Democratic Sentinel, Volume 4, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 September 1880 — LOSS OF THE VERA CRUZ. [ARTICLE]

LOSS OF THE VERA CRUZ.

The steamship Vers Crux, of the Havana and Mexican line, which sailed from New York on the 25th of August, foundered in a hurricane off the coast of Florida on the morning of Sunday, the 81st She had a crew of forty-one, and carried twenty-nine passengers. Of these seventy persons all bat thirteen perished. Dispatches from San Augustine, Fla., give the following particulars of the catastrophe: “The hurricane that occasioned the disaster precluded all chance of succor from other vessels. Saturday afternoon the steamer encountered a strong gale, which soon increased in fury. Then tine steamer was running on her coarse, being in about 80 degrees west longitude and 40 minutes north latitude. The sea ran very high, and the City of Vera Cruz labored heavily but sturdily for some hours. Every effort was made to keep her before the wind, but it was found necessary at 1 o’clock ou Sunday morning to throw out a drag to keep her head about This secured the desired result for the time being, bnt the gale had now grown to a hurricane, and immense waves began breaking over the doomed steamer. Each succeeding wave tore away pieces of her upper works until her dock was finally swept dear, even the rigging being torn and shattered. The drag ceased to fulfill its functions, and as the seas rose over her bows and deluged her decks thev soon reached the furnaces and extinguished the fires, the hatches having been torn from their fastenings by the billows. The fires being out, soon put a stop to the engines, and the City of Vera Cruz lay at the mercy of the waves and storm. Not even the donkeypump could be worked to relieve tn% vessel of the water she was rapidly making in her hold. In this tremity Capt. Van Sice ordered men to throw overboard the deck-load, a task that had been begun about midnight But the kea was too heavy to permit the crew carrying out their Captain’s orders, for, while thus engaged, several of the men were carried off their feet by incoming seas, and many of them washed overboard. “ Capt Van Sice and his officers acted courageously in the performance of their several duties, but were one by one washed overboard from their stations as the steamer labored iu the trough of the sea. As near as can be ascertained the Captain perished fully an hour before the vessel finally succumbed, and, as nearly all the hands were lost, the few remaining alive on board saw that there was no hope, so they took to the life-preservers, the life-boats having already disappeared ; in fact, every boat and life-raft was stove in whe* the top hamper went by the board. The sailors and the passengers then seized fragments of spam, state-room doors, or any other movable article that would float, and awaited the end all knew to be at hand. The surviving sailors state that the vessel was about thirty miles off shore at this time, the hurricane being one of terrible fury. By the time the shipwrecked men ‘ and women had equipped themselves with their impromptu buoys the final catastrophe occurred, it being then about half past 5 a. m. With one awful and tremendous lurch the steamer suddenly sank into the ocean, the swirl carrying down many of the living. Of the seventy souls on board before the storm £>e-_ gan only thirteen have reached the land alive. These thirteen were all men—tiqee of them passengers, eight deck hands,.. one" engineer, and one oiler. They were all in the water, buffeted by the tempestuous sea, for from twen-ty-four to twenty-six hours, and there is no doubt that but for this ordeal many more would have been saved, for there can be but little doubt that several perishod after the foundering of the vossel through exhaustion.” Among the passengers of the Vera Cruz was Maj. Gen. Alfred T. A. Torbert, who distinguished himself during the Rebellion as a cavalry commander. Gen. Torbert was attached to the Army of the West, and was a strong friend of Gen. Grant.