days after the steamer foundered in the Bay of Biscay, and were taken to Gibralter, arrived |at Southampton yesterday^ says the "Times" of Dacember 25, in the Peninsular and Oriental steamship Cathay, which brought them home from that, port, where they had meantime been inmates of the Civil Hospital. We take the narrative of the sufferings endured by the two poor fellows and their narrow escape from death, from the "Gibralter Chronicle" of the 16th inst : — " A remarkable episode in the story of the last frightful disaater/at sea — the foundering of the La Platar4isihe rescue, after drifting about for thrfee 'days on the ocean, of Henry Lamont," boatswain, and John Hooper, a quartermaster of the ship. The readers of the "Chrdnicle" will have seen in the issue of the 9th of December that these ppor fellows Were landed here on the -^th' from the Dutch schooner Wilheim Benklezoon ; but their escape was so extraordinary, that an account of it, taken from their own lips, cannot fail to be: deeply interesting. "On Sunday morning, the 29th when it became evident that the La Plata must founder, the fires being extinguished, and the water rapidly rising in the hold, two of the lifeboats on deck, one on the port and the other on the starboard side were manned by some of the officers aud crew in the expectation that when the ship sank beneath them the boats would be left floating — this was really the case with one of the boats — but just as the ship was on the point of sinking a heavy sea washed over her, broke up the other boat, in which fifteen men, including Lamont and Hooper, were sitting, and washed the whole of the boat's crew overboard. Lamont and Hooper Had just risen to the surface when the ship took her final plunge, and they were drawn down again by the suction. Oncoming up the second time they saw floating close to them the damaged air-raft,. which they contrived to get hold of. This raft was made of compartments filled with air and joined by a canvass band, forming a seat. Seated on this band they were in a - sort of trough, and the water came up totheir waists, their bodies below the waists getting gradually benumbed. Their only hope of escaping a lingering death lay in their being observed by some passing ship; and this chance seemed small indeed, for to any ship not passing quite close they would have been a tiny dark speck on the water, invisible unless when just; on the crest of the wave, and then only visible by the aid of a telescope. The sea was continually washing over them, and unless they had been men of strong vitality and sound physique they could hardly have lived through the three days until their final rescue. During the Sunday, the first day of their suffering, their anxious eyes could only discover one passing ship, and she passed much too far off to see them. On Monday there was a strong wind and a nasty sea ; but the weather was fine. Several ships passed at a distance ; these they could plainly see, but by none of them could they hope to be seen. Tuesday was calm during the greater part of the day, and their hopes were raised by seeing a threemasted schooner, which passed within a mile of them. They shouted with all their might, and thought they must be heard, but the schooner sailed on The cry of distress was not heard, nor the dark speck on the water observed Towards Tuesday evening the breeze freshened, and it continued to blow hard during the night. The men were exhausted, and in the conflict between wearied nature and hopes of life, they sank into a state between sleeping and waking, dozing for a minute or two, and then suddenly starting again into consciousness. About four on Wednesday morning the one who was in his waking moment saw through the darkness the loom of a vessel bearing down upon them, and immediately roused his companion. The vessel rapidly approached and came within a hundred yards of them. With all the strength that was left to them they uttered their cry for assistance, and after a few seconds' interval a bright light told that their cry had been heard and was answered. For two hours the light burnt like a beacon of safety before their eyes, but just before dawn it disappeared, and when day broke no ship was anywhere to be seen Hope was fast giving way to despair when about two hours after daylight the missing vessel ... bore down towards them. She was the Dutch schooner Wilheim Benklezoon. The master, when he heard the cry of distress, had immediately brought his ship to, and lay-to till the morning. In the meantime the shipwrecked men on the air-raft had drifted to leeward. When the master of the Wilheim Benklezoon found at daybreak that nothing could be seen, he conjectured from the force and direction of the wind the point to which any floating wreck or boat would have drifted and bore down in that direction. But the sea was running bo high that the master of the little

schooner dared neither to lower a boat nor bring his vessel alongside the raft. He feared in the first case that he should uselessly sacrifice his own men without rescuing the others, and in the latter case his vessel would swamp the raft. He therefore beckoned to the two men to quit the raft and swim to the schooner. Thoroughly exhausted by their three days' exposure they mistrusted their powers of swimming even this short distance ; but it was their only hope. Lamont, the boatswain, first made the attempt, and succeeded in getting alongside. Meantime the schooner and raft had again separated, and the schooner made another tack to give Hooper a chance. He was still more exhausted than Lamont ; but, thinking it was no worse to be drowned between the raft and the ship than be left to perish on the raft, he made the desperate effort, and struck out for the schooner. When he got alongside his hands were too benumbed even to clutch the rope whict was held out to him, and he took it between his teeth. The little schooDer was low in the water, and some of the crew leaning over and watching their oppor tunity, caught him by the hands and s< pulled him on board. " They were unable to stand and alraoai dead from exposure and weakness fronc ■want of food, for it was then close upor noon on Wednesday, and they bad eater nothing since the previous Saturday evening. But they were brought round by the kindness of Captain Dorp and hia crew, which could not be ex ceded. The sailors gave up their berths to the shipwrecked men, and nothing was left undone that could add to their comfort. Since their arrival here, Lamont and Hooper have been under treatment in the Civil Hospital, and although suffering from partial numbness and shooting pains in their legs, from prolonged immersion in the sea, are sufficiently recovered to proceed to England in the packet expected to-day.