Wreck of the Drummond Castle.

Hastings Standard, Issue 85, 4 August 1896, Page 4

Wreck of the Drummond Castle.

A TERRIBLE EXPERIENCE. Brest, June 18. The two sailors of the sunken steamer Drummond Castle, who were picked up at lie de Molene, are not likely to suffer any serious results from their terrible experience. One of the men is a seaman named Godbolt, belonging to Yarmouth, and the other is "Wood, a native of London, who was the quartermaster of the Drummond Castle.

The men agree in the statement that the night of June 16, when the steamer was lost, was a fine night, though there was a slight fog. Captain Pierce was on the bridge at the time the ship struck, and Lieutenant Brown was forward. The adult passengers were all on deck, and only the children were sleeping. Suddenly there was heard beneath the vessel a prolonged scraping, and this was followed by a ghastly silence. The fore part of the ship becan to sink immediately. The captain at first believed the settling of the ship by the bead to be caused by the filling of one of the forward compartments, but nevertheless ordered the boats lowered. There was no time to do this, however, as the ship tilled rapidly, and sank like a huge body of lead.

The survivors say that they do not remember exactly x.hat did happen when the ship went down. Godbolt succeeded in grasping a door panel and a plank, and Wood also caught a loose piank as it was washed past him. Each man believed himself to be the sole survivor of those on the ship, and was in constant fear of being washed off the panel, or plank, under him. Ulimately "Wood saw Godbolt and pwani to him. The two men remained together thereafter, and were tossed by the waves for ten hours, frequently being torn by the force of the waters from their rough plank and panel raft, which they only regained by the greatest effort. At 9 o'clock on the morning of Jane 17 some fishermen in boats espied them and rescued them, landing them at Le Conquer. Besides Marquardt, who was picked up at Ushant. it is not probable that a single one of the passengers was saved. Most of the latter were women and children, and among them were the members of the entire family of a teaplanter, 18 in number, who were returning Home. It was rumored here to-day that, despite the statements that the steamer filled and sank so quickly that there was no time to swing out and lower away the boats, at least one, and probably more boats, filled with passengers, succeeded in getting away from the foundering steamer. The truth of the report copld not be determined, but strenuous efforts are being made to trace any boats that might have gotten away.

All the fishermen of lie de Molene and Ushant are out in their boats, searching for survivors of the disaster and the bodies of victims. They have already found ten corpses. Among the drowned picked up by the fishermen was a young mother, in whose arms was locked, in an embrace that even death had not unloosened, the body of her little babe.