![]() ![]() The ship was now on the verge of foundering. The second half of the storm then struck. ![]() ![]() During the calm of the hurricane, attempts were made to get the boiler running again, but these all failed. No one came.A bucket brigade was formed and her passengers and crew spent the night fighting a losing battle against the rising water. The passengers and crew flew the ship’s flag upside down (a universal sign of distress) to try to signal a passing ship. Steam pressure dropped, shutting down both the pumps keeping the water at bay and the paddle wheels that kept her pointed into the wind as the ship settled by the stern. A leak in one of the seals to the paddle wheels sealed her fate, and, at noon that day, her boiler could no longer maintain fire. By 11 September, the 105 mph winds and heavy surf had shredded her sails, she was taking on water, and her boiler was threatening to go out. On 9 September, the ship was caught up in a Category 2 hurricane while off the coast of the Carolinas. After a stop in Havana, the ship continued north. The ship was heavily laden with 10 tons of Gold prospected during the California Gold Rush. On 3 September 1857, 477 passengers and 101 crew left the Panamanian port of Colón, sailing for New York City under the command of William Lewis Herndon. ![]()
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