Volume II Part 3 (1/2)

”Every wave made a frightful encroachment on our narrow limits, and seemed to threaten us with immediate death. Hopeless as was the condition of those thus hemmed in, yet not a shriek was heard from them.

One lady, unknown to the writer, begged earnestly for some one to save her. In a time of such alarm, it is not strange that a helpless female should plead with earnestness for a.s.sistance from those who were about her, or even offer them money for that aid which the least reflection would have convinced her it was not possible to render. Another scene, witnessed at this trying hour, was still more painful. A little boy was pleading with his father to save him. 'Father,' said the boy, 'you will save me, won't you? you can swim ash.o.r.e with me, can't you, father?'

But the unhappy father was too deeply absorbed in the other charges that leant on him, even to notice the imploring accents of his helpless child. For at that time, as near as the writer can judge, from the darkness of the place they were in, his wife hung upon one arm, and his daughter of seventeen upon the other. He had one daughter besides, near the age of this little boy, but whether she was at that time living or not, is uncertain.

”After remaining here some minutes, the deck overhead was split open by the violence of the waves, which allowed the writer an opportunity of climbing out. This he instantly did, and a.s.sisted his wife through the same opening. As he had now left those below, he is unable to say how they were finally lost; but, as that part of the boat was very soon completely destroyed, their further sufferings could not have been much prolonged. We were now in a situation which, from the time the boat struck, we had considered as the most safe, and had endeavoured to attain. Here we resolved to await our uncertain fate. From this place we could see the encroachment of the devouring waves, every one of which reduced our thinned numbers, and swept with it parts of our crumbling boat. For several hours previously, the gale had been sensibly abating; and, for a moment, the pale moon broke through the dispersing clouds, as if to witness this scene of terror and destruction, and to show to the horror-stricken victims the fate that awaited them. How few were now left, of the many who, but a little before, inhabited our bark! While the moon yet shone, three men were seen to rush from the middle to the stern of the boat. A wave came rus.h.i.+ng on. It pa.s.sed over the deck.

One only, of the three, was left. He attempted to gain his former position. Another wave came. He had barely time to reach a large timber, to which he clung, when this wave struck him, and he too was missing. As the wave pa.s.sed away, the heads of two of these men were seen above the water; but they appeared to make no effort to swim. The probability is, that the violence with which they were hurled into the sea disabled them. They sunk to rise no more.

”During this time, Mr Lovegreen, of Charleston, continued to ring the boat's bell, which added if possible to the gloom. It sounded, indeed, like the funeral knell over the departed dead. Never before, perhaps, was a bell tolled at such a funeral as this. While in this situation, and reflecting on the necessity of being always prepared for the realities of eternity, our attention was arrested by the appearance of a lady, climbing upon the outside of the boat, abaft the wheel near where we were. Her head was barely above the deck on which we stood, and she was holding to it, in a most perilous manner. She implored help, without which she must soon have fallen into the deep beneath, and shared the fate of the many who had already gone. The writer ran to her aid, but was unable to raise her to the deck. Mr Woodburn, of New York, now came, and, with his a.s.sistance, the lady was rescued; she was then lashed to a large piece of timber, by the side of another lady, the only remaining place that afforded any prospect of safety. The former lady (Mrs Shroeder) was washed ash.o.r.e on this piece of wreck, one of the two who survived. The writer having relinquished to this lady the place he had occupied, was compelled to get upon a large piece of the boat, that lay near, under the lee of the wheel; this was almost immediately driven from its place into the breakers, which instantly swept him from it, and plunged him deep into the water. With some difficulty he regained his raft. He continued to cling to this fragment, as well as he could, but was repeatedly washed from it.

Sometimes when plunged deep into the water, he came up under it. After encountering all the difficulties that seemed possible to be borne, he was at length thrown on sh.o.r.e, in an exhausted state. At the time the writer was driven from the boat, there were but few left. Of these, four survived, _viz_. Mrs Shroeder and Mr Lovegreen, of Charleston; Mr Cohen, of Columbia; and Mr Vanderzee, of New York.

”On reaching the beach, there was no appearance of inhabitants; but after wandering some distance, a light was discovered, which proved to be from Ocrac.o.ke lighthouse, about six miles south-west of the place where the boat was wrecked. The inhabitants of the island, generally, treated us with great kindness, and, so far as their circ.u.mstances, would allow, a.s.sisted in properly disposing the numerous bodies thrown upon the sh.o.r.e.

”The survivors, after remaining on the island till Thursday afternoon, separated, some returning to New York, others proceeding on to Charleston. Acknowledgment is due to the inhabitants of Was.h.i.+ngton, Newbern, and Wilmington, as well as of other places through which we pa.s.sed, for the kind hospitality we received, and the generous offers made to us. Long will these favours be gratefully remembered by the survivors of the unfortunate Home.”

Even if the captain of the Home was intoxicated, it is certain that the loss of the vessel was not occasioned by that circ.u.mstance, but by the vessel not having been built sea-worthy.

The narrative of the loss of the Moselle is the last which I shall give to the reader. It is written by Judge Hall, one of the best of the American writers.

LOSS OF THE MOSELLE.

”The recent explosion of the steam-boat Moselle, at Cincinnati, affords a most awful ill.u.s.tration of the danger of steam navigation, when conducted by ignorant or careless men: and fully sustains the remark made in the preceding pages, that, 'the accidents are almost wholly confined to insufficient or badly managed boats.'

”The Moselle was a new boat, intended to ply regularly between Cincinnati and St Louis. She had made but two or three trips, but had already established a high reputation for speed; and, as is usual in such cases, those by whom she was owned and commanded, became ambitious to have her rated as a 'crack boat,' and spared no pains to exalt her character. The newspapers noticed the _quick trips_ of the Moselle, and pa.s.sengers chose to embark in this boat in preference to others. Her captain was an enterprising young man, without much experience, bent upon gaining for his boat, at all hazards, the distinction of being the fastest upon the river, and not fully aware, perhaps, of the inevitable danger which attended this rash experiment.

”On Wednesday the 25th of April, between four and five o'clock in the afternoon, this shocking catastrophe occurred. The boat was crowded with pa.s.sengers; and, as is usually the case on our western rivers, in regard to vessels pa.s.sing westerly, the largest proportion were emigrants. They were mostly deck pa.s.sengers, many of whom were poor Germans, ignorant of any language but their own, and the larger portion consisted of families, comprising persons of all ages. Although not a large boat, there were eighty-five pa.s.sengers in the cabin, which was a much larger number than could be comfortably accommodated; the number of deck pa.s.sengers is not exactly known, but, as is estimated, at between one hundred and twenty and one hundred and fifty; and the officers and crew amounted to thirty, making in all about two hundred and sixty souls.

”It was a pleasant afternoon, and the boat, with steam raised, delayed at the wharf, to increase the number--already too great--of her pa.s.sengers, who continued to crowd in, singly or in companies, all anxious to hurry onwards in the first boat, or eager to take pa.s.sage in the _fast-running_ Moselle. They were of all conditions--the military officer hastening to Florida to take command of his regiment--the merchant bound to St Louis--the youth seeking a field on which to commence the career of life--and the indigent emigrant with his wife and children, already exhausted in purse and spirits, but still pus.h.i.+ng onward to the distant frontier.

”On leaving the wharf, the boat ran up the river about a mile, to take in some families and freight, and having touched at the sh.o.r.e for that purpose, for a few minutes, was about to lay her course down the river.

The spot at which she thus landed was at a suburb of the city, called Fulton, and a number of persons had stopped to witness her departure, several of whom remarked, from the peculiar sound of the steam, that it had been raised to an unusual height. The crowd thus attracted--the high repute of the Moselle--and certain vague rumours which began to circulate, that the captain had determined, at every risk, to beat another boat which had just departed--all these circ.u.mstances gave an unusual eclat to the departure of this ill-fated vessel.

”The landing completed, the bow of the boat was shoved from the sh.o.r.e, when an explosion took place, by which the whole of the forepart of the vessel was literally blown up. The pa.s.sengers were unhappily in the most exposed positions on the deck, and particularly on the forward part, sharing the excitement of the spectators on sh.o.r.e, and antic.i.p.ating the pleasure of darting rapidly past the city in the swift Moselle. The power of the explosion was unprecedented in the history of steam; its effect was like that of a mine of gunpowder. All the boilers, four in number, were simultaneously burst; the deck was blown into the air, and the human beings who crowded it hurried into instant destruction. Fragments of the boilers, and of human bodies, were thrown both to the Kentucky and the Ohio sh.o.r.e; and as the boat lay near the latter, some of these helpless victims must have been thrown a quarter of a mile. The body of Captain Perry, the master, was found dreadfully mangled, on the nearest sh.o.r.e. A man was hurled with such force, that his head, with half his body, penetrated the roof of a house, distant more than a hundred yards from the boat. Of the number who had crowded this beautiful boat a few minutes before, nearly all were hurled into the air, or plunged into the water. A few, in the after part of the vessel, who were uninjured by the explosion, jumped overboard. An eye-witness says that he saw sixty or seventy in the water at one time, of whom not a dozen reached the sh.o.r.e.

”The news or this awful catastrophe spread rapidly through the city, thousands rushed to the spot, and the most benevolent aid was promptly extended to the sufferers--to such, we should rather say, as were within the reach of human a.s.sistance--for the majority had perished.

”The writer was among those who hastened to the neighbourhood of the wreck, and witnessed a scene so sad that no language can depict it with fidelity. On the sh.o.r.e lay twenty or thirty mangled and still bleeding corpses, while others were in the act of being dragged from the wreck or the water. There were men carrying away the wounded, and others gathering the trunks, and articles of wearing apparel, that strewed the beach.

”The survivors of this awful tragedy presented the most touching objects of distress. Death had torn asunder the most tender ties; but the rupture had been so sudden and violent, that as yet none knew certainly who had been taken, nor who had been spared. Fathers were inquiring for children, children for parents, husbands and wives for each other. One man had saved a son, but lost a wife and five children. A father, partially deranged, lay with a wounded child on one side, a dead daughter on the other, and his wife, wounded, at his feet. One gentleman sought his wife and children, who were as eagerly seeking him in the same crowd--they met, and were re-united.

”A female deck pa.s.senger, that had been saved, seemed inconsolable for the loss of her relations. To every question put to her, she would exclaim, 'Oh my father! my mother! my sisters!' A little boy, about four or five years of age, whose head was much bruised, appeared to be regardless of his wounds, but cried continually for a lost father; while another lad, a little older, was weeping for his whole family.

”One venerable looking man wept a wife and five children; another was bereft of nine members of his family. A touching display of maternal affection was evinced by a lady who, on being brought to the sh.o.r.e, clasped her hands and exclaimed, 'Thank G.o.d, I am safe!' but instantly recollecting herself, e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed in a voice of piercing agony, 'where is my child!' The infant, which had been saved, was brought to her, and she fainted at the sight of it.

”A public meeting was called in Cincinnati, at which the mayor presided, when the facts of this melancholy occurrence were discussed, and among other resolutions pa.s.sed, was one deprecating 'the great and increasing carelessness in the navigation of steam vessels,' and urging this subject upon the consideration of Congress. No one denied that this sad event, which had filled our city with consternation, sympathy, and sorrow, was the result of a reckless and criminal inattention to their duty, on the part of those having the care of the Moselle, nor did any one attempt to palliate their conduct. Committees were appointed to seek out the sufferers, and perform the various duties which humanity dictated. Through the exertions of the gentlemen appointed on this occasion, lists were obtained and published, showing the names of the pa.s.sengers as far as could be obtained, and giving the following result:--”

+=============+===+ Killed 81 +-------------+---+ Badly wounded 18 +-------------+---+ Missing 55 +-------------+---+ Saved 117 +-------------+---+ 266 +=============+===+

”As many strangers entered the boat but a few minutes before its departure, whose names were not registered, it is probable that the whole number of souls on board was not less than _two hundred and eighty_. Of the missing, many dead bodies have since been found, but very few have been added to the list of _saved_. The actual number of lives lost, therefore, does not vary much from _one hundred and fifty_.”