WRECK OF THE ATLANTIC.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume I, Issue 69, 12 July 1873, Page 3

WRECK OF THE ATLANTIC.

The wreck of the White Star steamer the Atlantic, off Halifax, is a calamity greater even than that so recently witnessed in the destruction of the Northfleet. It was reported in New York that the compound engines with which she was fitted had not proved so economical as was expected by the builders, and that since coals have been so dear, a less supply had been allowed, in order to enforce a greater economy upon the engineers, but this rumor was promptly contradicted by the company, who allege that the vessel on this trip had been supplied with more than usual liberality, and carried 200 tons above the average consumption. The chief engineer, however, has since stated that the ship, sailed with only 887 tons, and not with 967 tons, as the company have said. And he also asserts that in the previous voyage he had 1,200 tons. There have been few such disasters in the records of the sea. The first accounts were exaggerated in the inevitable confusion, and we are still uncertain as to the exact numbers, but it is now estimated that' out of the 938 souls on board, 549 have perished. In the memorable wreck of the Birkenhead, 454 were lost; in the Royal Charter, 446; in the London, 220; in the Northfleet, 315 ; in that awful lurch of the Captain, not quite 500 ; so that the Atlantic takes its first place on the list, since the loss of the Royal George, with “ twice four hundred men.”

The inquiry instituted by the Parliament of the Canadian Dominion places a responsibility upon the captain such as never fell to the lot of man, and is enough to crush the stoutest heart. The Atlantic left the Mersey on the 20th of March, and touched at Queenstown the next day. On the 2nd of April, when her owners were expecting the telegraph to report her arrival at New York, there came the intelligence of her loss. The weather had been boisterous during the whole voyage, and the provisions and coals running short, the captain determined to put into Halifax. The coast is iron-bound and dangerous, and Captain Williams miscalculated his position. It was midnight of the 31st of March when he weift io bed, leaving the chief officer in charge, and believing that three more hours would bring him to the Sambro light at the mouth of Halifax harbor, when he proposed to heave-to and wait for day. The chief officer presently sighted a light which he supposed to be Cape Sambro, but it proved to be the light on Cape Prospect, another granite promontory some miles to the west. Suddenly, the ship struck. The crew rushed to the deck ; frightened passengers sprang to their feet, and blocked the ways -, some clambered through the port-holes, others staggered panic-struck; many never left their berths, but perished there. The ship so quickly settled down that the women could not get on deck, and were all drowned. •“ To think,” said the captain, “ that, while hundreds of men were saved, every woman should have perished. It is horrible! If I had been able to save even one woman, I could bear the disaster, but to lose all it is terrible.” Of the 300 women and children, a majority were swept out of the steerage, and drifting beyond the vessel on immense -waves, were seen no more.

The captain hurried to his post, but it was too late. “ I was asleep,” he says, “when the ship struck, but the officers were quickly at their stations. The first sea swept away the port boats. The terror which arose defeated all efforts to send the people forward. After placing two ladies in the rigging, I called to the second officer to leave the lifeboat, which rolled over, carrying away the officer and thirty or forty men into the sea. On returning to the rigging I found that the ladies were gone. The chief officer (Firth) was in the mizen rigging, helpless; the third officer had established communication by rope with a small outlying rock forty yards off. A large number of* persons, including several saloon passengers, lay there and died. Five ropes were brought into requisition, and 200 men were got over nearly exhausted, fifty others reached a larger island by means of a line, but many were drowned in the attempt to get there 3 amongst them the chief steward. I and the fourth officer encouraged the 450 remaining people to keep moving in order to avoid, falling asleep, Many, however, gave in, and died an apparently painless death.

Twelve, men despite all efforts to rouse them, died in this manner and slipped into the sea.” ~ .i. The return of daylight brought the fishing boats from the neighbouring shore, and those who had survived the terrors of that awful night were rescued from the rock. Only one child was saved; a little boy, who rushed upon deck with the stream of passengers when the first alarm was given. “ His parents and other members of his family were below. They perished when the ship filled and fell over on her side. Hustled about along with that struggling mass of excited humanity, the piteous screams of the poor little fellow went to the stoutest heart. He leaped upon the back of one of the men in the hope of being saved by him, but the man shook off the wailing boy. His cries at last attracted the captain, who, perceiving the tenacious manner in which he was struggling for life called out to the men who were surrounding the lines that led to the rock to endeavor, if possible, to save the boy. The poor little fellow was immediately passed over the heads of the struggling mass of beings and placed in the boat. ’ Firth, the chief officer, was rescued from the rigging by an English clergyman, whose heroic conduct stands out in noble relief in this dark chapter. The sea was so high that nobody would venture out, until at last the Rev. Mr. Ancient succeeded in getting a crew of four men to row him to the wreck. Firth had then been in the rigging ten hours —he alone remained. One poor woman perished near him having succumbed after eight hours of suffering, and her dead body remained attached to the rigging, its ghastliness heightened by contrast with the jewels which sparkled upon her fingers.