TERRIBLE YACHTING ACCIDENT. SEVEN OF THE PARTY SUFFOCATED.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2224, 9 October 1886, Page 2 (Supplement)

TERRIBLE YACHTING ACCIDENT. SEVEN OF THE PARTY SUFFOCATED.

The most terrible accident on record to a yacht in American waters, says the correspondent to the Standard, occurred yesterday week off Sand3'hook. The yacht Sarah Craig 1 , of 25 tons, had come up from Philadelphia with a party of 11 ladies and gentlemen on board. The weather was calm, and the company dined on the deck. Just about i sunset a few drops of rain induced the ladies , to , go below. The gentlemen were dispersed over the deck, and the captain regarding the rain as the precursor of an ordinary squall, ordered tho crew to shorten sail. They were so engaged when a storm of extraordinary fury, advancing at the rate of 72 miles an hpur, struck the yacht and instantly capsized it. Everyone on deck was flung into the water, and the six ladies and one gentlemeu in the cabin were imprisoned without possibility of escape. After desperate struggles, those in the water succeeded in regaining the wreck, where they sustained the full violence of the storm. They were beaten by hailstonpg hard enough to indent the oak planks of the keel, and were nearly drowned by tb,e gigantic waves that washed over them. Their personal sufferings were, however, as nothing to the agony of their inability to respond to the signals made by the unhappy prisoners in the cabin. The Sarah Craig capsized so rapidly that she carried below with her air enough to float the yacht, notwithstanding the weight of her ballast, and to support ]the lives of the victims for an hour. Their cries and raps upon the wooden walls of their prison-house drove the gentlemen nearly frantic. Some of them attempted to drag themselves down the companion- way to what would have been certain death, and were only prevented carrying out their intention by force employed by the crew. The last sign of life was given by a lady, who must have submerged herself in order to thrust her hand to the surface through a bared window. It was seized with a desperate gra9p, but the bars prevented her escape, and the hand was held until the grip relaxed in death. Some vessels from which the accident had been observed came up, and took off several of the crew. The gentleman refused to leave as long as a ray of hope remained for those below. Without tools they tried to break through the sides of the yacht with pieces of the wreckage, but under the circumstances it was impossible to deal effective blows at the timbers. In about an hour all was silent below. When the yacht was towed near the shore a diver went clown and brought up the bodies. He reported that the, sufferers had been suffocated, not drowned, and that the appearances indicated the exercise of supreme self-command until death released them. Scveial of the young ladies were engaged to be married to gentlemen who aic among the survivors ot this melancholy disaster.

Among the many anecdotes, more or less authentic, which are in circulation as proofs of the late King Lud\vii»'s madness, is one stating that in the perplexity and annoyance caused at last by the overwhelming pressure of his debts, he actually proposed to his servants to organise a g&ng of thieves to rohtheßerliu, Vienna, and Munich bankers.