Viewing page 3 of 101

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

[[blank page]]

[[end page]]
[[start page]]

We left Philadelphia on the 29th, March, aboard the packet ship Saranak. This is a fine vessel of 850 tons burthen. Our commander was Capt. Daniel A. Malony, a stout jolly little man. All the passengers were on board by twenty minutes after 12 oclock. It was a scene of great confusion and excitement, and just as the plank was being lowered and the vessel beginning to move we heard a cry that a man was overboard and on looking found that one of the steerage passengers had fallen down between the vessel and the wharf but he was got out with out any other damage than a deep cut on the forehead. Next we heard a crack and on looking saw that the hawser or rope that attached the tow to the ship had broken. We saw a woman running about the deck hallooing. While she had been parting with her friends the ship had started so two men had to hand her down on the wharf while two caught her. As soon as we got out in the river we saw some people coming out in a boat who had been left. The Captain then went on shore to get the crew while the ship was towed on down the river. We hove anchor a little below Gloucester Point and the tow went up to Philadelphia again after the captain and crew this was between 3 & 4 oclock. While we were here the boatswain or third mate being very drunk began to cuff the second cook a negro who asked the first mate