The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1868-04-16

ing on to it had dropped of, or jumped off, in
to the water, and were drowned. There were
now but another man and myself on the
wreck This was abont three quarters of al
lhour after the fire was first discovered. This
man was standing on the projection, just for
ward of the gangway, and about thirty feet
from me. The fire had burned the side of the
vessel out on both sides of him, and on this
small, frail portion of the side he chung.
think he was one of the crew and assisted in
the cook-r He halloed to me five or six
times, for me to help him-to throw the rope
l had to him--as he could not swim. l told
him could not do SO, as it was not long
lenough. He jumped overheard, swan to the
bow of the vessel, and caught hold of q
rope hanging over the side, and fastened on
the deck to one of the anchors. He held on
for three or four minutes, but the water being
SO intensely cold, he became chilled, dropped
off and sank. / hauled up the rope that he
had held on by and fastened it to the anchor
chains below me. l coiled 1t twice around my
chest and dashed myself to the chains. The
upper end of the rope by this time was ON fire,
and reached up and tried to cut 1t loose. |
| burned my hand badly in the attempt. The
rope finally burned off. The anchors on deck
began to settle and draw the chains inward.
l then spied sale between the wreck and
the land, about four miles off. She stood Tor
the wreck and then headed the other way. L
thought she was going to pass. braced my
feet against the boat and leaned out and
ICOumsuCeu swinging my uhb do SlS ndl VI oAs-
tress--to let them know there was o survivor
on board. They evidently saw my signal, for
the schooner was Immediately hove to. She
was then about half mile of. A boat was
lowered and approached the wreck. L now
| felt confident / would be saved, and was so
overjoyed that almost tainted. | hung on,
however, with tight grasp. There were four
persons in the boat-the first mate, whose
name did not learn, and three of the crew.
In abouts twenty minutes they came up to the
wreck. 1t seemed about twenty hours to me,
so anxious was to be rescued from my dan
gerous position. The swell was very heavy.
They had to approach the wreck very eau
tiously, as there was a great danger OF
swapping the boat. They made two inef-
fectual attempts to reach me. When they
were coming the third time, l said; Have
you got knife? 1 will have to cut myself
down" l could not unite the rope as | was
too weak. One of them said, II have knife"
The knife was handed to me when they got
near enough. The swell carried the boat
away some distance, but by dint of hard pull
| ing they got quite near again. The mate
caught hold of my coat tail and hauled the
boat directly under me. l then cut he ropes
which bound me and fell like a dead man in
to the bottom of the boat. was so weak
that could cut but abouthalf strand of the
rope at time. We then started for the
schooner The mate asked me if there were
any alive about the wreck / told him was
confident there was not, unless 1t was one
man whom l had seen clinging to gang
plank, but had foated out OF sight. He had
thrown it overheard when the fire first broke
out, and l saw him in the water on it from my
post, standing up, holding on by rope that
was attached to it, and swinging the other
hand in the air and bringing II against his
body to keep himself warm. When he had
swung one hand in this manner for some time,
| he would take hold of the rope with it and
swing the other. He did this all the time |
saw him. On our way to the schooner we saw
him about mile off still standing on the
plank. The men rowed as fast as possible
| towards the schooner, which was reached in
the course of twenty-five minutes, and, put
ting me on board, they went after the other
man and rescued him. He proved to be Ed
mund Hanneberry. L had not eaten anything
exhausted condition. went below after
eating what was provided by the Captain,
and went to sleep. We left the wreck about
nine o'clock. Hanneberry belongs in Sheboy-
gan Falls. He is sailor, and on his way to
Chicago for the hurpose of shipping. His fin
gers were very badly frozen when they brought
| him on board, He was wet through, and had
no hat on his head. He threw the gang plank
over and then swan to it. he was very near
| ly dead when they reached him. When on
board he was provided with dry clothing by
the Captain, and brought to himself again by
| the use of restoratives. All of those who
Jumped into the lake were benumbed by the
cold water, and consequently unable to swim
any distance, but Immediately sank. Ii the
} weather had been mild there is no doubt that
many could have chung to the floating planks
and boxes until aid arrived. | tied the lie
preserver around my body, thinking II the
| boat would break into, might be able to
keep above water and swim to a plank, and
| thus secure q position that could retain un
| til assistance came. | heard one of the wait
ers ask the second mate if he should take off
his boots. The mate told him he could swim
better by doing soft he could get them off.
They jumped over but were soon drowned
The boiler must have contained an unusual
quantity of steam, as it was. kissing terribly,
and feared the boiler would explode, but 1T
did not The corpses in the water presented
| a CHASTITY appearance. The faces and bodies
were burned and scalded, and having no cloth
ing on were horrible to look upon. Captain
| Yates, of the schooner Cornelia, who rescued
| HenneberrE and myself, acted nobly, and L
wish to express my heartfelt gratitude to him
and the crew, for their kindness in resculng
me from the wreck and providing all that was
necessary to make me feel comfortable while
on board their vessel.
| The statement of Edmund Hennesberry,
another of the survivors to in the statement
of Mr.. Chamberlain, is equally thrilling, but
does not furnish any particulars materially
differing from those already mentioned. He
describes the manner of his escape as follows:
|
the gang plank, and ten or fifteen others fol
! lowed me So many of us on the gang plank
caused it to sink, and We all had hard work
| to keep it and ourselves up. | got along
pretty well until three or four, seeing that |
was holding my own, got around by me and
| took hold Of me. l shook them all off except
a colored boy, the cooks helper. He put
both arms around my neck and l could not
shake him off. l then helped him to get on
the plank. and one man who was about TWEEN
oil nd mi ar rha md
| whiskers, caught hold of my wrist, and drew
me on the plank. johnnie O'brien l helped
on the plank two or three times. He was
washed off almost as fast as l could get him
on. We all struggled very hard, but there
wasn't man said word. | got hold of one
of the gang. plank ropes, and stuck to it un-
til | was picked off. / could see about me
men having hold of boxes, chairs, tenders and
two men were clinging to bag of wool. We
Heated past the bag, and one of the men said
IN me--he wasn't more than ten feet away
"You're going pretty fast" There was a very
HEAVY sea- and after we had been in the water
fifteen or twenty minutes swell lifted the
the plank and capsized it. All who had hold
of it. except me were washed away, and did
not see any of them any more, / was chilled
Through. The water was almost at freezing
point. / was just able to climb on the gang.
plank after the rest had gone, and KNEW that
Iff staid in the water could not live long.
So stood up on the gang.plank and steadied
g.
and these were soon frozen so they were stiff.
AS stood on the on the gang-plank, all alone
Iby myself, had no thought of death the
same confidence / had felt in being saved from
the first still chung to me. looked about
me, and, though the sea was rolling heavily,
l could see the lakes surface dotted here and
there with peicss of the wreck, to many o.
which men were clinging. About half . mile
away l saw one of the boats tenders, and g
woman was clipging to it. As was watch
ling her l saw her disappear under swell.
saw the tender afterward, but she was gone
The boat drifted to the leward, in shore, muct
faster than I on the gang plank. About twer
ty minutes after 1 had left her, saw thu
crowd of passengers all gathered on the hur
rcane deck. Many of the men were striped
to their shirts. Nearly all of them had life
preservers or were dashed to tables, planks
; boxes and doors. This the last saw Of thu
boat. l did not hear any screaming or cries
the sea made noise that drowned all that
The last noticed particularly about the wrecl