The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1882-09-29
THE ASIA DISASTER.
Miss MOrrison's Story.

In the Coroner's investigation at Parry
Sound, Miss Christy Ann Morrison. the only
lady survivor of the wreck OF the steamer
Asia, testified IA follows
got up on Thursday morning feeling very
seasick. IL was pretty rough all the morn
ing. | think that about II O'Clock the first
intimation / had of danger was from the
noise made by the horses. | asked the mate
il there was any danger He said they had
already thrown off the horses, and would
throw off what freight they could then
wcnJ back 70 my BERTH and the boat rolled
so much to one side that got "a life-pre
server and put il on. Half an hour, possibly
had elapsed between the first idea had OF
danger and my putting on the life preSerYer.
After putting on the llfe-prcserver | sat nv
the cabin door Until the water came into Cine
cabin. Then by catching hold OF the cabin
door and railing | managed To get on the
upper deck of all The boat then seemed 70
be settling down, one side being much the
unucrmost. The lfe-boat happened TO be
close 20 where got To.
] lowered myself into tbe water.
and the Captain caught me and held me
from sinking till the mate came and helped
me into the boat At that time there were
twelve in the boat i did nos know any in
the boat except the first mate and Miss
McNab my roommate. A number of people
from the other boats came into our boat
The reason why they came into our
boat was that they upset The
reason why they upset was the rough
ness II the sea. They did not seem over
crowded One reason that they upset WAS
that they had not n sufficient number of
oars. One of the other boa6s had one, an
other had not any, ours had two The rea-
son L know they had 40 few oars was
that they came alongside OF our
boat and asked the Captain If we had
any to spare did no. see any
person left on board the steamer after we
iaff ha ai1 ha RIM nj
together for little, then the Other two up
set They upset three times Every time
they righted few were missing The third
time / did not see any one clinging to them
at all only saw two boats beside our own.
Six OF the passengers OF the Two boats came
into ours About tw"uty minutes afterward
our boat capsiZed Sac righted l held on TO
the ropes, or life-lines going round the boat
so that when sine righted | was in again
After we righted heard sOmo one say three
were gone We then sailed or drifted before
the storm Our boat capsZed three times.
Each time some We're missing. l did not
notice any one to be hurt on the boats right
ing except the mate who had got n scratch
below his eve. After our number was re-
duced to seven the boat did not Capsize any
more. 1t was because the storm moderated
that we ceased To capSize. i he last capsfZe
took place shortly befo dark. Before dark
the mate said he saw land, and after dark
we saw lighthouse which the mate said
light all cheered up considerable, but soon
after one of the strangers died, name nm
known The only members OF the crew that
] knew in our boat were the Captain and
mate. After the stranger died two others
died almost Immediately together. They lust
seemed to perish They did no. Seem 70 nave
sustained any internal injury. l did not
hear them complain of any injury About
midnight the mate succumbed. and about
ten minutes after him the Captain died.
The person / have called the mate was
named John Mcdonald, whs was second
cousin OF mine The person / have called
Captain named John Savage,
Captain of the steamer Asia At
the time they died the sea was
quite calm, and the wind was moderate.
shortly after daybreak 1 and Mr.. Thinks
landed The bodies we're still In the boat
After landing we Grew the boat on shore and
walked along piece, and, finding we could
not walk, we returned TO the boat, and Mr..
Thinks took the bodies out OF the boat and
laid them on the island We then got into
the boat again. and rowed along with an oar
we mad picked up (haVng lost our oars when
we capsizeO TO find a place-a habitable
place. That was the last | saw of the
bodies l know that we left the bodies ct
John Savage, John Mcdonald and three other
men on the island on which we first landed,
On the following (Friday) night we slept on
the rocks Next morning we again got into
our boat and owed until, in despair, we
gave up We went ashore again, laid down
and slept Then the Indian came along, and
we engaged him TO bring us here.