A telegram has been received from Antwerp by the Royal Mail Company announcing that Mr.Bateman, the second officer of the Douro, and Mr. Anderson, the assistant baker, had arrived there. This reduces the number of lost or missing to 15.

" It was a fine clear night - as fine a night as could be imagined - when I returned to my berth, which I shared with Mr.R.Goldschmidt, of Manchester. I was awakened from my sleep by a great noise of running to and fro. Mr. Goldschmidt and I, thinking some one was overboard, put on our boots and clothes hurriedly and rushed on to the deck. There we were told that there had been a collision and that the ship was sinking. I looked at my watch when I had been on deck a few minutes, and saw that it was 7 minutes past 11 by Lisbon time. The captain gave the order for the boats to be lowered, and I saw the first boat, containing women and children, let down. The second boat was then filled with passengers and lowered. After that there were some confusion among the seamen. Two of the boats had been smashed by the collision, and there being a heavy swell on the sea and a pretty strong wind blowing, I did not care to trust the boats much. Mr Goldschmidt and I therefore looked out for a life-buoy, and after some difficulty we found one for each of us. The ship was obviously sinking fast and we looked for a good place to jump from. During this time the other passengers were being got into the boats, which were lowered into the water. The ship was going down stern foremost, and the stern part of the vessel was already under water. Five of us were standing on deck clinging to the railings ready to jump off if we saw no other chance of being saved. At this time we saw another steamer in the distance. Suddenly a big wave cleared the deck of everything moveable. Mr.Goldschmidt, who was standing by my side, and another passenger, Mr.Gumbrecht, of Hamburg and Dundee, were washed overboard. I saw that the vessel was going down, and seizing a favourable opportunity I jumped into the sea at the time the captain was trying to persuade a servant girl, the only woman left on board, and who had refused to be put into one of the boats, to get into a boat which the fourth officer was trying to lower. That was the last thing a saw onboard. I had the life-buoy with me, and after swimming for about half an hour, I was picked up by a lifeboat containing the doctor and two seamen. There was no doubt the accident would have proved much more disastrous if the passengers had not behaved with remarkable coolness. The observation applies even to the women, who, generally speaking, were very composed, and there was no shrieking or crying. The women and children were all got into the boats before any of the male passengers left. The bulk of the passengers were taken away in the first two boats, which were got off with but little difficulty. I afterwards heard calls for knives or hatchets to cut the tackle, as if the other boats were causing some trouble. After I was picked up other four persons were also got out of the water into the same boat, one of whom was Mr.Goldschmidt. In fact, all the five who stood together on the deck until they were washed off or jumped were saved. After I was in the water I saw a black cloud of smoke rising a little way off and the Douro went down. The great ship gave a great heave, the stern sunk deeper, the stem rose high in the air, and the vessel disappeared. I was just far enough away to avoid being carried under with her. Before she sank all the boats had been lowered, with the exception of one which the fourth officer was trying to get away. This boat would have held all who were on board when the ship sunk. There were the captain, several officers, and about ten men whom I believed to be seamen. After cruising about among a great quantity of wreckage for some time, we made for a steamer that we saw in the distance and got on board. It was then about half-past 2 on Sunday morning, or some three hours after the collision. The steamer that picked us up was the Hidalgo, of Hull. We saw the Yrurac Bat before we left the Douro. She sank about a quarter of an hour after the collision. According to reports which came to us afterwards, she went down in consequence partly of the damage to her stern by the collision, and partly of an explosion of her boilers. Mr.Goldschmidt had a life-belt round him, and he was washed off the ship. That would be about half a minute before I jumped overboard, because I saw that the next wave would take me. We were picked up and taken on board the Hidalgo where we were received with much kindness and well taken care of. Our own passengers who had been taken off in the boats were very attentive, and one lady of our ship was particularly assiduous in looking after her distressed fellow-voyagers. I do not think there was a want of discipline among the seamen when the collision occurred. The captain, so far as I could see, gave his orders clearly. Had the fourth officer had time to get the last boat off, I believe all the people on board would have been saved. The Yrurac Bat went down, I believe, in about 15 minutes after the collision. They lowered a large boat and it was filled with people, but it was swamped directly. After the collision occurred I was speaking to Mr.Goldschmidt, and, observing the Hidalgo standing by about a mile off, I said, ëI wonder why that vessel does not come near.í I believe now that we must have gone on for some distance after the collision, and that the Yrurac Bat, which was nearer to the Hidalgo than we were, made signals of distress to her, which caused her to lie to. As to the Yrurac Bat, I believe she ran into us, and that she was injured in the vicinity of the boilers, which blew up. After we got onboard the Hidalgo the captain waited about the spot where the collision had taken place for an hour, perhaps, after daylight, and then made for Corunna, which place we reached about 10 oíclock in the morning on Sunday. There was some difficulty about our landing on account of part of the passengers of the Douro having come from Rio, and the authorities wanted to place us for eight days in quarantine. This, however, we fortunately avoided, and, indeed, I do not believe there is any place there for the purpose of quarantine. As near as I can judge, we landed between 2 and 3 oíclock in the afternoon. When the collision occurred some of the passengers were in bed, though not all. Most of them were clothed when they came on deck; but one lady in the boat had nothing but an under-skirt and an ulster jacket over it, and one man whom we picked up had nothing on but an underskirt. Such clothes as we had were dried, as well as they could be, on board the Hidalgo. Most of the passengers who survived were fortunate enough to have money in their possession, and on the day after reaching Corunna six of us left by train for Lug, They were Mr.William Thompson. of London, his daughter, Mrs Owen, of London, Mr.Gumbrecht, Mr.Buckenhall, of London and myself. From Lugo we went by diligence to Ponferrada, a journey of 15 hours, thence to Venta de Banjos, thence to Bordeaux and on to Paris and London, which we reached about 6 oíclock last Thursday evening. Mr. Schwind, of Manchester, was drowned. I saw a gentleman, whom I was afterwards told was Mr. Schwind, trying to get from the deck of the steamer into a boat containing passengers which was already in the water. He slipped down one of the ropes by which it had been suspended, but before he got to the bottom the boat was moved away by the sea, and for several minutes he was hanging over the water. Several attempts were made to haul him up again to the steamer ; but before this could be effected he was washed away by a wave and was not seen again. "

Read the next news report The Loss of the Douro - Monday, April 10, 1882

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