Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1879-04-24
NO. Is.

er pulling the child from me. followed
after him into the darkness. This was
the origin of the story that had tried
to save a child said to be my own. |
at once shouted to the first officer to
pull off as fast as possible, and his boat
barely escaped being sucked down with
the ship. Third Officer Zarnow was aft
firing rockets and blue lights, which
now and then threw dim light over the
ship, then | saw two or three passen
gers running here and there. but it was
too late. The water was pouring over
the sides, and [ had already in my
own mind made up my account. /
ound the docter lying on a bench on
the quarterback, and, shaking him
found tnat he was dead, perhaps from
excitement and apoplexy. Then /
stumbled upon the second officer.
'Fokkes, l cried, why are you here
and not in your boatg Captain he
answered, my boat is in good com
mand; the carpenters boat was stove
in. so | put him in mine, and didn't
want to leave my old Captain At that
moment the ship lurched: we were
standing IN water; the bow pitched
down; we said 'Good-by' to one another,
and a final blue light aft, showing that
Zarnow was faithful to the death, was
the last thing saw as the water closed
over me.
DO you want to know how a man
eels when he is being drowned" asked
the captain. II had a feeling that
some awful sea or maelstrom was swal-
lowing me down. Then came the SEN
sation of being forced through the wa
ter as if | had been discharged from
cannon, and when | could hold my
breath no longer | opened my mouth,
and found l was at the surface with
floating things about me. l found a
board SIX feet long, and counted the
five boats IN the distance, and | could
see them because they were painted
white. For an hour the tide carried
me rapidly toward the German Ocean.
Then L saw the light of steamer COM
ing directly towards me, but almost at
the same time | was taken with cramp
in the legs, and thought for a second
time that | must surely die. Yet the
steamer cGme nearer, | shouted, saw
the steamer stop, saw light go down
the side, and heard the dip of oars and
the bOatsWain saying Don't strike that
man on the head" Then q hand
grasped me and [ tainted The next
light before me, surrounded by dark
rainbow, which kept growing brighter
and brighter. Then q prickly feeling
beginning at my feet went up my whole
body, my eyes opened, and | found my
self looking at lamp burning on the
deck Of the City of Amsterdam, which
carried me into Rotterdam, where I lay
sick for three days"
want to say a word" concluded
Capt. Schwensen, 6 for the crew of the
Pommerania. A great deal has been
SAID against them on this side. The
facts that the ship sank inside of twenty
minutes and that five boats were sue
cesstully launched in darkness and CON
fusion, and 172 lives saved out Of 227-
thIrty-seven passengers and eighteen Of
the crew being lost-are proof, it seems
to me, that the crew acted accord
ing to discipline. 1t was so dark that Mr..
POppenhusen says when they were
taken on board the Glengarry the res
cued passengers could tell who had
been in same boat only bYrepeating and
about what was said in the
boat. Faces could not be recognized"
Capt. Schwensen is a short, thick-set
man with a genial, ruddy face. His
hair and side-whiskers have grown gray
since the disaster. He went
out as mate in the Deutschland in 1848,
the first sailing vessel sent to New York
by the Hamburg Packet company, and
since 1857 has commanded the steam
ships Hammonia, Borussia, Germania,
Westphalia, Scythia, Pommerania, Cim-
hria, and Silesia.