Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1875-06-09

be launched, and / assisted III launch
ing four, but there was such crush
and such tremendous sea running that
they were swamped almost Immediate
| ly. Between / and 2 o'clock in the
morning the pavilion over the saloon, In
which the women and children were all
huddled together, was struck by a
heavy sea and washed away, the unfor-
tunate people being, of course, washed
overheard with it. At 3 o'clock Capt.
| Thomas was still on the bridge, when
he was called down to save some person.
He went down on deck, but a sea came
in and literally tore his clothes from
him, and afterwards WISHED him over
the side. The unfortunate man had
not been in bed for five nights, and
throughout the trying and terrible
scene he acted with GOODNESS and bra
very. He was, however, obliged to use
his revolver in order to keep proper
discipline, and several times he fired
over the heads of some of the crowd
who were pressing on the men that
were endeavoring to launch the boats. l
now took to the rigging, where / re-
manned until nearly daylight. The
foremost rigging, where I was, was car
ried away, and all who were in it were
left struggling in the water. l succeed
ed in keeping myself ahoat until / was
picked up by fishing boat.
The steerage steward, Fred. Werm-
Ike, stripped himself to the shirt and
rousers when he saw what had happen
ed, took two knives and ran On deck.
He then ran to boat and got in, being
followed by many others-so many that
hey had to send some out, otherwise
the boat would have sunk. They lower
ed her down, and lay by the steamer for
some hours. Once they asked those in
another boat to lend them bucket, but
they kept his boat off saying they had
no such thing, and apparently fearing
that he wanted to put some of his men
on board of her, for they cried out,
"We are full already"
Second Officer Edwin Polemann, in
his account of the catastrophe, says:
It was, as near as can say, aboutten
O'Clock on Friday night, when, as | was
sleeping on nay sofa in my cabin, I was
SUDDENLY awoke by hearing the steam
pipe whistle sharply blown. thought
at once that the weather was very thick.
[ turned round and almost at the same
moment heard and felt the ship strik-
ing. I jumped up in a moment and
rushed on deck, but before / had got
up few steps met the frstmate, who
ran down exclaiming that we were ship
wrecked. In moment we were both
on deck again, end I ran to the bridge,
where the captain was. When reached
him he had just telegraphed down into
the engine room to go astern; but the
water rushed over the deck, and, seeing
that the fore compartment had filed, [
told the captain that to go astern would
be of no use. z.=,f
The ship then heeled over to star
board, and the Captain ordered the
beats, of which we had eight, to be got
ready as quickly as possible. ran to
the quarter deck and we lowered the
two quarter deck boats, down to which
there was Immediately rush. then
went to the main deck, where the chief
officer was launching one Of the boats.
It was very heavy. Of the eight boats
we launched seven. There was very
great difficulty in launching more of
them, on account of their weight, and
the way in which the vessel lay, with
we succeeded In launching No. 5, and
were then ordered by the Captain to
take charge.
There also had got into the boat three
male passengers, woman and seven of
the crew. As I went over the side Cap
tain Thomas called out, Goodbye, old
fellow; remember me to my friends. !"
He afterward egain called to me; but
although I heard him, Icould not reply,
being so exhausted,
AS the boat was being lowered, big
wave came In and swamped her and we
were all capsized. We managed, how
ever, to recover the boat and kept up as
much as we could. She was, however,
full of water, anu wehad to stand in her
all the time. For three hours we beat
about at the mercy of the waves, utterly
unaware where we were, SO dense was
the fog and SO dark the night. till, at
length, we saw CLEAN of light over
head and recognized the Bishop light.
The lookout man at ST. Marys heard
gun at o'clock, but did not take it
for a signal of distress, and, believing
that the Schiller had been unable to
show lights in the fog and had fred her
gun as signal that she had passed, tel
egraphed to this effect to Plymouth,
where the tug boat and the Postoffice
officials got ready to receive the mail
steamer.
In the evening of Friday, barrels of
-four, mail bags and light wreckage
were washed ashore. The heavy
weather and fog continued throughout
SATURDAY., and the people worked at
considerable risk. Late Id the evening
a fishing boat, the Robert, arrived at
Penzance, the captain reporting that
when returning from the Sicily Isles
fishing grounds she passed through
quite two hundred floating bodies,
many of them women and children.
They were being driven by wind and
tide towards the main land.
Obadiah Hicks, Trinity boatman at
st. Agnes, was first to discover the
wreck. He heard gun between mid
night aud o'clock, which he at once