LOSS OF A STEAMER AND A HUNDRED LIVES.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 105, 3 May 1878, Page 2

LOSS OF A STEAMER AND A HUNDRED LIVES.

On January 28 the steamer Metropolis, 879 tons, carrying a cargo of materials for the Madeira and Mamore Railway, Brazil, r which ia being constructed, sailed from • ' Philadelphia for Para with 247 persons aboard, chiefly railway laborers. On the 31st, a fierce easterly gale blowing, the Metropolis, after vainly labouring against it for several hours, struck near the shore of the North Carolina coast, at a point about three miles . .below Currituck Lighthouse. She stranded .broadside on, and soon became a total wreck. The report is that 54 persons by swimming and otherwise succeeded in landing ; the rest were all lost. The Metropolis had seen 1 7 years' service. At first a gunboat belonging to the United States, it was subsequent^ rebuilt and enlarged. A subsequent telegram reports that dead bodies, washed ashore by the gale during the night, lined the beach for two miles. The wreck was caused by the ■unseaworthiness of the vessel and overloading. The survivors report that on the first day out at sea the ship sprang a leak, and the pumps were unable to keep the water Tinder. To relieve the vessel the cargo was thrown overboard, and an effort was made to steer for Hampton Roads. On January 31 a heavy sea carried away the boats and flooded the saloon and engine-room, and, the ship becoming unmanageable, the captain abandoned all hope of saving the vessel. The fires being out and the engines stopped, he ordered all hands to get their life preservers, and heading the vessel for the beach, set all sail, and drove her right on. The surf was violent, and a panic ensued. Every we sought to take care of himself, and those who ■ were saved by swimming ashore were nearlt all destitute of clothing. A telegram reports tbaji about 150 persons are saTed, j