A Terrible Tale

A. R. Owen, Chief Enoïneerof the steamer Vera Cruz, destroyed in a hurricane off the coast of Florida, and who was one of the few sarvivors, has made a graphie statement of the disaster which has been publishcd in the N. Y. Hr.rald, and from which wetake tLe following extracts : "Tho real blast of tho cyclone struok ns on tho port bow at about. twenty-flve minutos to two p. m. Saturday, and llfted the snip almost ou horbeam-ends. From this timo it became next to imposeible to walk about without elimíingto ehalrs, tables, and otner sliitlona -y furniture of the oabin, and as at! moveable objeets in the saloou ware ijuiekly ttmuvn from port to starboard, walking was exceed insiy danfferous. Tho wind was at that time northeast, uud the vessel was steering South liv eaat. " Duringthe evening three skylights in the main saloon were oarrled away, n 1 the wavea poured eonsiderablo water into the saloon and statorooms, setting all adritt. Uy midnijfht the passendere weregenorally sittimr upon or lyiiiRonttae Hoor of the saloon coiivtr-intr with and assistins? each other, yot gmd ehcèr waa the rule, and many were the exebaneos of wit and humor tretween tbem all. The Bervants, 119 they pussed around them, added to ín f ood leeling-. Major-General Torbert, United fitütcs arniy, had been washed out of liis stateroom (No. 5i, whieh was tho flrst on tho port bow, earty Saturday erenin?. Ile then caine tome in the saloon-room No. 2T. He had been thmwn aoainst a talile in the afternoon and had out hls rtght eheek, whieh trouhled hini oonslderably, as t bied freely, but he was in liis best and klndest humor, speaklng a oheerina word here, asslstinjf a man theie, and attending to the women and childreu eyerywhere. He lay ou the saloon iloor for a part of theniffbt, but was Hooded out, and then came and laid with me. brlnglng his waterproof, which we threw over us to profeet us from the water dripping in from the top and sidos. At ono o'clock p. in. tho engfirié-room was dry. Thedrag was put on, but it ïeversed and was uselesa. Itwas not Krotten readv uutil this time and was too small for service even ir in proper order. At two p. m. tho shiptook a heavy aea and the water put the lires out, immediately stopping the entines. "Thedonkey-engine then started, and was when the ship sank. The Purser cnmo hurriediy below, oalliiiir for Oeneral Torbert, md said that the Captain had sant him to teil the passenjiors to eoine and assi.st the cuow or the vessel wouid go down. We immsdlately rotup. I went to the dook and tn tho Hoor of he ensiue-room. where l assisted to pasi the rjuokets for an hour. Captain Van Sir;o was in ine near the top passin? water while I was :here. It was of no uso. The soa w.is eon-inually breaking over the vessel and coming down in large quuntities between decks. Tho donkey-eng-ine mu worklng, but not to any mrpose. After this 1 went to the saloon and tulil (j'neral Torbort that wc wore goins' to leceá and iast ülling-, and nothing remained but for us to get life-prcservers upon the women. General Torbert 's face hurt him so that he did not go to pii9s buckeis. "There was no sucli thin! as exeitement on board- oven the children were q úot and reasonable. Kaeh assisted the other in urrniifflnjr life-preservers, and General Torbert was like n sunbeain, laug-hins and with all while he usslsted thein. Tho storm at this time was moatterriflo. Such waves, wind and rain can oever bo desoribed. The sliip Usted to her beuin-ends at every wave, and it was just possible to crawl f ram one place to the other. The storm was so thick that we could not see l'id yards ahead, and the roar of the wind and beating of the rain was like the rattle of musketry. General Torbert and myself were lvingin my berth talking and quietly awaiting the worst, when. at twelve minutes past four a. m., a sou brote into the eugine-room and through the saloon, makins a crash like a battery of artlllery, and strikins: terror for an instant into every one, dashlng s:üoon passcnprers, tables, doors and the loose furuiture togrothcr and into water a foot decp. "The G encral-came to me immediately after this with .Master Wallendgre, about nine years om, and said: 'Bomeo, you and I must take this little boy and care lor him between us." I allowed that he had but tifteen minutes to live, and arifued that it wou!d bc merey to let the little fellow go down with the snip, but the General kindly insisted. and said, '1 caunot leave this little fellow behind; youund I must save him. Take him until 1 oome back.' The next minute the sea carne into the saloon more terrincally than ever, it waist-deep In water, and the most of the port side. The littlo fellow and myself were rotlcd over amontf the chaira and tables, and I lost him, but he was piflked up and bronght to his tiither. Ioalledto General Torbert to come to the deck with me. He said, 'I will go aft and meet you above.' I never saw General lorbert again alive. "The passenírers dow erowded Into tha ocial huil, whicli was ut the top of the saloonsteps. Here they said fareweli to eaoh other. We adjusted their life-preservers, and extended sympathy one to the other. Never bef ore, peihups, was there a set of passengere so quiet and unezolted undcr oircumstances so appallins- Mr. Alexandrr Watleudge broujfht his little boy to me andsaid, 'Mr. Owen, I willgive you ïl.OUOin (f.ld if you wlll tako my sim umi get hiin to laúd.' Isaidno; I did not expect to live live minutes Bfter the ship went down. I told bim it would be a morcy to hiniself and his son tu o down as quiok as possible. I told him I uould see nothlng to hope lor In a storm likethls. 1 said, 'Let U3 look at it as if uur eharaeters on the worid's stage were about ended.' "Miss SadieFay asked me in hersweetest mamier to take care of her, but l suid to her and the others that there was nothing to be done but to stick to the ship until we wero washed from her and then to ding to tbe fraaments as long as possible, und this plan was earried Xiut by overy passenger. Tlie Captain wasseenjust before the 9ea smushed in the port 8 i de of the upper deeks, at twelve miuutes past tour a. ra., Uut whether ho got excitod and jumped overboard or was swept away is not üuown to auy of us. "Mr. Parelt, the First Uffluer, the ?eeond Mate, and one or two more of the crew took to the starboard-bow boat and were killed before the boat could be got iree. Mr. Miller and nis engineers stood by the ship till she sunk. The Quartermaster, William O'Xeul, andasailor, name unknown, stood at tho wheel until the snip suuk. The Captain nevar carne near the passengere during the storm, nor did he sendto iucjuire into tbeircondition, and it may be sincorely hopt'd tliat no otber passenicrs may be let't to so tboubtlese and indifferent a man. It was six a. m. when the fhip went down, breaklng in the mídale, a:id the sea with fragmenta oí stores, truiiKs and mereliandise. "To say there were ten million pieces of wreeked stores all olashiní? together flve minutes after the ship went to pieoes would be ross exairjjeration, but even with suelí a statement no ideaeould be oni-eived as to the state of the ease. Men, womon, chlidren, horses, eats and rats mixed in and went in, throuirh and over this muss. The waves were nfty teel hih, not in sweüs and riily-es, but in peaks like sugtir-loaves. Four peaka bsatiug- like surf, tore toto each other. When we went upon one it was not to ko down on the otber side, but to be turned over at the top and sent ruiling through the air at the opposite one, and so back and fortti. This la-tJ about two or three hours, after whieh the waves took a more natural oharacter, and eame in swelling ridges, and we wblrled down and over tliem to the opposite side. 'General Torbert was pieked up hy Charles Smlth, oneof the crew, about lifteen minutes aíter the ship sunk. He was then weaK, uud could crawl on the fnufineuts of the wreek only with fuslstance. When the fragment on wbieh he was turned over, a minme later. Mr. Smith eame up on another piece. and never saw tho Genera] agaln alive. 'J'he wind was so terrlnc thnt when a plank. ralt, box or tivmk would reach the top of a wave t was whirled through the air w.th a fovce terrible to behold. the living añil dying I never passed a person who was not bloeding from some wound iullieted by fragmenta, and halt' of theiu were cieail or dying witlün Uiteen minutes alter they took tu the waves. This was most appalling; and sad, indeed, was it to soe those noroic women struggling against timbers, waves and f ate. [ passed Mr. Wallendge and son ten minutes aftertheslnking. They were ahout ten yards apart, olinfriiij? to different flieoes of the wreek, and the little fellow üoked ns calm and haudsomeas whon playing In the saloon two days bèfore. His father was depressed, but only lor his son; no thought of himself eutered his head. Would to God that I oould have done somethlng lor them both. Thus eould 1 teil somcthing about eaeh passender, but as 1 did not kuow their naines 1 cannot enter into details. "The stewardess was jammed in the saloon among doors and tables, and stink with the ship. She was crying bitterly and appealed to me lor help, when the water poured in upon her like a Niágara. 1 stood by the mammast tili the water rushed in over the hurrieane deck, and then I elimbed up the rigging twenty-tive feet and was washed off by the waves. An instant aftel fragmenta of the wreek plled in and over me. I was stunned by a blow aeross my head, eheek and eyes as I clim lied flrst upon one thing and then upon anotber. l'or half' an hour 1 rushed up one niountain ot' water, then down another. until finally I oaught holil of a pieee of the ship, ii bont twi.Mity-llve feet long by ten feel wide. This was the port side of the dlnlng-saloon. Throuah one window was tho head uid SOOUldere of a man, Thomas Gnimbool, oAugtat in the wreekuge. He isktd me to break the frame; and et .ii out, but, as that was impossible, I shoved nim down, und he carne up through the ne.vt opening. We now threw off our lifc-preservors imd stuck to the fragment of wreek, througb thiek nnd thin, lor twenty-fourfcours. During tbatttmowe were at least two-thirds under water. In the nlgbt we were both eornplet.-ly blind froin the salt deposlted in our eys. When P stnick the surf. ut four o'elock n. m. on Moiulny, our raft went to piecos, and wi were turned over as many a.s nx times bcl'aco o -i ii i 1 1 l: to tho surfaee. We ivorc land d at Mr. Uotcrubr's l'nrm, near Dnytonn, VokislaCounlVlxy miles souih of st. Augustlne, and Iwelvo miles north ofMoïinito Inlet.