TERRIBLE SUFFERING.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IX, Issue 2874, 11 April 1885, Page 3

TERRIBLE SUFFERING.

The American newspapers report the wreck of the brig A.S.H. off Sable Tsland. The vessel left Miquelon for Boston, and during a gale she was dashed to pieces on Sable Island, and only one man, the first mate, escaped. He.says that three of the crew were washed overboard when the vessel struck. ' : Four of us were left on deck, rigging, spara, &0. , which were drifting on surf breakers. We were in this position for nearly an hour. Darkness was setting in, and the snowstorm was raging with great violence, and the snow was driven about in blinding force by the heavy winds. The prospects of our being saved were gloomy indeed.. The steward became frenzied, and, preferring death to farther suffering, gashed his throat.f rom ear to ear with a razor, and then jumped into the snrf. After floating on the debris for an hour, Captain Lemarchand, a sailor, and myself were washed ashore ; but we had only escaped the deep to face the terrors of the frost king. The thermometer was 10 degrees below zero, our clothes were wet through and frozsn stiff, and onr hands and feet were frost-bitten. Almost completely exhausted in the darkacs3, in a heavy snowstorm, and every grain of sand dashing against onr faces like pebbles, we were in despair. We could Eee the rays of the light-house three miles distant across the sand-bar. The three of us started on a dismal journey toward the light; but after going one mile the captain and the sailor lay down from exhaustion and despair, and were soon frozen to deatb. I pressed on towards the light. God only knows how I got over the sand. I cannot begin to describe it to you. I shall never forget the horrors of that night. When within a quarter of a mile of the light I fell down exhausted and, as I expected, to die; but after a few moments 1 aroused myself and made a final effort to save my life. I crawled the rest of the distance on my hands and knees, reaching the light-house at two o'clock in the morning, six hours after leaving the frozen bodies of my comrades. After a while I recovered from exhaustion sufficiently to tell the story of the wreck. At daylight the officials started for the scene of the disaster, but could only find debris covering the beach. The bodies of the captain and the sailor were found and interred in the sand where they fell. The steward's body was washed ashore and buried near where the vessel struck." *