The Indianapolis leader. (Indianapolis, Ind.) 1879-1890, 1880-03-28
A THRILLING NIGHT AT SEA.
Captain Lucas's Header with q Mighty
Wave that Swept the Chart Room.
york cur

Wave that Swept the Chart Room.
New York Sun
The steamship Rotterdam, Captain T. NJ.
Lucas, which sailed from Rotterdam on Feb
ruary2 1 for this port, had calm weather
varied with light winds, up to the 29th ult,
when high wind sprang up, which soon be-
came gale. The vessel was then about
longitude 80 degrees. By the morning of
March the gale was terrific, but still it in
creased throughout the day, and at nightfall
had attained the fury of hurricane. The
engines were kept moving just sufficiently
to maintain steerageway; the $50 steerage
passengers were confined under bat.
Touchdown matches, and every
precaution that care and experience could
devise was employed to mitigate the i'm
minent danger. The storm was, however,
an extraordinarily violent one-the worst,
in the opinion of first officer John Vernes,
that he had ever encountered in long service
on the sea-and the vessel, tossed by the
gigantic waves, labored so heavily that she
threatened momentarily to capsize. At 2
o'clock on the morning of the I'd mountain
like wave came aboard on the port bow, and,
rushing aft with tremendous force, carried
away the false bulwarks thrown across the
deck in front of the first hatch; then, becom-
ing jammed in the narrow passage beside the
chart room, dashed in whole panel of that
apartment and forced out an opposite panel
on the starboard side for its escape. The
The captain was seated at his table in the
chart room, when tons upon tons of water
were hurled over him through the bursted
side of the room, and without waiting an in
slant to open the door behind him, he took a
header out of the new aperture in the wall,
III no 81 1xyr hilloxu n
himself up away amidships, startled, confused
and. soaked, but unhurt. The same great
wave continuing aft, burst open the cooks
galley, and upset great steam boiler used
for cooking the food of the Storage passen-
gers. A lamp trimmer named Yunson was
forward of the chart room when the ocean
invaded the deck, and was carried like a
cork clear aft to the wheel house, along with
a portion of the false bulwark and some
other dismantled parts of deck lumber Of
that brief but exciting trip in the embrace
of the flying wave, he was conscious
of nothing, but when he regsined his
senses and got TO his feet he found his left
arm broken and great chunck torn out of
its muscle. Another sailor was tossed about
almost as wildly, but escaped without other
injury than the severe spraining of his left
hand.
The moment after that wave left the deck,
as the stern of the vessel descended into the
trough of the sea, another enormous wave
boarded the deck on the port quarter aft. 1t
dashed in part of one side of the wheelheuse,
and to force its way out again from that
room-which it had instantly filled-tore off
the side doors and carried them away with it
to sea. Strangely enough, it did not break
the great panes of thin glass which, from
breast-height up, constitute the front of the
wheelhOuse, but exerted its force laterally
upon the doors at the sides. Another wave
that mounted the deck was high enough to
reach above the companionway doors, which
we're closed, and to hurl many tons of water
in one seemingly solid mass through the open
space of the sliding cover above, which was
temporarily Enclosed, and down the stairs into
the first cabin. The cabin floors and the state
rooms were deluged, lockers and drawers
were filled with water, and beds in lower
hunks were afoat. 1t was hours before all
the water shipped in that one second could
be pumped and bailed out, and the frightened
passengers, who, springing from their hunks,
found themselves knee deep in the water in
the darkness, gave themselves up for lost.
During the worst "a hours Of the storm,
including that eventful night, the vessel
made but "a miles, and the next day but 80
miles. The violent gale lasted four days,
and high winds continued all the rest of the
way across until the arrival of the vessel
yesterday.