Alexandria Gazette

U. S. Steamship Massachusetts.

We have already given a brief account of the disaster to the U. S. steamship Massachusetts, which sailed from Rio on the 21st of September, with the U. S. sloop-of-war Decatur, and encountered a terrible gale on the following day. A letter in the Portsmouth Globe, dated on board at Rio on the 24th, says:

We had a fine wind and kept in company with the Decatur that day and night: the next morning it commenced to blow and rain, and continued to increase till 2 P. M., when the commander deemed it necessary to shorten sail to the shortest sails possible. At 2:30 she was very near thrown on her beam end. She remained down for a moment, when she was relieved by the main-mast going by the board close by the deck, carrying with it the mizzen topmast and lee bulwarks. They then cut the mast adrift, and while doing so, it got under the ship, where, I presume, it has very near thumped a hole in her; however, with some trouble, it was cleared, to our great relief, but only for a moment, for another sea struck her, which carried away the mizzen-mast about two feet from the deck, carrying the binnacle, lee quarter boat, bulwarks, Captain's gig, and smashing in the poop deck. By this time she was running before the wind and rolling so that it was utterly impossible to stand. However, by severe labor we cleared the deck so that we could get about the deck.

It was then discovered that the foremast was working badly, but by getting extra stays on it we kept it standing, although she would frequently roll so much that the water would very near come over the poop, which you know is unusually high. At 5 o'clock, we started to tack her, and in doing so I thought she would capsize, and I believe we would have done so but for the engines--they worked admirably and were got in operation in an hour and fifteen minutes after the accident. We then commenced to fire minute guns for the Decatur, as she was seen fifteen minutes before the masts were carried away: but it rained so hard I presume she did not see or hear. That night we kept her head to the wind and steamed her full power, which forced us ahead at the rate of one, two and three knots, as the wind increased and decreased. The next morning she still continued to pitch badly. We saw a bark before the wind. We fired a signal gun, but she kept on scudding.

On the 23d, the wind decreased, but we were laboring under great fear for the fore-mast, which vibrated like a pendulum, but the engines continued to work well, so we put all of our reliance in them, although the boilers had commenced to leak, caused, I think, from the working of the ship. At night we rolled badly, which made the engines work irregularly. Towards morning we discovered the lights at the mouth of this harbor. The wind moderated, and we got to our anchorage about ten this morning, perfectly exhausted, for we had not eaten or slept since the storm came on, which has been three days.

What is most surprising, we have not lost a man, although several are injured. Mr. Patterson has his arm scalded, but not badly. Mr. Howell has lost the end of his thumb--Mr. Forrest has his head cut open, and all the rest are bruised.

Two days later the same correspondent writes that a survey has been held, and the Massachusetts has been taken to the navy yard in Rio, and she is to be fitted out for sea in two months.