3-052-341 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The steam-ship Baltic rescuing the crew of the Assyria during a storm in the Atlantic, 1872. 'The White Star United States mail-steamer Baltic...encountered a terrific gale, which, according to...her commander, [Captain Kennedy], exceeded anything he ever met with during the thirty years of his experience as a sailor..."From noon until midnight it blew a perfect hurricane...I am proud to say that the Baltic has justified my good opinion of her, and I can assure you that her behaviour during the gale was really wonderful...At 12.30 p.m. we sighted a ship with a signal of distress flying, and on coming up to her I found her to be the British ship Assyria, of Newcastle, from Quebec, bound to Plymouth, with timber. She had been waterlogged since Monday, and all the crew had been in the rigging two days, and I am happy to say we succeeded in taking the whole of them - namely, the captain, two officers, and sixteen seamen - off the wreck, although it was blowing a strong gale at the time, with a very heavy sea. This gale lasted until midnight, and then went down as suddenly as it had got up. A subscription of £85 10s. 6d. was raised by the saloon passengers for the benefit of the boat's crew and shipwrecked men of the ill-fated Assyria'. From "Illustrated London News", 1880.