DREADFUL CALAMITY AT SEA.

New Zealander, Volume XXII, Issue 2485, 18 July 1865, Page 3

DREADFUL CALAMITY AT SEA.

FIVE HUNDRED LIVES LOST. (f.som “ bell’s weekly messenger,” APRIL 22.) The New York papers report the destruction by fire of the Federal transport ‘General Lyon,’ with a loss of over 500 lives. The .View York Times gives the following account of the disaster : “On Wednesday, the 29th ultimo, the ‘General Lyon,’ a screw-steamer, which had formerly been used as a blockade runner, sailed from Wilmington for Fortress Monroe, with nearly 600 persons on board, including the crew. Her passengers consisted of discharged and paroled soldiers, escaped prisoners, and refugees, amongst whom were about forty women and twenty-five small children. Two negroes were also among the refugees. The weather was fair on leaving Wilmington, but the steamer put into the port of Smithfield for the night, and resumed her voyage on the following morning. Soon after 'leaving Smithfield the wind, which was blowing from the south-west, increased in violence, and the vessel made but little progress. At 10 o’clock on Friday morning, when off Cape Hatteras, un alarm of fire was given, and in a few minutes afterwards the flames broke out at the rear of the pilot house and nearly in the centre of the vessel. Several of the crew were in the rigging, and there were very few persons on deck, many of the passengers being confined to their berths by sickness. The first mate, James Gibb, and the other officers of the vessel, immediately got the fire-pumps to work. But the flames steadily gained headway, and soon spread over the centre portion of the deck, driving the ciew and those who were assisting them to the stern and bow of the vessel. The hatches had heed closed in consequence of the decks being so constantly under water, but those below, alarmed by the smoke which was spreading through the cabins, rushed on deck only to be driven back by the flames. The frightful shrieks of the women and childien, and their piteous supplications for help, were drowned by the roaring of the storm. Several of the paroled soldiers were sick and confined to their berths. Some of them managed to crawl on deck, and clung there antil washed overboard by the waves. In about half-an-hour after the fire broke out the , engines partially stopped, and the vessel inline- | diately swung round with her broadside to the wind, the fi lines then spreading across the deck. It had now become evident that the ship could not be saved. The first officer acted with great courage, and only abandoned the vessel when all hopes of saving her were gone. The fire pumps were still kept at work, and the flames were fought back with great determination. Many of those below were doubtless already suffocated. The shrieks and moans of the dying came up to those on deck, but they could do nothing to help them. Just at this time the United States transport ‘General Sedgwick,’ Captain Starkey, and a small schooner hove in sight. But neither of them could render any assistance, owing to the violence of the storm, and the fact that the burning steamer had drifted in towards the breakers. The flames were now spreading with feat fill rapidity. The boats were launched, although there appeared little hope of their living in such a sea. In the first boat ten men lowered them selves, including the captain of the ‘General Lyon.’ It is affirmed by several of those who escaped that the captain had now lost all control of himself, and was evidently crazed with fear. ; Hardly had this boat been loosed from the vessel’s side than she drifted under her stern, was struck by the screw, and almost instantly went down. Irah Lewis, a private in the 89th New York Regiment, who was in the boat at the time, states that he saw the captain sink. Lewis and two others alone escaped. A second boat was launched, and in this twenty-seven persons lowered themselves, and succeeded in reaching the ‘General Sedgwick,’ which was about a mile-and-a-half distant. As the boat touched the steamer’s side, a wave dashed her violently against it, and she filled and went down. Of the tweLty-seven persons in the boat seven only were saved. Among these were the mate, James Gibb, Barney Losey of the 6th Virginia Regiment, and John Fitzgerald, of the 56th Illinois. In the meantime, a number of the rasa had thrown themselves overboard, trusting to a spar for support. One man, Isaiah C. Coltby, of the 6th Ohio Cavalry, after working at the fire pumps until he was almost exhausted, seized one of the doors of the gallery and sprang overboard. He was in the water three hours before he was picked up. Others were also in the water several hoars, and many doubtless sank before assistance could be rendered. It is supposed that the schooner did not succeed in rescuing any of them. When the * General Sedgwick’ left, being unable to render farther assistance, the ill-fated steamer i was drifting in towards the frightful breakers off Gape Hatteras. She was then burned down to the water’s edge, and every soul on board had doubtless perished. The New York Tribune states that the number known to have been saved was 29, of whom 20 were soldiers and 9 the crew of the ship. Of the 204 of the 56 Illinois Regiment on board all but 4 perished, including all the officers. Not one of the women appears to have been saved.

EPIDEMIC IN RUSSIA.. It is reported by way of Germany that the scourge known as the Siberian pestilence has appeared in Russia with more than usual malignity and mortality. According to the accounts received, this fearful malady first showed itself at Chanow, in the Waldaj circle, and for the previous fortnight did not appear to be of a very serious character. Some medical men were sent from ; t. Petersburg, but on their arrival it was found that the epidemic had assumed a very fatal form, and they fell victims to it after a few days. Some other doctors sent subsequently have not been more fortunate. A fortnight afterwards the epidemic became so general, and its results were so fatal, that, according to intelligence received, the entire district of Chgnew is depopulated. Great consternation prevails at St. Petersburg, as can be readily imagined, when it is known that cases have occurred in that city which hear a strict resemblance to the dreaded epidemic. In order, probably, to calm the public alarm these symptoms have been declared to arise from a typhoid afiecdon ; but the public mind in the Russian capital is by no means appeased, especially as this typhus, having declared itself in the Obnkow Hospital, in a very few days carried off, not only the greater part of the patients, but the whole of the sanitary and medical staff.

Letters on the subject of the epidemic have appeared from two eminent English physicians, Drs. Murchison and Kidd. Dr. Mnrchison says the disease is neither a new one, nor has it any relation to Asiatic cholera. It is simply relapsing fever, which, under different designations, has been well known in Britftin and Ireland for nearly two centuries, which constituted a great part of the Irish epidemic of 18t5, and which about the same time was very prevalent in Upper Silesia and in other parts of Germany. Dr. Kidd agrees entirely with Dr. Murchison as to the nature of the disease, but points out one terrible feature in it, which is that while in its original form it prevails only among the poor and ill-fed, and is not very fatal, in persons of the higher classes who are brought in contact arith it the form it assumes is that of the mi>st virulent typhus. Hence, he says, the fatality occasioned amo >g medical men, nurses, and the guardians of the poor, and the consequent panic which has I ee i p o ’»;ed. There is also Another danger to be feared, the enlargement of the spleen, which has been noticed as one of the special features of the disease, and whi< hj, according to Dr. Kidd, is produced solely by d ***• of o