The Leavenworth weekly times., 1878-02-21
INCIDENTS OF THE WRECK.
a story of Terrible Sights. ci Robbery y
and Of rOism.RObbing the Mails.

| a story of Terrible Sights. ci Robbery
and OF MISUNDERSTANDING she Mails.
John $. Jenkins tells story oi the Me
| tropolis disaster free from the backneyed
generalities and full of interesting details.
Although locomotive engineer prior to his
going away he has all the mystic nautical
phrases at his tongues end, for during the
rebellion he sailed the seas over as a mid
shipman in the Confederate Navy. He is
blue eyed and light haired and broad
shouldered and tells his tale graphically ::
AT six o'clock on Wednesday evening the
captain expressed himself as delighted with
the breeze. At eight o'clock the engineer
sand to me: Come with me have time
now to show you the engines At that
time there was only stiff breeze. | went
down into the engine room and word was
then passed to oil the shafting the oiler
ran back and cried out: There are four
feet of water in the shaft alley" That was
the first We knew of the leak and the storm
did not become gale until four hours
later More interesting incidents
happened during the time We were
on the wreck than would fill big
book. After the mainmast had gone by the
board the whole side OF the ship fell out, up
to twenty feet forward of the boiler. i
came forward on the hurricane deck, be-
tween the stack and boiler-house, and saw
Alexander Barclay and his son hanging on
to the forward rigging, and when | asked
the lad, who was only eight years old TO allow
me to lash him to a board, as it was mad
ness to remain on the sinking vessel, he
turned around and said: Papa has no
board lash, to him, and | don't want to
get ashore unless papa does lie would
not allow me to assist him. Shortly after
wards the father with the bog in his arms
Jumped overheard and both were drowned.
When the vessel first struck the shore First
Officer Dickman said that he would mol al
low two hundred souls 10 perish and asked
permission from Captain Ankers to take
line ashore. The second mate said that he
couldn't make it, Dickman replied, i
can try.' you can't live,' said the second
mate. well, if l don't will have done
NV duty. | must obey the orders of my
superior officers, but | can't stay here and
see these people drowned Mr.. Cozzens,
the second mate, carried the ladies from the
cabin to the deck on his back. Mrs. Myers,
struck bv a wave, was lying almost sense
less on the deck, with lifepreserver around
her. | saw one of the passengers leaning
over her and trying to take the preserver
from her. told him to stop, but he said,
Every man for himself l snapped my
revolver at him four times, but the caps
were damp and would not explode. Find
ing he did not desist, struck him with my
fist and almost knocked him overheard.
Mrs. Myers was shol tly afterwards drowned
and her husband, knowing of her death,
slipped through his life preserver, and, l
am positive. held his head under water,
while with one hand he held on to the rail.
One man swan ashore with Free MasOn's
badge between his teeth. He said il was a
gift from his father. Mrs. W. U. Harrison
formerly Helen +. SNYDER was washed for
ward almost senseless. She was the last vic
tim among the cabin passengers, as her
brains were shortly afterwards dashed out,
when the third wave struck the vessel.
After Captain Harrison was washed ashore
he worked like trooper for tie relief OF
the survivors, and il was not until he dis
covered that the pegro or ghcpls Of the
coast had stripped the body OF his vile Of
all her clothing and lett a sand-saturated
blanket covering the naked corpse that he
gave way and dropped on his knees in de-
spair. He is now again at the scene OF the
wreck, with ten cofiins. in which TO bring
back the bodies Of friends, and he has
vowed that il he meets any one with any
article that belonged to his wife in his pos
session he will shoot him on the spot. OF
the eleven mail bags that we're shipped on
the Metropolis" only one came ashore, and
it is charged by some of the survivors that
Richard W. Brooks, the FIRST man TO reach
Norfolk and the first to leave it cut two or
three of the Others and distracted their
contents.
Two OF the men say that they caught
Brooks in the act, and when upbraiding
him he repli-d that all things that came
ashore were common plumber. Tie post
Office authorize. at Norfolk are investi-
eating the matter.