The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1882-10-18
4 THRILLING NARRATIVE.
The LOSS Of n Steamship Described by n
Young Lady Who Was One Ofthe Two sur.
yiyOrs,

From Parry Sound, Ontario, come
particulars of the sinking of the steam
ship Asia. Miss Morrison, n OF the
two survivors. gives the following
thrilling account of the catastrophe;
at did not get very rough until :
o'clock in the morning. | was up
then, but was seasick and took nc
breakfast. | saw four women with
children in the cabin-one had four,
and one had two, and two had one
each. They were two families and had
taken a deck passage. noticed the
four women and their children partlcu'
larry. The women were all sick and
the cabin maid was feeding the chill
drcn. There may have been other
ladies in the open air. | knew there
was no danger. l saw people putting
on life p%reservers. | lay down
and thought 1 would not move
if the boat were sinking. Thu
boat rolled on her side, and | thought
it was sinking, when jumped up ant
went into the adjoining stateroom
where Il woman with two children was
| found her asleep and awoke her, but
think she never left the cabin. llcl
children were Il small one about two
years of age and a child in the arms
| then put on a life-preserver and sal
bv the cabin door. Before | went tt
my stateroum l asked the mate ifthert
was any great danger. He said there
wasa very heavy sea, but they had al
ready thrown some horses overheard
and would throw off all the freight they
could. l could hear great noise made
by the horses. l had hopes the boat
would be saved till | saw water coming
into the cabin.
81 was on the upper side of the boat
She lay now on her side. | took hole
of the rail, slid down into the water
and sank. 1 came up by the side O
the captains boat. lie took me b!
the writ and the mate helped to pull
me up. My stateroom companion:
were both in the same boat, but ne
other women or children. l saw the
other two life-boats, both full. The
captain and mate had oars and tried tc
take care of our boat. The steamer now
went down and left wreckage floating
around. l saw the other two boats
upset twice, and each timethe number
of passengers were largely reduced
The three boats drifted together for
short time. / heard those in the Other
boats call to the captain for oars. One
of the two boats had no oars, one llao
one and our boat two. The captain
could spare none. Our boat went
along quite nicely for some minutes;
the others capsized almost immedi'
ately. They had notllingto help them
selves with. l WAS sitting in the bow
of our boat looking back toward the
wreck. l saw the other two boats tip
over three times, and when | next saw
them they were empty, no n even
clinging to their sides. l am sure
nome were saved except Thinks and
myself.
FINALLY our boat upset and we lost
both oars. We were then at the
mercy of the waves and were upset four
times in all. There were eighteen
persons in the boat before she upset.
Two women were lost the first time.
It became calmer near dark and the
boat did not upset again. About this
time we picked up a floating oar, but
were too exhausted to use it. The
mate told ne to hold on to the lifeline
whatever happened, and I never let go.
When the boat upset l hung on and
came up with it. None of the five men
died until after dark. The mate got
upon his knees and said he could see
land. This cheered us all. The cap
tain seemed very sad and seldom spoke.
None had hats or coats on, but Thinks.
l had neither hat nor shawl. We were
all in the water up to our knees, but
the water was not up to the seats. If
we had had a bailing-dish we could
have bailed out the boat after the sea
went down, but we had nothing to do
it with.
1.-THE men all died quietly and
seemed to 60 to sleep. The mate put
his head up to my face in the dark and
asked if it was me. l said yes. My
hair was flying around. He seized it
in his death-grasp and pulled down my
head. l asked the captain, who was near,
to release my hair. He did so, and the
mate soon breathed his last. We saw
a light at Byng Inlet about dark, and
could see it all night, but drifted south.
Shortly after the mate died and the
captain laid down. l tried to arouse
the captain, but he was dead. l think
this was about midnight.
"Mr. Thinks and l kept up a CONVEX
sation. I was nervous and feared
that Thinks would lay down his head
like the rest. 1 asked him to come to
the bow, but he said we would balance
the boat better by remaining as we
were, and that he would not go to
sleep. Daylight finally dawned and re-
vealed the shore near by. Thinks
worked the boat toward the shore with
the a we had picked up. 1t was a
beautiful warm morning and the sun
warmed us and dried our clothing. We
attempted to walk across the island,
thinking that we might find some
houses. l could not walk. SO we re-
turned to the boat. Thinks took the
bodies out. / could not help him. lie
then pried the boat off with the oar.
He then worked the boat down the
beach, but made poor Roadway. Dark
ness coming on 1 was afraid it would
get rough, so we landed, broke boughs
for our beds and put some under and
over us. 1 slept some, but was ner-
vous. We were up before sunrise and
got into our boat. 1t was calm then.
We rowed a short time, but then gave
it up and went ashore and laid down
on the rocks and went to sleep. An
Indian came along and woke us up and
asked if we were lost. We said we
We're. His squaw was in Il boat. We
asked him how far it vas to a house.
He said it was twenty-five miles, and
asked if we were hungry. lie then
got some bread and pork from his boat.
| could not eat, but | drank some cold
tea. Thinks offered the Indian his
watch to take us to Parry Sound. We
had little to eat on the way. The
squaw made me Il bed in the boat and
| slept there Sunday night quite COM
fortably. Thinks never gave up except
on Saturday morning, when we lay
down on the rocks to die. l thought
of the babes in the wood but saw nc
hope Of rescue"
Loves ThOnghtfulness.
"Shall You miss me, sweetheart?'
George W. Simpson was going far
away to to the trackless solitudes of
st. Louis, and when he had told
" " .-