Melancholy Shipwrecks:
Two sad catastrophes occurred off the neighbouring coast of
Liverpool on Wednesday 2th September 1818. The brig Sine, Captain N
Doak, sailed from this port [Liverpool] two days earlier for Boston;
thirty two passengers were embarked on board of her. On the night of the third
day whilst the two vessels were standing on the opposite tacks, somewhere west of
Cardigan Bay, she
unfortunately ran down the brig Dash bound from Barmouth to London.
The Dash sank almost instantaneously.
Her crew consisted of five persons, two of whom were saved by the exertions of
Captain Doak and his crew, and the remainder were unhappily drowned. The Sine's
bowsprit was carried away by this lamentable accident and the vessel seriously
damaged by the violence of shock. Captain Doak being incapable of prosecuting the
voyage with his vessel in this shattered condition, determined to return to Liverpool
to repair. But misfortunes awaited the ill-fated vessel.
Between four and five o'clock, the captain worn out by his previous
exertion and anxiety for the fatal accident which had occurred, retired to his
cabin after having left the brig in charge of the mate and given him strict
injunctions to keep a sharp look out and to call him before she got up with
the Skerries. The vessel continued on her course till about half past seven
o'clock [3th September 1818] when she struck off the Platters on the Welsh
coast near to the Skerries lighthouse. The water rushed in with great rapidity
and the vessel was sinking fast.
At this dreadful conjuncture, Captain Doak who had hurried on deck
as soon as she struck, ordered the ship's boats to be instantly cleared away.
She had only two: the one a long boat and the other a very small one. The
longboat was speedily filled but only a few persons got into the small one,
for, before the whole of the people on the wreck could embark, both boats were
cut adrift, the persons on board of them fearing, we suppose, that if they
allowed all to embark they would be so much crowded as to endanger the lives
of the whole. Captain Doak who had been actively and anxiously engaged in
transhipping the passengers; the mate; a seaman and many passengers were thus
abandoned to all the horrors of their impending fate.
The scene which ensued was awfully
affecting. The brig was now nearly under water. Death stared the unfortunates on
the wreck in the face. Mothers were seen clinging to their unhappy children in
all the agony of maternal despair, piercing the air with their shrieks, whilst
the helpless children clung to their distracted parents, looking to them for
aid which they could not yield. At this awful moment, the small boat put about
and returned towards the vessel. This afforded the people on the wreck a gleam
of hope but it was but transient: no entreaties could prevail upon the persons
in her to come alongside to rescue their companions. At length the vessel went
down in less than half an hour after she struck. Captain Doak was saved by the
boat which also picked up the mate, who was almost lifeless; two children; two
women and one man.
The remainder, consisting of: Mrs Moor and her four children;
Mrs Croft and her child; Mrs Latham and her two children; Mrs Robinson and Mr
Taylor, were swallowed by the remorseless waves. In total 12 passengers were lost.
The long boat was still in
sight, making towards the Welsh coast, but Captain Doak pulled off the land in
hopes of meeting with some vessel which might rescue him and his unhappy
companions from their still perilous situation. A ship was in sight when the
Sine struck and clawed up her topsails as if intending to render her
assistance, but made all sail away when she went down. The forlorn voyagers,
after rowing some distance, were taken up by a pilot boat which, perceiving the
imminence of their danger, had come with praiseworthy alacrity to their
succour.
They then made sail after the long boat with which they soon came up and took
the people on board. They shortly afterwards fell in with two brigs [one was
the Mary and Sally from Salem] bound for
this port - between which the survivors were divided and safely landed at
Liverpool.
Many of them were in a most forlorn and desolate condition, some
having been roused from their beds by the striking of the vessel, the
suddenness of which and the confusion incident to it, allowing them neither
time nor thought to dress themselves. Their immediate wants, we have been
informed, were relieved by the humanity of our excellent chief magistrate. A
subscription has been since opened for the relief of such of them as have been
reduced to a state of destitution by this sad calamity. Most of the unhappy
sufferers, it will be perceived, were mothers and their offspring. The history of
the voyage of some of them is truly affecting. The husbands of two of them, Moor
and Croft, are now in the United States and had sent for their wives and
families. Some scenes truly affecting took place during the time the vessel was
sinking. An unhappy man saw his wife and two children perish before his eyes
without being able to afford them assistance. A little boy belonging to one of
the women was about being put in the boat but refused to go, saying he would
remain and die with his mother.