Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 August 1895 — TWO SHIPS GO DOWN. [ARTICLE]

TWO SHIPS GO DOWN.

AT LEAST TWENTY-SIX LIVES ARE LOST. British Vessel Prince Oscar Strikes an Unknown Boat—ln Tea Minute* Both Go to the Bottom—One Entire Crew and Six of Another Lost. Horror in Mid-Ocean. The British steamer Capac, from Valparaiso, brought to Philadelphia Thursday night seventeen shipwrecked mariners and the news of a terrible disaster that occurred on July 13 n short distance south of the equator. The mariner* are the survivors of the crew of the British ship Prince Oscar, which was sunk after collision with an unknown vessel, which also went down, but with all hands on board. Six of the Prince Oscar’s crew were drowned soon after they left the sinking ship by the capsizing of the small boat into which they scrambled. From the size of the unknown vessel it is thought she carried a crew of at least twenty men. The seventeen survivors were huddled into one small boat, with neither food nor water, but were fortunately picked up by the British ship Dharwar, from Melbourne, Australia, for London. Krom that ship they were transferred to the steamer Capac and, without money or clothing, they were landed. Captain Clipperton, the English consul, will care for them until they can be sent to their homes.

Midnight Disaster. The disaster occurred shortly after midnight in latitude 9:30 south, longitude 28:20 west. The Prince Oscar, which was bound from Shields, which port she left May 27 for Iquique, laden with coal, was going at a clipping gait on the port tack before a brisk wind and with all canvas set. It is estimated by the crew that she was making about six and a half knots an hour when suddenly there loomed up directly under her bows a four-masted vessel. The mate asserts that the stranger had no lights burning, and aftei she was sighted it was impossible to alter the course of the Prince Oscar. The iron hull of the latter struck the unknown full amidships, knocking her almost on her beam end and crashing through the woodwork until her prow was more than half buried. The stranger went over almost on her beam end* as the Prince Oscar backed away from the rebound. As the crew of the Prince Oscar stood peering through the darkness they saw the stranger partly right herself and then she rapidly began to sink. They listened in vaiu for some signs of life, but not a cry for help nor a word of command came from the stricken vessel. The pumps were manned, but there was no hope from that source. Life boats were ordered cut adrift, and the men were told to jump and swim for their lives. They all went overboard and with the exception of two unfortunates reached the small boats. Captain Henderson, who was the last man to leave the ship, went over in his night garments and swam fully two miles before he was picked up. Three Days of HardNH’i\>. Both boats hovered about the scene of the wreck until daylight came, when they headed they knew not where. Twentyfour hours later a heavy sea struck the boat commanded by the mate and capsized it. The occupants, eight in number, were thrown into the sea, and the already overcrowded craft which Captain Henderson commanded put quickly to the rescue. They were successful in getting four of them aboard. The rest wers drowned. There were now seventeen men in the small lifeboat, with nothing to Cat, nothing to drink and barely room to stretch their weary limbs. The sun was broiling hot, and their hunger and thirst were almost unbearable. Toward evening of the second day one of the crew discovered a small cask of fish oil stowed away in the boat. This was dealt out to the survivors In small doses, and they used it to moisten their parched lips and tongues. For three days and nights they floated thus on the bosom of the South Atlantic, and just as they were about to abandon hope they sighted the ship Dharwar from London, bound for Melbourne. They succeeded in attracting the attention of those on board and were soon on her decks.