THE LATE EARTHQUAKES IN THE WEST INDIES.

Westport Times, Volume II, Issue 170, 15 February 1868, Page 3

THE LATE EARTHQUAKES IN THE WEST INDIES.

The Southampton correspondent of the Daily News writes:—

'• The utmost excitement lias been eansed here throughout the dav, owing to the arrival of the Douro, which came alongside the dock at nine o'clock this morning. The loss of life chiefly affects Sohthampton. It is expected, indeed, that fully 300 women and children are thrown upon the world by this disaster In one row of houses in the town there are six families whose relatives w r ere on board thh Rhone and Wye. The 'mayor has called a public meeting on Monday next, to organise arrangements for collecting subscriptions in support of those who have been left destftute. The Hampshire Independent, in a second edition, published the following statements given be persons on the Rhone, who escaped. Mr Holdman, the boatswain of the Rhone, gives the following account of the wreck of the Rhone, and the death of her commander:—We were in ;i N.W. gale, blowing fresh, when we parted our cable with sixty fathoms in th hawse, •and steamed away to sea. After steaming for perhaps an hour, it became clear, and about fifteen minutes we found ourselves close to the slure. The captain then gave orders to turn astern, which we did immediately, and cleared the point. We proceeded steaming through the Gut, and met a south-east wind blowing fearfully heavy; it then became very thick indeed, so that we cou'd scarcely see anything a ship's length. We had been steaming about two hours when I reported to the cap■tain that there was land very close, indeed nearly abreast of us midships, on the port hand ; with that the ship went ashore immediately. The captain said to me, ' Good Lord, is it ever possible ?" and I replied, ' Yes, sir, the ship's ashore.' The captain never spoke to me again, and shortly afterwards a sea struck him in the side and washed him over to the top of a skylight. The next sea took him between the ship's side and the rocks, and I saw no more of him. A sea struck me ; and finding I was getting exhausted, and could hold on no longer, I loosed my hold. The chief officer, Mr Darby Topper, was killed by a spar about an hour before this ; and I saw no more of any one, for I was washed overboard myself. I and five other men were saved by clinging to a hammock bin, which contained seamen's hammocks, and floated. About eleven o'clock at night, as near as I can suppose from, the darkness, I was washed ashore ; all my clothes were washed clean off me, and I had nothing hut a pair of drawers and a shirt on when I landed on Beef Island. We remained there all night. I went and saw the Governor next morning, and h provided me with a boat. We got assistance from Tortola by a man named Smith, who took us on board the Tyne in Tortola Bay. From there, we went to St Thomas, and got on board the

Douro. It may be of interest to know that a boy named Bailey lloatcd ashore on a life-buoy, which he has kept. He was on a coral reef there all night, and the next morning joined us on the island where we were, and he has brought home the buoy with him. Four boys were saved ; one the engineer's, one the chief officer's, and the others ship's boys. I never saw one person drowned. I recovered the chief officer's body next morning, on Salt Island, w'th that of Daly, the barman, and another whom I could not identify ; but I believe it was the doctor. These three were buried on Salt Island. I took the chief officer's ring faom his finger, and have brought home."

" a boy's story. "John Bailey, and intelligent, nicelooking, lad living at No. 5 [Regentstreet, Southampton, said—When the ship Rhone struck I was on deck, and jumped on the port side, and then into the water. I was there about half an hour on a piece of wood, and then I saw an ordinary seaman named Gough fall into a life-buoy, and ] swam towards it. I was knocking about a long time with both my arms through the lanyards until it began to rain, and then I thought it was no good stopping any longer, and so I dropped off to sleep in the buoy ; but I had no supper first though. I did not dream at all, and wdien I woke up I was near the shingle, about three-quarters of a mile from the shore. I struck off for the shore, and saved myself, and then lay down and went to sleep all night, with the life-buoy for my pillow. ' The buoy is marked ' Rhone,' and I have brought it home with me. Of course I had nothing for breakfast. I walked about for three or four hours on Beef Island, and then I fell in with two others, and we've come home in the Douro.

"a fireman's story."

"Henry Buckell a firemen of the Rhone, living in Crown Terrace, Bevois Valley, said :—The first thing in the morning on the 29th of October it began to blow, and went on blowing till we were told to go down and get steam up. We then steamed ahead, she having parted from her anchor. We were then told to get as much steam as we could, and it reached 20 lb., and we steamed on until about one o'clock in the day. We struck on the rocks at Salt Point. I should think we were there for seven or eight minutes, when the chief engineer called us from below, when the ship broke in halves, and I went lip the skylight. I saw the sea break right through her side, and when I got on deck I saw the se3 come right over her. I saw many persons rushing to the fore companion, and up through the skylight on to the spar-deck, when I was washed ovorboard. I can give no further ac oun't until T found myself on Beef Island, where I got about half-past ten at night, I should think, and we were brought off from there to the Tyne, We had taken a few passengers out of the Conway, I believe, but I cannot speake positively. Dr White joined the ship the day before, and his body we picked up and buried at Tortola ; and all that could be found of Captain Woolley was merely the sleeves of his coat.

"another fireman's story. " Bees, a fireman of the Ehone, residing at Freemantle, said —I went down and commenced to light up the fires, ahout half-past eight, when we lying at Peter Island. Three fires were ordered in each boiler, and we bad not been clown half an hour when we were ordered to light up another fire in each, making all the fires now lighted, and reaching 12 lbs of steam. The gale now freshened, and wo were told to get as much steam as we could. We got up 20 lb —all that we could possibly give her, and she was going at full speed at the time she went down. "What I fancy is, that when she struck first, ' kind of scurged' a rock on the port side ; the second time it seemed to lift her, and she went down ' bump,' and bumped three or four times. Of course, it drove her sides in, and I believe the rocks went up at the bottom into he? boilers. Seeing the water coming into the stoke-hole, I got up through the engine-room ladder. All that I saw was a boilermaker in the engine-room, and he went up she ladder before me. "When I got on the top the steam-pipe burst, and, everything 'being covered with steam, I lost sight of all that was going on. As I knew the way out as well in the dark as in the light, I got hold of the handrail and crawled under the steam out of the door. When I got out I found the forward companion covered with people. The main deck people were clinging to everything they saw. I rushed right through them on to the spar deck, where I was washed off and overboard, and the bows of the vessel came right round to me. I clung to the fore-top-sail yard, where I stopped from one

o'clock in the day until half-past eight next morning, when I'was taken oft' by a little punt, which picked up four besides mo. It could only take two at a time. I was washed naked. I saw the chief engineer, Mr Hooper, clinging to a skylight, and was washed by him. He looked at me, and I looked at him just as men will do at such times. My opinion is that more were killed hy the knocking about of the wreck than being drowned. The men in the stoke-hole had no chance to come up' Two came up but they were fearfully scalded; their names were Lano and Arthur' Cull. The things in the gale were flying about like birds. I saw one lady clinging to her husband by the after-companion, and I believe she was picked up next moining by the doctor of the Solent. The gale seemed to come on gradually, and continued getting "worse. I did not apprehend clanger before it happened, because I've often been out in roughish weather. I hadn't been on deck in the wind, but below this did not appear worse than I had been out in before. lam a good swimmer, but the next morning the sharks were lying around us like little fish, and therefore it was useless to think of swimmiug in order to get relieved and picked up."