Newspaper article from The New Orleans Bee, page 1, Jan 20, 1847
Submitted by Richard Majeste April 2002
Source :  The New Orleans Bee, page 1, Jan 20, 1847

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Frightful Shipwreck.
LOSS OF THE SHIP CREOLE
Forty seven lives lost!

The Havana papers bring us accounts of one of the most frightful 
disasters we have had to chronicle for many weeks.  The ship Creole, 
Capt. Cayol, well known in our port as a regular trader between 
Bordeaux and New Orleans, has been wrecked on the coast of Cuba, a 
short distance from Neuvitas and forty seven person have perished.  
The Faro Industrial, of Havana, of the 9th inst., describes the 
disaster as follows:

"The American bark Creole, Capt J Cayol, from Bordeaux, bound to New 
Orleans, with a cargo procured at Bordeaux, and a considerable number 
of passengers, on the night of 20th of December, struck upon the rock 
of ?Reul de los ?Catalaqua about four leagues from Neuvitas, and was 
completely wrecked.  The wind was blowing with so much violence from 
the North, and the waves struck the vessel with so much force that 
the shore was soon strewn with fragments of the vessel, dead bodies, 
and bales and boxes of merchandise.  The condition of the surviving 
passengers was horrible, and their sufferings were augmented by the 
conduct of five sailors who not content with refusing to receive 
passengers in the yawl which they had seized, gave themselves up to 
robbery and rapine, despoiling the dead bodies of their garments and 
jewelry, and committing a thousand excesses.  We are happy to add 
that the miscreants were subsequently arrested and lodged in prison.  
One hundred and forty seven persons on board the Creole, of whom 
about one hundred, more or less injured, were taken to Neuvitas, 
while the remainder perished.  Among the latter, were the Captain, 
and a family consisting of a father, mother, three young ladies and 
three children.

The French war steamer Tonnerte was to leave Havana on the 9th, for 
Neuvitas, to repair to the assistance of the survivors at Neuvitas.

Among the passengers on board, we learn from private letters, were 
Mr. Carviere, his wife and children, Mde. Berluchaux, three of the 
Daran family, two brothers Savoy-all of this city.  Mr. Grand and 
wife, of Point a la Hache and two ladies, servant and nurse, name not 
given.  All of these were saved.  The only resident of Louisiana 
whose name is mentioned among those who perished, is Mr. Majeste, a 
wine merchant on Madison street, though there are probably several 
others.  

The sufferings and privations of the unfortunate passengers were 
appalling, if an opinion may be founded upon the details given in a 
letter we have been permitted to peruse.  They saved nothing but what 
they had on at the time.  Mr. Carviere and his family remained there 
days on the coast sheltered in a miserable hovel belonging to some 
fishermen, and almost without food.  The authorities in Neuvitas had 
dispatched a boat to receive the surviving passengers, who were 
treated with kindness and good feeling.