Part of the
Acorn Archive
Hearts of Oak
SS Amazon
Destruction of
the Steamship by Fire with Great Loss of Life
Brest
5th January 1852
Reported in the Morning Chronicle
The Dutch vessel Gertruida, Captain Teintelaor, entered
the roads here today with 25 shipwrecked persons, who escaped from a terrible
catastrophe, of which it is a miracle that they are not the victims. The fire,
it is supposed, was as a consequence of the imprudence of a domestic.
It appears that, in the midst of the confusion occasioned
by the efforts of the passengers to launch the ordinary boats (the two
lifeboats having been immediately burnt), a great number of these unfortunate
people lost their lives. Nevertheless, seven boats were saved, and, it is
believed, received the greatest portion of the passengers; but of the seven two
only reached the Dutch ship which has arrived here. She picked up the first
boat yesterday (Sunday, the 4th of January) at half-past 6 o'clock in the
evening, and the second this morning at 7 o'clock. It is, unhappily, to be
feared that the captain and officers, who showed great though unavailing courage,
perished in the steamer when she blew up—for such was her fate, as an envoy of
the French Government, who was going to California for the purpose of sending
home accounts of the emigrants in that country, assures me.
The British Vice Consul applied to the Maritime Prefect
and a search was set out for the other five boats, still struggling against the
waves, and the SOUFFLEUR steamer in the harbour, was immediately ordered out.
Captain Cabaret, the worthy captain of the Souffleur,
prepared for sea with a promptitude which does him much credit. He will,
however, have great difficulty in discovering the precise position in which the
melancholy accident happened for the information given by the crew and
passengers rescued by the Gertruida is so vague and unsatisfactory that he must
be guided a good deal by his own intelligence and circumstances. The Soufflour,
notwithstanding all the efforts made to despatch her, was not able to leave the
Goulet til nightfall, but, as there is moonlight, it may be able to be of
efficient service, and the zeal of the captain is such as inspires great confidence.
The whole of the shipwrecked passengers and crew who
arrived by the Gertruida have bean brought ashore in boats, and a more
melancholy spectacle than they presented could not be pictured. Among them are two ladies and child, and
their sufferings may he conceived from the fact that, besides all the other
horrors they have gone through they were exposed to all the inclemency of the
weather during nearly 43 hours, almost in a state of nudity, for, as the fire
broke out after the passengers had retired for the night, and the raging
element spread through the devoted ship with desolating rapidity, they had not
time to save anything, or even to dress.
Immediately on the news of their arrival here, several
ladies hastened to send them the clothing which they so much wanted. The family
of Sir Anthony Perrier (the British Consul, regrettably in attendance in Paris)
also hurried to the assistance of their distressed countrywomen, and, with
their ordinary humanity, had the two ladies and their child removed to their
house, where they are now receiving the care and attention which they so much
require.
One of the ladies, Mrs. Eleanor Roper Maclean is severely
burnt, but not to the danger of her life. During the whole of the period between the alarm of fire and the
time she left the ship she clung with maternal devotion to her child (a boy 18
months old), and, when so many others perished, contrived to save the lives of
both. Her husband, who was in the
employment of the Government at Demerara, was also on hoard. She is still ignorant of his death,
believing that he has escaped in one of the other boats; but her companions in
misfortune declare that they think he was blown up in the steamer when the
magazine blew up.
The other lady passenger who has arrived here, Miss Anna
Maria Smith, comes from Dublin, and, I understand, was on her way to Porto
Rico, to join a family in which she was to be governess. The male
passengers are all comfortably
lodged at an hotel here, by directions of the Vice-Consul. They are also completely destitute both of
money and clothing, but have been amply provided with shoes, hats, and wearing
apparel by the Vice-Consul who has also secured means to convey them with the
least possible delay to Morlaix, where they will be shipped for England.
I have only to add that the captain of the Gertruida has
acted with the most praiseworthy humanity. He not only placed everything on
board his vessel at the disposal of our shipwrecked countrymen, but had gone
out of his track to carry them to the nearest harbour.
Raymond Forward