RUNNING DOWN OF THE NORTHFLEET.

Tuapeka Times, Volume VI, Issue 269, 27 March 1873, Page 5

RUNNING DOWN OF THE NORTHFLEET.

A special correspondent, writing to the Daily News from Dover, on Thursday, 23rd January, gives the following graphic account of the wreck of the Northfleet :— The first intimation which reached Dover of

What proved to be one of the most fearful shirwrecks of modern date, was the arrival in the harbor s»t three o'clock this morning of the good lugger Mary Anne, bringing thirty half -drowned men stowed away with such appliances of comfort as the little vessel oould command. They had a fearful tale to tell of an emigrant ship going down in the Channel, they alone being saved of the 412 souls who sailed from London. But five hours later there was another arrival in the harbor. The steam-tug City of London landed an additional thirty-four men. About noon the pilot cutter Princess sailed in, bringing twenty-one more, and all the afternoon glasses have been anxiously turn' d towards Dungeness, in the hope of discovering other vessels sailing up in the wind, bringing their precious freights of human "salvage; but the quest has been in vain, and to-night conviction has settled down upon us that eighty -five is the full roll of saved, and that 327 persons have perished off the coast in the darkness of the night. This afternoon fifty-one of the rescued elected to go to London, the Chatham and Dover and the South-Eastern Railway Companies placing their trains at their disposal free of charge. The captain's young wife, who was amongst the saved, has been taken to the house of the Rev. W. Yato, and is there being tenderly cared for. A temporary home was found elsewhere in the town tor a lonely little girl, whose mother, father, and all went down in the Northfleet, and the rest of the passengers and crew mess together under the hospitable roof of the Sailors' Home. Here I find them at seven o'clock this evening. Seated round the table in the upper room the guests were principally passengers, though there was a sprinkling of the crew. Amongst the former was a young wife and mother, whose little child, six months old, was upon her breast. " I throwed my child in the boat, then I throwed my wife, then I throwed myself : that's our history, sir," said the happy father. It was a brief one, and rarer than it was brief, for of all the families that crowded the steerage of a great ship, this was the only one that has reached this side of the river. After tea we drew up our chairs round the fire, the ' family' having th-i place of honor, and the rescued fought over again the battle with the waves. The spokesman was a bluff, heartylooking sailor, and in the course of his recital addenda were from time to time made by the listening passengers and sailors. " The ship we left down here off Dungeness with nothing but the masts standing up out of the water," said the principal storyteller, "was named the Northfleet. She was 895 tens burden, and was owned by Mr Patten, of London. She sailed from London Docks on Monday week, bound for Hobart Town with a general cargo and nigh 400 emigrants — 380 was, I think, the precise number ; but anyhow there were, with the crew, 412 souls on board, all told. She was commanded by Capt. Knowles, a fine seaman, who didn't look more than thirty years of age, and was married only six weeks ago. He brought his wife with him on this voyage — a pretty little thing, quite a girl in her ways. She had gone to bed when this happened, and ran up after her husband on deck when the crash came. Somebody told her to go down and get some clothes on, and she went, coming up again in a minute. The captain was standing on the poop, and she ran to him, He put his arm round ncr waist, and calling out to the boatswain said, ' Bo'sen, I am going to do my work right up through here, put just look alter my wife, and see her safe into a boat,' The boatswain did it like a man, and here she is safe in Dover at thjs minute, God bless her. But I'm going a-hend too fast, and must tack a bit. As I was saying, we left London Docks at twelve o'clock on Monday week, having a pilot aboard, and a hawser over our bows fast on to a tug. We ran down to Gravesend all right ; but when we got that far we found the wind dead ahead, and we lay till Friday. On Friday morning we up anchor, and away again with middling sort of weather, though the wind was rising and still in our teeth. However, we towed down till we were off Dungeness, and here the tug cast off, and we made sail, beating down the Channel. It was no go though, for the wind kept rising, till, on Saturday, it was blowing a gale, and we were still beating about off Dungeness. It blew so hard that the captain gave up the job for the present, and we ran back to Margate Roads, and cast anchor. There we stayed still Tuesday previous, when we weighed anchor, and again tried to beat down Channel. The wind was still ahead, and after knocking about till yesterday afternoon, the pilot passed the word to drop anchor off Dungenees. Here we lay snug enough, and at eight o'clock the watch waa set, my chums, Frank Sealove and John Gunstayeson, being on deck and on watch ; they died doing their duty. I went down to my b«rth, and was soon fast asleep. I don't know how long I had slept, when I wan nearly shaken out of my hammock by a fearful crashing and staggering over of the ship, as if she had been struck by a broadside of cannon shot, Before I knew where I was— beinjr awoke so suddenly — I heard the boatswain sing out, ' All hands on deck to the pumps. ' I was not long in jumping into my boots, I can tell you, and all in the forecastle ran upstairs pellmell, When we got there we could not see much, for the night was dark, but there was light enough to see a half-dressed crowd come rushing madly up from the steerage passenger berths, and you didn't want a light to hear the shrieks of the women and the crying of chiL dren. Most of the men went to the pumps, which had forty pairs of willing hands working at them for dear life. I went down below with the carpenter to examine the leak, and we soon found that we might as well try to pump the Channel dry as keep the ship clear of water ; in fact, trying to pump the Channel dry was just what tfiey was doing, for there was a hole stoved in the ship's quarter, which was quickly leaving not a pin to choose between the English Channel and the bold of the Northfleet, The carpenter tried to stuff a great piece of tow into the. hole, but it just quietly wept through as if you were shoving a rope's? end through a port hole. It was all up down there ; and we went on deck and made for the boats, knowing our ship was steadily settling down, When we returned to the deck we found nearly all the passengers huddled together on the poop like sheep, only I think they knew death was not far off them, and sheep don't, as the Bible says. " The night was, as I told you, very dark. All around we could see, twinkling like little stars, the lights of ships at anchor, at least a dozen ships in sight of us, and our ship settling down head foremost, with twenty score of us fellow-beings on boards. The captain had got the cannon primed and tried to fire it, but it would not go off. There were lots of rockets and blue lights at hand, however, and those were going up every minute, the light flashing down on a scene I never saw afore, and - hope never to see again. The crowd on the poop was mostly quiet, but down below all were rushing about, and stamping and shouting and shrieking, some working away at the pumps, others tugging at the boats that hung in the davits, and others rushing madly up and down the gangways and about the decks, looking for wife and children, or something they could carry off with them out of their luggage. I got at a boat on the port quarter, which a crowd had been partially hauling up, and had lowered down on one side, hanging by the head over the water, and .seemed to be swamped as soon as she toUcved it. I jumped in, cut away the tackle, and down we went, thirty of us, when we came to count, all safely afloat. I had seen away on the port bow a steamer coming up, hand over hand, and we hailed for her with a will, and were only just in time to get clear of the ship, which almost immediately settled down, and dived under head foremost. There was no more shrieking after this, except from Mrs Sturgeon there, who was in hysterics, and believed she was being drowned all ' the way ashore. The steamer turned out to be the sijeam-tug City of London, which brought us safe to Dover, and here we are, brgught safely round a good fire, whilst many as was with us at this very hour last night are cold and wet at the bottom of the aea." "I saw you off right," said the principal story-teller s left-hand neighbor, a rescued passenger, " and wished I had been with you, but I was hanging on the wreck for hours after you was comfortable on board the steamer, and perhaps can give the gentleman a little later chapter. I saw it all, from first to last, for I was passing along the forecastle when I heard the w..tch shout out, 'Steamer ahoy.' There was a lot of shouting after that, but it was too late, for close amidships a great black funnel loomed out of the darkness, and in » second

there was a crash, and our ship heeled off like it chap who h d taken too much grog aboard. I could have jumped in the chains easily enough, and wish I had. Not so much because I might have earned the LIOO I heard the bellman going about the streets to-night offering for the name of the steamer, but because I should like to be at the hanging of those fellows, who, if ever a murder was done, did murder when they steamed away and left our 400 to drown like dogs. The reason that I didn't jump overboard was that I thought the steamer would lie to, and if any serious damage was done would take us off. But she coolly backed her engines, got clear of us, and then drifted away in the darkness astern The captain was up on deck almost before the ship had finished trembling all over after the blow, and he at once took the commadd. I was a passenger, aud having only myself to look after I thought the best thing I could do was to lend a hand al the pump. But after we had got at this for some minutes somebody called out, ' She's sinking and settling down,' and there was a mad rush for the boats. There were six boats in all. Two hanging from the davits and four on the deck, between the mizen and the main masts. It was everyb dy for himself and the devil take the hindmost. Only four out of the ninety women got in the boats, and perhaps it was partly their own fault that so few of them were saved ; for they was running about looking for their husbands and their children, or just because they was going mad. But, to tell the truth, nobody but the captain and the boatswain, who was looking after the captain's lady, seemed to think much about them, and stout men shoved them aside to get into the boats themselves. The boatswain raged and swore, but it was not much use. • I'll cut off the hand of the next m<n that gets into this boat,' he bellowed out, but before the words were out of his mouth half-a-dozen men had tumbled in, rightly judging that if they wag going to be drowned a hand more or less on their wrists was of small account. Then the captain came down with his pistol in his hand. ' Get back, if you are men,' he road, ' and let the women pass.' But men or not they cared for nothing or nobody in the panic, and still pressed forward, threatening to swamp the boat, and drown themselves in the bargain. 'By , 111 shoot the next man that steps in the boat 2' the captain cried, showing his pistol ; and he was as good as his word, bringing down, by a shot in his thigh, a man who none the less kept his place in the boat, and is in bed in the next room at this minute. This quieted them a bit, and the boats from the davits got clear away— the captain's wife in one. " All this time I, with one or two others, wa3 struggling at the boats on the deck between the main and mizen masts. They were lying on their faces, and, do whatever we could, we could not move them. It had seemed an hour since I first saw the funnel coming through the darkness and heard the crash ; but however long It was, and I believe twenty minutes was the outside, it was dear the last minute was near at hand. The ship was going down fast, and we others, seeing nothing else for it, jumped on the top of the pile of boats. One poor fellow who jumped up with me held out his hand and said, 'My last minute's come; if you should live to get ashore tell mother; I was thinking of her when I went down.' 'All right, old chap,' I said, 'I will," and if I should go and you should get ashore, tell my mother Jikewi c that my last thought was of her. 1 It was curious, but I didn't know who he was, nor did he know me, though of course we didnt think of it at the time. It would have been hard for either of us to deliver the message, but he's all right, for I saw him here at dinner today, and he can carry his own message, a3 I hope to do mine. In another minute I saw the sea come up to the level of the poop, and the crowd which^ stood shrieking there seemed to mingle with it and all go away into white foam, Then I myself was struggling in the water, and was just thinking to mysolf what a long time I was being drowned, when I came up, and feeling out with my hands got hold of some rigging, I stuck to it ; to my surprise I found it did not sink; and presently others came up and got hold of it. It was the rigging of the mainmast that I had chanced to come up against ; but the other two masts were also up above the water, and we could see figures clinging desperately to them, Here we hung for two and ahalf hours, the wind getting colder and colder and the sea rising higher and higher. Some of the men were getting numbed, and when a steamer once came within sight of us, and passed on without heeding our screams far help, they got desperate and said they must let go j but we cheered them up, and at last a pilot boat came alongside and took us all off. The pilot-boat was No. 3, her name waa the Princess, and she was commanded by Captain Pritchard. All which I hope, sir, you will let everybody know, for if the captain snd crew of the blessed little pilot-boat had found twentyone bunphes pf pearls hanging on to the masts instead of twenty^qne haJf-Klrowned men, they could not have shown themselves more joyful at their good luck, or taken better or kinder care of their treasure-trove." The other element of strong moral interest in this fearful catastrophe is the heroic conduct of Captain Knowles, the gallant young commander of (he Northfleet. Cast suddenly into, the dreadful position of being called upon to try to save the lives of as many as he could of the helpless ones around him, Captain Knowles seems by the testimony of the survivors to have done everything that cool bravery could do towards getting the passengers, and first of all the women into the boats. There appears never to have been a thought on his part of saving his own Bfe, but merely to do what he could, conscious that this was but little, to effcot the rescue of others. To the boatswain he said, "Bo'sen, I am going to do my work right up through here, but just look after my wife, and see her safe into a boat." The young wife was lowered over the side into a boat. "As she was lowered, the captain waved his hands, and said, " Good-bye, my dear, good-bye,' and his wife replied, ' Good-bye, my love ; I don't expect to see you any more.'" Jus£ then the ship pitched under water, and many were washed off. The captain was heard to exclaim, "Take care of my wif e, boatswain " ; to which the boatswain promised, " I will, captain ; if she goes, I will go with her." The last time he was seen he was standing quietly on the deck watching the boat containing his wife, and waving his hand to her. Amidst all the horror and grief of the disaster, it is reviving to meet with the calm courage, devotion, strong sense of duty, and hqrolc self-sacrifice of this noble specimen of an English sailor.