File:The tragedy of the seas; or, Sorrow on the ocean, lake, and river, from shipwreck, plague, fire and famine (1848) (14576879659).jpg

Identifier: tragedyofseasors01ellm (find matches)
Title: The tragedy of the seas; or, Sorrow on the ocean, lake, and river, from shipwreck, plague, fire and famine
Year: 1848 (1840s)
Authors: Ellms, Charles
Subjects: Shipwrecks
Publisher: Philadelphia, W. A. Leary: Boston, W. J. Reynolds & co.
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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n danger of being crushed by the irresistible pressure.Here were, perhaps, some of the most painful sights beheld.Before introducing any of the closing scenes of individuals,which the writer witnessed, or which he has gathered fromhis fellow-passengers, he would beg to be understood, thatit is not for the gratification of the idle curiosity of the care-less and indifferent reader, or to pierce afresh the bleedingwounds of surviving friends, but to furnish such facts as maybe interesting, and which, perhaps, might never be obtainedthrough any other channel. As the immediate connections of the writer are alreadyinformed of the particulars relating to his own unhappy be-reavement, there is no necessity for entering into a minutedetail of this melancholy event. This passage contained perhaps thirty or more persons,consisting of men, women, and children, with no apparentpossibility of escape ; enclosed within a narrow aperture,over which was the deck, and both ends of which were •• ■
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AFFECTING SITUATION OF A FAMILY. 75 completely closed by the fragments of the boat and therushing of the waves. While thus shut up, death appearedinevitable. Already were both decks swept of every thingthat was on them. The dining-cabin was entirely gone,and every thing belonging to the quarter-deck was com-pletely stripped off, leaving not even a stanchion or particleof the bulwarks; and all this was the work of about fiveminutes. The starboard wheel-house, and every thing about it, wassoon entirely demolished. As much of the ceiling forwardof the starboard wheel had, during the day, fallen from itsplace, the waves soon found their way through all thatremained to oppose them, and were in a few minutes timeforcing into the last retreat of those who had taken shelterin the passage already mentioned. • Every wave made a frightful encroachment on our narrowlimits, and seemed to threaten us with immediate death.Hopeless as was the condition of those thus hemmed in,yet not a shriek was h

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