Cleveland morning leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1854-1865, 1860-09-15

D
A Lonely Lake Voyage.
One Of the most interesting personal &C
counts of the catastrophe on Lake Michigan
vet given is that Of Mr.. Il. W. Gunnison, who
was eleven hours in the water. Mr.. Guuni-
son undoubtedly owes his life to the cool
deliberation and presence Of mind which his
narrative shows that he possessed throughout
the terrible ordeal. Before the boat went
down he went around among his acquaintan-
ces, shook hands and bid them good bye
he advised ali, and especially the military,
to disencumber themselves ofall articles that
would add to their weight, and to avoid cling
ing to each other when in the water He
says;
removed everything from my pockets Of
any weight that would cucumber me at all,
having a gold watch, keys, knife, money, etc,
and threw them overheard, and had nothing
on now but my pantaloons and shirt. . =
then attempted to kick door off the cap
tain's state room, but, being bareiooted, failed,
and then went into the same state room and
found nothing but bureau, from which
took small drawer for my support.
As soon as the crash took place there was
a very general o0tcry, especially female
voices, ran and sprang as far as possible
into the lake, with the bureau drawer in my
hands. | was drawn down considerable
depth by the whirl occasioned by the sinking
OF the vessel. A moment after rising to the
top, and having time 70 draw a single breath,
was drawn under again, when the drawer
was forced from my hands by the action Of
the water. On coming to the surface the
second time, seized hold Of a scantling and
a small box that were floating around
me.
The storm ragged with great fury and con-
tinuous thunder, and almost incessant light
ming, and the rain pouring down in torrents.
The lightning gave a sort of purple glare to
the lake and the human faces that were visi-
bic around me, as the persons were strug-
CLING iOr lie During these CLEANS the faces
OF different ones were distinctly visible for
some distance, and for few moments were
quite numerous in M immediate vicinity,
but disappeared rapidly. The first scenes OF
strangling or drowning seemed to be followed
by cObvulsive struggles and sharp shrieks, as
they threw up their hands and sunk.
Mr.. Gunnison conversed with all who
were near him, striving to cheer them up
For himself he appears to have been perfectly
cheerful, until his companions one by one
had gone 70 the bottom, and he found himself
on the waste OF waters alone.
now felt powerful feeling Of Loneliness,
as there was no other person within hailing
distance as far as could judge. By this
time / had picked up doUr and short plank
and one or two pieces of boards, which sus-
tained me very comfortably, as the sea at
this time was not very rough, compared with
what it was afterwards ~
Towards daylight an old felt hat drifted along
by ny little raft, which I seized hold of and
soon after l got hold Of narrow strip OF
board, which also retained with the idea OF
using them after daylight as signal to at
tract attention to any effort made to rescue
me.
After day had fully dawned, and dis
covered the great distance from shore and
the increased fury of the storm, gave up all
hopes OF a rescue, and threw my hat and stick
away. About this time the di ficulty of hold
ing on to the two or three pieces that | had,
was such that gave up every support but
piece of two inch pine plank about six feet by
fourteen inches which was my entire support
for the next four or Eve hours. As symptoms
of cramp or chills appeared exerted myself
by occasional efforts at swimming with the
help of the plank
In the lonely dangers of his situation Mr..
Gunnison appears to have made up for the
want of eOmpanionship by indulging in
spirit of philosophy so cheerful as to be at
times almost grotesque. At one time be says
be thought ofthe Sons of Temperance, and
concluded that were they in his situation
they would not complain ofany lack of cold
water At another, ne called to mind the
assurance policy Of $1,000 upon his life, and
felt deeply grati6ed that in case he should
drown, it would provide his family with
competence : yet says he, I determined to
save that amount to the insurance company,
and succeeded. Some time after day-break
he discovered portion Of the wreck with
four persons upon it.
worked my way up in the course of half
an hour so near as to be abfe to hail them
and then discovered fifth man some few
rods beyond them, on another piece of wreck,
sitting upright. The sea was so rough that
these were only occasionally visible. /