South Carolina Temperance Advocate

From the National Intelligencer.

Awful Catastrophe!

We know not in what terms to announce the overwhelming news which reached us last night. The fate of the steamer San Francisco is at length known, and terrible beyond expression it is. Universal anxiety has become dreadful certainty. The ship foundered, and two hundred and forty of the seven hundred human beings with which she was freighted have perished in the sea. They did not indeed go down with the ship, but were swept overboard some days before she foundered. But a beneficent Providence tempers the severest afflictions with consolations, and so this dreadful calamity might, but for his mercy have been infinitely more disastrous: for all of the hundreds on board when the ship sank were providentially rescued by vessels accidentally at hand. O those who perished some were of the most distinguished and beloved of the land. The following are the sad particulars and the names of some of the lost, as they reached us last night by telegraph :

New York, Jan. 13.

The ship Three Bells has arrived with one hundred and sixty persons saved from the steamer San Francisco, which foundered at sea on the 5th of January.

Those who have arrived include about one hundred officers and soldiers and most of the crew of the ill-fated steamer. A number of other passengers were taken off the sinking ship by the bark Kilby, bound for Boston, and many by the ship Antarctic, bound for Liverpool.

Most of the cabin passengers, together with as many soldiers as it was deemed prudent for her to take, numbering in all about one hundred persons, are on board the bark Kilby.—She has probably gone to Bermuda, having parted company with the steamer during a gale on the night of the 29th December, four days before the Three Bells left. The ship Antarctic has on board the residue of the troops, and Capt. Watkins, of the steamer San Francisco, who has proceeded to Liverpool with them to see that they are properly provided for.

In the gale of the 23d December, the San Francisco broached to twice, and was much disabled. On the 24th all her spars and sails were blown away. At one o'clock in the morning of the 25th the engine stopped in consequence of the breaking of the piston rod, and left the vessel totally unmanageable, the sea at the same time striking her tremendous blows under the guards, tearing up the planking fore and aft on both sides, and causing the ship to leak badly. The troops were then organised into bailing parties. At nine o'clock on the 25th, a heavy sea struck the steamer amidships, carrying away both smoke stacks, all the upper saloon, staving the quarter deck, and washing overboard a large number of persons, killing three of the ship's crew. On the 28th, the bark Kilby was spoken, and laid by the steamer until three o'clock in the afternoon of the 29th, when a number of the passengers were transferred to the bark, which let go her hawser at ten o'clock at night, and nothing has since been heard of her. The gale continued throughout the 30th and 31st, a number of the men being sick, and some in a dying condition. In the evening of the 1st January, the British ship Three Bells was spoken, and laid by the steamer until the 3d, when her boat was got alongside. On the same day the ship Antarctic discovered and bore down for the steamer, and on the 4th both ships commenced taking off the passengers, together with the necessary provisions and water, which was accomplished by six o'clock in the evening. The next morning they took off the officers and crew, Capt. Watkins having been the last man to leave the ship, which had been with difficulty kept afloat for ten or twelve days.

Those lost overboard are, Col. John M. Washington, Major Geo. Taylor and wife, Capt. H. B. Field, Lieut. R. H. Smith, three civilians and two ladies whose names are not reported, and some two hundred and thirty of the troops. Of the crew of the ship there were eleven deaths from the time she was disabled till the 5th instant.

Major Wyse and Lieut. W. A. Winder are among the passengers who have arrived in New York. Col. Gates, Col. Bourk, Major Merchant, Capt. Judd and wife, Lieut. Fremont and family, Lieut. Loeser, Lieut. Vanvort, and the ladies and children are on board the bark Kilby. Capt. Watkins, Lieut. Chandler, and Lieut. C. S. Winder are on the ship Antarctic.